Thetownend.com

Having watched on  TV and read various Gas Forums i'm gob smacked that the Rovers fans feel that they have been hard done by in and around ashton gate and that they dont have a hooligan problem. Having follwed swindon for over 30 years I have had more than a few scary moment when they have been in town including one scary night when we were close to the Mail Coach pub when they were smashing the windows. Another time they stopped off on the way to oxford and wrecked the Queens Tap and who can forget a few years ago when we needed to get a win there under Paul Surrock to clinch promotion and several innocent supporters were ambushed whilst drinking in a pub in kingswood before the game . I know City have also caused havoc in swindon over the years but its Rovers who are pleading their innocence. Such short memories!!!

They've got recent previous for some cowardly acts on some of our families and older supporters too. Definitely a case of those in glass houses, though that's not to condone any kind of violence.

The only time I feared for my own safety at an away game was Rovers.  The game when the Inn on the green got done.

We had just left the pub before That happened. I have a real dislike of a rovers especially their followers more than anyone else. Has been this way for Years and was even glad the slave traders beat them.

We've got a Rovers fan just started at work and he was put out when I called them the "shirt batterers". I can remember losing 5-1 to them in the LC years ago and they were bad that day. In fact, they've been bad mist times we played them.
I've always thought they were scum picking on our less able supporters - a bit like Millwall at Wembley.

The 5-1 game at home in 84 is probably the worst trouble I have ever seen inside the County Ground, they were kicking young and old and attacking women that day too, wankers.

It was no better outside. There were groups picking off people walking home on their own. A little bit of justice was served that day to a group of 12 who picked on a group of 5 Town and didn't choose their victims very well.

Cowardly cunts are rovers. Plus they sound like Vicky pollard.

They are ALL Vick Pollards...

Back in the 90's and when still at school, one of my ex's said that she was punched in the head by a large Male Rovers fan. Have had a big dislike for Rovers since then. Cowardly scum.

They've been shite over the last couple of seasons. Was speaking to a couple of Rovers and they said the stewards opened both sides of the East End on Wednesday at the same time and let both sets of fans into the carpark/KFC car park at the same time.. what did they expect..

Sounds like they were tucked up as its insane that they would let city fans out from both sides and literally surround rovers as they entered the car park. either way both are not nice places to viit and both always cause lots of trouble in swindon when ever they are in town and to my knowledge I've never heard of swindon causing any trouble in Bristol. Maybe because its such a big city

Let's not get on our high horse here.

Remember a Rovers fan was very nearly killed in the Town End toilets way back

i nearly die every time i go in thee... :-X

Didn't know about this. The first question has to be, what was a Rovers fan doing in the TE toilets?

No doubt looking for trouble
And found it

Can only assume it was the days where you can go where you want in the ground? Wasn't a Rovers fans stabbed in the town end? Or another team? I swear I heard an old boy talking about it once in Sir Dans one saturday..

I was in the TE and saw a rovers fan unzip is coat to show his shirt, shout "Rovers" then run to the pitchside gate (fences in those days). It was locked and he got absolutely battered.
Police had to rescue him and he wasn't moving.

I think he was in a  coma for a week, and the lads they had nicked for it had to wait and see if it was manslaughter or GBH.

It was GBH, and a couple of fans went away for quite a long stretch I think

i got a good kicking from gas heads by the bus station underpass
Sometime in the 80s
So many of them they were kicking each other rather than me
Looked up after they trailed away to see 2 coppers leant on the railings watching

fuckpigs

Whilst no condoning the actions of those who assaulted him, I find it hard to have sympathy when he put himself in that situation.

Thinking about it, I don't think I've seen anyone get battered inside the ground. Missed all the 'fun' of the 80's, didn't really get to games until 89/90.

Did see a City fan get a few thumps in the Town End after he outed himself after they scored. Good hits but bruisers rather than serious injury inducing.

It was a very different experience in the pre-segregation era.

Anybody who went to Footbal in the 70's & 80's knows that Football grounds were a very scary place to be and if there were no away fans trying to take the home end there was still the scary thought of trying to get past the magic roundabout without getting your head kicked in as the away fans run across the shrivenham road green. But for all the comments on here regarding incidents with rovers fans iv'e still never heard of swindon fansm causing trouble at either bristol club on their patch

I went to a lot of football in that period both at STFC and other places...and never felt particularly scared, OK you needed to know a few does and don'ts, in much the same way as you need to on a weekend night out now in Swindon, to avoid violent low life scum.

Football hooligans are the biggest pussies in society. They only grow some balls when the odds are in their favour or when safely behind a few plod.

Yeah all the stewards fault....

