The Conference play off final signalled a remarkable turn around for Bristol Rovers. Just over 12 months after being relegated at their own ground, by a team wearing their own kit and only being in the bottom 2 on the last day of the season (you couldn’t make that up!) the Gas bounced back. We caught up with Rovers fan of over 25 years and editor of acclaimed new book ‘Away The Gas’ Martin Bull to find out more about their return.

Groundsman: Bouncing back at the first attempt is no mean feat – obviously you’re delighted – did you always feel you had enough to get the job done?
Martin: Just. With the sort of start Barnet had (including a 5-0 away win on the opening day!), and the sort of start we had (1 point from 9 available, and serious pressure on our manager), it never looked like we would have a chance of automatic promotion until glimmers of hope came in the New Year. I always had supreme faith in our manager, Darrell Clarke, and once we got into the play-off positions in October, we never looked like leaving them and as we became a TEAM, we really developed into the strongest side in them. Finishing second, with 91 points, only 5 losses, and no away loss since September, gave us real confidence when the play-offs finally arrived, and even a sense of entitlement. I feel that overall it was a fair result for us to scrape through at Wembley, even though we didn’t play well. Most Gasheads would have loved the Mariners to have joined us, but only two promotion slots is a brutal system.

Nothing ever runs smoothly at Rovers. Even the promotion bus got stuck for 5 minutes trying to turn into the stadium.

Groundsman: Did you manage to get to many non-league grounds during your season in the Conference?
Martin: Not many. I love away games and have recently edited and published a book about them, ‘Away The Gas’, but with two young kids to entertain I only managed Eastleigh, Aldershot Town, Woking, Dover Athletic and Forest Green Rovers. They were all cracking away days though and I didn’t see a loss, which was a bonus considering that in the previous season our away record was the worst in League Two.

Groundsman: What was your best and your worst memory from your non-league travels?
Martin: All my five away days were really great little adventures, many of which I wrote about via my weekly article on the Bristol Post website. FGR in the Play-offs was the best memory. It was the only win I saw and a dominant performance very successfully calmed the nerves. The penultimate league game at Dover Athletic’s Crabble was a first-rate day out off the field but the result was a choker. A dodgy last minute equaliser awarded to the Whites quite literally snatched automatic promotion out of our hands. To come back from that and win the Play-offs showed a lot of mental strength.

The best ‘result’ that came from our away travels in non-league though was the restoration of our reputation as mainly decent, loyal, funny, and passionate (sometimes annoying!) fans.

Full Of Gas – This could really only happen at Bristol Rovers, where LSD is given away for free.

We made a lot of friends last season and a little humility went a long way, especially compared to other socalled ‘big’ clubs who had found themselves in a league they thought was beneath their history. We are a huge dock City with large areas of social deprivation, so we’re not all cuddly teddy bears, but the mass majority of us were courteous and humble, loved our time in non-league, and didn’t look down our noses at other clubs. We deserved to be there, just like all the other 23 teams.

It’s a shame we couldn’t have developed those relationships even more, but there is no way we could have passed up the opportunity of an immediate exit. Sorry non-league fans, we learnt so much, and we love your loyalty, but we just had to desert you.

Groundsman: Do you think the club is in a better position now than say 18 months ago (6 months pre-relegation)?
Martin: Good God yes! We slept walked to relegation, although in our defence we went down on goal difference and were only in the relegation zone for 54 minutes of the entire season. In the 2014/15 season those 50 points would have seen us safe by nine points.

Promoted clubs tend to have an excellent next season and I’m a firm believer in stable, successful teams being well placed to continue their upsurge. In Darrell Clarke we have the best young manager in the England. He genuinely has ’given us our Rovers back’ and is my kind of guy. Principled, honest, frank, open to new ideas, financially prudent, brave, tough on discipline, with strong morals, and sometimes opinionated and prickly. The fact that he twice ended up drinking with Rovers fans towards the end of the season spoke volumes; he really is ‘one of us‘ and immerses himself in his job. And yet he still doesn’t always get the credit he deserves because his success has ‘only’ been in non-league. Three promotions in
four years as a manager. Not bad for a 37 year old!

Groundsman: There have been a number of rumours surrounding ground redevelopment/new stadia over the years – and some major developments in the last few weeks – what’s the latest on this and where does that leave the club?
Martin: A High Court case went against us last week, which has pretty much scuppered all our chances of a new stadium. Four years of successful planning applications, careful community relations, challenges, Courts, and expensive lawyers; all down the drain, based on one tiny line in a labyrinthine contract, and more importantly the fact that Sainsbury’s didn’t want to honour the contract they had signed, nor show any interest in sorting the impasse out.

