When you look at the Football League fixture list for the weekend of the 9th and 10th of August you may notice something a bit odd, the fact that Bristol Rovers aren't playing. I can hear you saying 'Bristol Rovers, not playing on an international weekend, what on earth?', and you'd be right to be bemused.
It's not that Rovers have three players away on international duty, though don't judge so quickly as keeper Mikkel Andersen is away with the Danish U21 side, but the fact that this weekends scheduled game was to be the west country derby away at Swindon Town, one of the biggest fixtures on the Gas calender. It may be a big game to us and, apparently, it's also big enough to have the Sky Sports cameras pay a visit to the County Ground for a Monday night encounter.
Over the previous two seasons Rovers have had one game featured in each, going down in a showcase 5-4 loss to Peterbrough United two years ago and beating play-off contenders Charlton 2-1 eight months ago. So with the local derby coming up it should be a good nights football, feisty enough to keep the neutrals interested, and with the Pirates winning their last two and Swindon losing their previous two league fixtures gasheads can go into the match with a modicum of hope.
That hope was in short supply prior to the match at the County Ground last season due to the fact that Rovers had failed to win in their previous eleven away fixtures, the last away win coming thanks to a last minute Andy Williams wonder goal. Add to that the fact that Swindon were competing for the automatic promotion spots it didn't look good. The home form was different though, Rovers having beaten both lowly Stockport County and a physical Colchester side at home in the past week. But despite and some early Swindon pressure the Gas took control midway through the first half.
A long ball forward was flicked on by loan striker Paul Heffernan and saw Jo Kuffour run through before the striker chipped the ball over the head of Swindon stopper David Lucas to make it 1-0 to the away side. Fourteen minutes later it was 2-0 when Heffernan linked up with Kuffour and was given too much time in the box, hitting a shot on the turn in at the near post. And before half time it was 3-0, Chris Lines bending in a superb free kick to really rub the home fans noses in it. Things got even better for Rovers in the second half when some neat play down the right allowed star man Kuffour to drive the ball across goal where it found the outstretched foot of left winger Jeff Hughes to make it four.
That result ended three years in a row of Rovers teams losing on Swindon turf and boosted Rovers confidence on the road as the next time out away from home they won 3-0 at Yeovil. At the end of that season Rovers finished up in 11th, the same position as the season before while Swindon made the play-offs, beating Charlton on penalties in the semis before eventually falling 1-0 to Millwall in the grand final at Wembley.
Normally for the Rovers-Swindon tussle at the County Ground the police have a major say in the organisation. The first year I went to the fixture the kick-off was still at a normal 3 o'clock time, but there was trouble. Many Rovers fans had spent the day drinking in pubs around Swindon and down to some poor policing things went rather to pot. This, along with the ripping up and thrwoing of seats the season before lead to the 2008/09 and 2009/10 matches being moved to 12 o'clock starts, supposedly giving fans three hours less to drink in the build up, hopefully leading to less hooliganism, this kind of worked.
There were fewer objects thrown and the banter, while at times very harsh, was much less than the previous year but the big difference was in the policing of the event. Officers from forces as far away as Wales and Dorset were brought in to help and other sensible decisions were also made as to which pub Rovers fans should drink in, meaning that gasheads would no longer have to be frogmarched past the County Hotel, the pub where much of the Swindon firm hang out.
But this year is different, the game is a 7:45PM kick-off which, while meaning that the majority of fans will come straight from work, means that a few hardy fans and the Bristol yobs will either have taken the day off from work or not had a job to attend in the first place, giving them extra time to spen drinking and generally behaving badly in Swindon, not exactly what the police would have wanted. But money talks, Sky want to televise the game and Swindon have bitten their right hand off, as I'm sure Rovers would have done. I just hope that this doesn't endanger the safety of fans, officials and players of each club but also the reputation of either clubs followings.
Personally for me, I'm in two minds as to the game being on TV, I dislike the fact that it has been moved from a Saturday to a Monday because Monday is one of the days I have to work until 7 o'clock, (not that I'm complaining, boss) but with the match being moved for TV, at least I'm still able to watch, and from the comfort of my own home too.
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