Why are most of topcat's posts about "mobs" and scrapping?  :sherlock:

I went to Wembley in 2007? to watch rovers v Shrewsbury in the po final, went with a rovers supporting workmate. He wore the shirt. I was stood with him at Swindon station feeling uncomfortable  :-[

He's a great bloke, a real family man who enjoys the football.

This.

No relevance to mobs or scrapping just making a point that Rovers fans were claiming their innocence the other night and that they are so well behaved and having been going to football for over 35 years Rovers fans have caused havoc in and around the county ground and also in the town centre on a saturday evening. My point is in this modern media era we live in the main headlines on points west this week was about young and old morons wanting to kill each other also picking on innocent fans and scaring thousands of decent people who just want to watch a football match. Yes city were the main culprits and who are in swindon on the 21st september and hopefully there will be no repeat of the scenes at ashton gate the other night

I can never understand this. I could never sit and watch our rivals play.  :no:

'Cos there's more to life than petty rivalry?

My uni 5-a-side team included a Rovers fan, Stoke fan and Burnley fan. We all went to see each others' teams several times, including Rovers away at Wigan. I didn't witness any trouble and the Rovers fans' support of their team during the game was impressive.

Petty? I would not call rivalry petty at any point. There is nothing better than the passion and emotions of a good fashioned derby match, to sing songs about our rivals and detest the opposition players that play against us. To then go and sit with they're fans is morally wrong where I come from. You sound as though you are a new breed of 'fan', not the same ingrained morals imposed on you by your seniors? I am against modern football, you sir exemplify a modern 'fan' if you think its fine to go and attend a match in our rivals support.

I've been to see numbers of games down the years as a neutral....don't think the generational thing enters into it, people just see going to games in different ways...for sure you have fundamentalists, but then you can others who are essentally tourists.

Personally setting foot in Ashton Gate as a neutral would be impossible, whereas I did once win some tickets for Bristol Rovers v Wigan in a quiz, and was quite happy to attend....the fact that the M4 was blocked by a crash, meant we never made it, and didn't care.

I actually went to see the new Wembley for the first time  :)

Edit: Rovers fans were pretty loud too (with their one song  ;) )

Blimey.  I have breached your moral code as well then.  I used to go in the Rovers end at Twerton with a Rovers supporting school friend and he would come in our end at the County Ground.  Not something I would choose to do every week, but interesting on the odd occasion.  It's got bugger all to do with being 'modern',  I can assure you.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm in my 40s, watched Town at over 80 away grounds, and trips to Finland and Holland, been given a good kicking by the Pox, and would prefer to stand on a terrace than sit in a plastic tip-up seat, so hardly 'new breed', and I certainly don't need a 'senior' (whatever that is) to impose some morals on me.

So it is morally wrong to watch football matches with friends who happen to support 'rival' teams? What complete and utter bollocks. Perhaps it demonstrates I have massive balls because I've actually sat and stood amongst fans of rival clubs? Or, more accurately, it just shows that that I have the capacity to accept that not all my friends have to be Swindon Town fans and that I don't have to hate people I make acquaintance with just because they support a different football team to me.

A few years back I stood in the Blackthorn End (not with my Rovers-supporting friend) to watch Rovers lose to Wycombe, with the consequence that Rovers were relegated and Town escaped heading to the basement. Now that was tense, and at times a bit hairy. Apparently there were Town and City fans in with the Wycombe fans that night. Was that a morally wrong act on my behalf?

And, where I come from, it is 'their' not 'they're', and the odd apostrophe would not go amiss. Perhaps you need a 'senior' to impose some education on you?  :D

Rivalry !!

I would NEVER watch Oxford Utd play other than against us.
To actually think of putting money in their coffers would make me sick.
I would not even consider going to the Cinema or Bowlplex where Oxfords ground is due to some of the money lining Kassam's pocket.

I guess it has something to do with age, history and where you came from.

I don't even consider both Bristol Clubs or even Reading as rivals.

Right or wrong I will never change...........Pure hate of the filth.

Yeah, but Uncle Firoz has done a decent job of screwing them over...surely you should want to encourage him, by putting money into his pocket.

If you are going to refer to "history", you need to remember that Reading and the two Bristol clubs were our local rivals long before those upstarts along the A420 came on the scene.  They only entered the league in the early 1960s.

Well put !  ;D I can remember going to watch Stoke play just because Macari was their manager. Am I guilty too ?

Long time ago now, but I saw Rotherham and Portsmouth play at the Manor with friends.  The Pompey game was bizarre.  Ended 5-5 with two Oxford goals in the last minute.  I think the Duke would have expired!   ;D

"Morally wrong" what a ridculous phrase to use about anything football rivaly related.

The Slave Traders are my biggest rival, detest them far more than Oxford. However me and few mates (inc 2 city fans) go on the piss a couple of time a season in Bristol and watch a game at Ashton Gate in between drinking, i go in the away end. Does that make me morally wrong as I'm paying into City's coffers?