Fun fair refreshments at Aldershot, although I think the candy floss and carvery were strangely out of stock. The queue on the left is actually for the toilet!

Plan B is well… we don’t have one. That innovative stadium idea, a collaboration with the rapidly expanding University of the West of England, was genuinely so perfect and astute that it looked like we finally entering the 21st Century… until delays, a Green Party funded NIMBY group, and the economy intervened. The annoying thing is that we probably only need about £15m extra to get a beautiful stadium built but it’s just £15m extra we don’t have without Sainsbury’s buying our current ground, and our Board have already maxed out their funds. Meanwhile City have a billionaire ‘local boy made good’ owner who could tip a wine waiter £15m and not realise it was gone.

Oh well, we aren’t called Rovers for nothing. We’ll endure until the next plan comes along.

Groundsman: How many of the current 92 grounds have you visited?
Martin: Ah ha. Controversy. I think your rule that it has to be the current ground of the club in question is unfair. With ‘only’ 67 of the current 92 clubs visited since Reading vs. Bristol Rovers at Elm Park on 21st November 1989, and now with two young kids, no cash and many of the furthest Northern ones left, I know it’ll probably take me another 10 years or so to finish this miniature aspiration, even on my rules. I’ve been to Gay Meadow, Millmoor, the Goldstone Ground, Layer Road and others, but not to Greenhous Meadow, the New York Stadium, the Amex and whatever that Colchester carbuncle is called. I don’t see why I should be forced to re-visit those clubs as, in all good faith, I did watch a competitive game of footy (nearly always a League game, and certainly never a friendly) at the ground that was their home at that point in time.

Using your rules I’m back down to 56. Let’s just hope Carlisle United don’t move ground!

Groundsman: Which grounds will you be aiming to visit over the coming season?
Martin: Given my current circumstances I’m probably looking at a handful of away trips this season. A few with my best friend who is a Norwich City fan (Leicester City and Stoke City maybe), and a few with Rovers, where I strangely have a couple of local grounds I’ve not yet been to; Yeovil Town, and Newport County‘s current tenure at the rugby stadium. Plus one further jaunt to try to visit a more Easterly one; Notts County or Mansfield Town maybe. Despite relegating us, the Stags have sort of become our friends.

I already have a ‘football by footpath’ route mapped out for our country bumpkin cousins at Yeovil Town. This – www.footballbyfootpath.blogspot.co.uk – is one of my little projects; the quirky way to arrive at an away match, usually involving a smidgen of research, a public footpath or a canal towpath, shanks’ pony, a pub and preferably decent weather. Falling down hills and getting lost is also distinctly possible, but it’s hardly an extreme sport, so handglider geeks and parachutists need not apply.

Recent rambles to Salisbury and Forest Green Rovers are available there.

Lee Mansell – Our own ‘Goldenballs’ shows off the Cup with his girls

Groundsman: Finally – what can fans visiting the Memorial Stadium next season look forward to?
Martin: Alas it’s exactly the same as before! No improvements have been made to the ‘The Mem’ for around a decade as we’ve had two really excellent plans that fell at the final hurdle (first one re-development, second one the new stadium – both with planning permission agreed), meaning it has been illogical to spend money on what little we already have.

The pasties are still good, the terrace is still quite big (and open – sorry but you might be hearing us singing ‘Getting wet, Getting wet’ at you), the section of away seats are still quite an awful view, but at least it isn’t an anonymous out-of-town off-the-shelf stadium that has no pubs, no easy parking, and no quirkiness. The Mem is nothing if not quirky – six different sections that were thrown up in the air by a giant and landed higgledy-piggledy back down to earth.

With contributions from 40 fans alongside Martin’s own memories ‘Away The Gas’ let’s you wallow in over 50 years of ‘I was there’ Rovers moments, from Halifax Town in 1963 to Pompey in 2014, showing why they cherish away days so much. To get your copy head to www.awaythegas.org.uk. Thanks to Martin for taking the time to speak to us. You can follow Martin through Rovers return to the 92 on Twitter @awaythegas.

Have you ticked the Memorial Stadium off your 92? If so you can add it your 92 plus rate and review your experiences here www.the92.net/ground/memorial-stadium or if you’re still to get there you can plan your visit here www.the92.net/plan-your-away-day/memorial-stadium. If you’re first discovering the92.net you can register and keep track of your 92 all free with us www.the92.net/register.