Shall I just go back and delete my post?  :zipped:

I went to support Shrewsbury  :D

It's amazing how many different angles people can find to proclaim themselves better fans than others.

I'm with you on that one. A mate of mine once had a trip to Kassam organised for his birthday (a friendly against Chelsea iirc) before moving onto a night out in Oxford. Needless to say I stayed in the pub for game - I couldn't face sitting amongst Poxford fans and contributing to their coffers. Each to their own I guess though

I've been to watch Brizzle rovers as a neutral before and don't see an issue with it unless you actually cheer for a rival team.

I am with you here.  Surely people get this.

Perhaps I am a tourist as for me even "that rivalry" is only genuinely serious within the confines of the ground on matchdays.

At one level however, certain rivalries do have a serious and defining quality.

Going to watch those rivals live is in no way like going to see a film only because your friend likes it. 

I have been to Pox v Man Utd XI in a pre-season friendly with a couple of good but misguided friends.  Even though the match did not matter, it felt so wrong.  I was light-heartedly cheering on Man Utd but really there is nothing light hearted in your soul when it comes to seeing the Pox in front of your very eyes...

Abrahammer has probably got it right - going into the away end when on a night out with his Brizzle mates

Some of us have” friends” and I use the term loosely, who support the slave traders or the gas, I would never invite them to watch us play nor would I expect them to come along
As for the points in relation to Headington Untied personally I have never seen them as our main rival it has always been Bristol

Much to Mrs Kerry Red's chagrin I wont go to, or even consider spending a farthing, in Oxford at any time for any reason

It's take all she has to get me to go to anywhere in Oxfordshire.

Whenever Oxford is mentioned on the telly, in any respect whatsoever, I instinctively spit.

For me, that is totally over the top. I can get that people wouldn't want to put money in Oxford United Football Club, but to not go to the actual City itself?

For what it's worth as a City, Oxford has plenty to see and do, the fact Oxford United play there, is neither here nor there.

But, each to their own.

Indeed, I'll be nipping over to the Ashmolean, for the Henry Moore/Francis Bacon exhibition in the next couple of weeks.

Don't tell KR that the Bodleian has a massive storage facility over at South Marston....he'll go and torch the place.

Is the Oxford Story still there? Pretty sure I went a couple of times when I was younger.

Nope that closed a fair few years ago now, I used to enjoy that place.

Lived in Oxfordshire all my life. Apart from the football team, it's a beautiful county. Oxford is a nice city too with some decent pubs.

I refuse to go anywhere near the Kassam though. The cinema and bowling complex are no man's land.

In the last 25 years, I have worked, socialised and now live in Oxford  :nerner:

Most of the people I know are Oxford fans (mostly season ticket holders) and I have seen them play over the years against other sides as well as Swindon, when birthdays or all dayers are involved.

I don’t cheer or sing any songs and most people that know I am Swindon and take great pleasure in laughing at me when they score and asking me to cheer!  :hmmm:

Don’t get me wrong I want them to lose every match but don’t hate them and don’t want them to go out of business….as Kassam is doing a fine job!

I have no feelings towards Reading or the Bristol clubs as I think that appears to come down to where you live and how long you have been watching the Town.

I sometimes go to Spurs home games with a mate I know who lives in the smoke and am happy for him when they score but don’t cheer.

If you ‘hate’ Oxford then fair enough but I always wonder whether the fans at our games that sing the songs actually have any idea what the rivalry is about as Oxford hate us more than ‘we’ hate them. Their hatred of Reading was only fierce because the boundary with Berks was about 15 miles from Oxford itself. After that they seemed to batter them at every opportunity!

Oxford is a beautiful city and will remain so whether KR wants to visit or not.  :bye:

That is just bizarre

That makes no sense.  Football club catchments do not follow county boundaries, because county boundaries are not neatly drawn around towns & cities.  The Oxfordshire boundary, for example, passes very close to both Swindon and Reading.  And as a result, there are parts of Oxfordshire that lend much more support to us and Reading than they ever would to Oxford.

Football rivalry, taken outside the confines of football,  makes as much sense to me as racism and makes the protagonists appear just as moronic.

I live a 15 minute walk away and go to Ashton Gate quite a bit. The people I go with know I support Swindon, the people they sit with know I support Swindon. They'll ask me during the game how Swindon are doing. No big deal. When Town play at Ashton Gate, I'm in the away end hoping for nothing else other than a Swindon win.

I also wander up to Rovers occasionally, a very timid (dare I say it, family club) atmosphere outside of rivalries. Essentially what I'm saying is that it's dull.

To be honest, I really enjoy attending football matches and going to games in Bristol is much cheaper for me right now.

Back in the day, people in cities with two or more clubs often watched whoever was at home... I don't think attending football matches that involve other teams is a trait of 'modern football'.

The Henry Moore exhibition is not worth it, full of holes

I was born in Oxford, lived in Blackbird Leys untill I was 5

Yet I probably hate them even more than the Duke.

Got no problem with other football fans at all, but wish great harm on anyone of the yellow persuasion (and I have to say, I have implemented some harm on them myself, but not for quite a few years as I am an old codger now)

I was at that game with a Shrewsbury supporting mate in the blue and amber end of Wembley.

I wanted Shrews' to get utterly humiliated. I recall that they took an early lead and then the Wurzels turned the game on its head and completely ran the show, Igoe scoring with a long range effort that trickled over the line in the last minute to put the outcome beyond doubt. Though I dislike Rovers as much as the next Swindon fan, I utterly loathe those sheep worriers, so inwardly I was ecstatic seeing their fans up close morosely trudging away defeated. Then I went and saw them do it all over again in the play off final 2 years later against the Gypos, that occasion losing against an injury time winner from a wrongly awarded corner  :nod: 3 teams I despise, but one much much more.

My hatred of Screwsbury FC is only surpassed by that which I feel towards the yellow scum, but only just 8)

In fairness to the Gas fans they created more noise than any other support I've seen at Wembley.

That's very true.  My Granddad lived in Bristol all his life.  He and my uncles went to football every week.  One week Rovers, the next week City.  This may not fit the "history" that some want to cling to in order to justify some thinly veiled thuggery, but my uncles assure me it was very common when they were growing up (1960s). 

And as for trying not to set foot in Oxfordshire - that is just strange, and does smack a bit of "my Swindon supporting dick is bigger than your Swindon supporting dick". 

Interesting thread!

I have to admit to going to matches with mates who support other teams and that includes Cheltenham (many years ago now!) and Chelsea (pre-glory days). Many of my favourite live football memories have involved non-STFC matches. However, as much as I enjoy watching and experiencing live football, the highs and lows you get from watching your own team - all that emotional attachment that comes with supporting your team cannot be replicated as a neutral.

ps I also lived in Oxford for 5 years and loved the city - I did wear my Swindon top out occasionally and on occasion (and when drunk) would sing Swindon songs down Cornmarket (the folly of youth)...

When living in Nottingham as child I was taken either to watch Forest or County on a Saturday depending who was home, my older relations were mixed in their support but they would still often all go together.

My uncle used to do the same. Although my father and step-grandfather only used to go with him to watch Rovers.

More locally, it used to be the case before Oxford United were founded (early 1960s?) that buses would run from Oxford each week to the nearest local League game.  One week they would run to Swindon, the next to Reading.  I was told this by an old fella from Oxford years ago and maybe goes some way to explain why there are still pockets of support for us and Reading in the Oxford area itself.

That's interesting. When I lived near Bicester I noticed that there was quite a bit of support for Swindon in the area. Always struck me as a bit odd.

When I first came down south and just into my teens I used to catch the coach to Bristol broadmead and onto Ashton gate along with other lads from the area and shoppers :) My highlight was when Forest played City in the old 1st division and I was classed a rebel amongst my mates for going in with the Forest fans. Realised after Then That a coach came up to Swindon so suppose if I didn't have the means of getting to Swindon I may of followed City instead. I wasnt brought up to hate Oxford of any of the Bristol sides but now rate City and especially Rovers as rivals more than any other teams we play.

Only ever been to Scumland when Town were there, when my mother in law was in John Radcliffe or my daughter needed treatment there. Other than that won't go there - not interested. When I go there with Town I don't spend any money, make no eye contact with them and don't speak to any of them.
I can't see me going there as a "neutral".
Brizzle is a different matter. I've been to both as a neutral but in the away ends with mates who supported the opposition. I had no problems supporting the opposition. 

Been to watch Chelsea & Southampton with friends and family who support the two in the past, even Saints in league 1. But when they played Swindon it was a totally different story, strictly Town that day. Was a lovely car journey home after Austin rounded Davis and slotted home infront of us... Great day.  :beers: The 3-1? Or 3-0? JPT game was fun too, all though not sure how many TEF'ers were there... Up steps Sir Vince with a brace.


That last game there though, 4-1? 4-0? That wasn't too special...  :smugfu:

I was there, his first was quality with a cracking ball in from Charlie, I'm almost certain his 2nd was from a ridiculously quick run and interception from Alan O'Brien? A little tap in...

The one where Charlie rounding Davis was an amazing game...so edgy...the 4-1, not so good....although, Ritchie scored our goal, ex-Pompey v Saints, that was sweeeet..