Plus a fond farewell to Phil Kite
We are going up, we are going up!!! I hope the Bristol City fans among you forgive this blog, I do actually support City too (why can’t I? I like all of Bristol’s sports teams and I think that we deserve a premiership football and rugby side in this great city) and I am so very pleased that both of our teams have been promoted. The difference between Rovers and City for me, however, is that I have worked for Rovers for the last 12 seasons and in that time you get to know all of the different players, managers, physios and support staff and they become your friends. The strange part of working in professional football is that most of these friends naturally come and they go (more frequently than rugby I found). The one constant in all this time (apart from the fans of course) has been the legendary physio Phil Kite and his first rate sports therapist Steve Bissex. Kitey has been the physio for the last 19 years and was the goalie in the years before that. Sadly he has decided that now is the time to retire and move on to pastures new. He is a great physio and has been an icon at the club. I wish you well in the future mate, enjoy your well earned testimonial!
Anyway, I digress. What a day Sunday the 17th was. I had treated the majority of the players in the weeks before the big day and my last task was to nip down to the Mem in my lunch break on the Friday to treat everybody one last time and make sure not just that there were no injuries but also to help their bodies perform at their physical best. After that I was free to enjoy the weekend with the rest of the Fans. I travelled up from the Mem on the friends and family coach and sat with Chris Lines’ family and my friend Matt (aka mad Rovers fan & my receptionist Sarah’s husband). As long as I hand no emergency phone calls before 11am from the Rovers physio camp, I could relax. Thankfully all was well and Matt and I found ourselves a pleasant bar to have a pint, soak up the atmosphere and try to predict the outcome with other nervous fans. When we got into the fabulous Wembley stadium we promptly found our seats (half-way line at the front, thank you Rovers!) and I had been sat next to last years Striker Matty Harold which was a nice surprise to be able catch up with him.
Just minutes after the kick off Grimsby Town lucked out completely as the ball bounced erratically off of a couple of players and then off their players face and into the Rovers goal…I looked at my friend Matt – he looked glum but I said who can hold onto a 1-0 lead for a whole game? And sure enough they defended deep into their half and not long before half time, Ellis Harrison scored a scorching goal…1-1. The rest of the game descended into a nervous tit for tat affair that went through normal time into extra time and then penalties. In a shrewd move by manager Darrell Clarke he brought on sub goalie and giant Steve Mildenhall for the penalties. Everybody knows the result, how exciting it was and how well we took the penalties but what may not be known well was that Captain Mark McCrystal, who told me after the game, that he told the player that missed the penalty for Grimsby that Steve was a penalty saving expert and he clearly got into the players head as he hit it so far over the cross bar that Jonny Wilkinson would have been pleased! Where I do feel sorry a bit for Grimsby, it’s all part of sport I think!
Anyway, the rest is history and Rovers have bounced straight back up into the leagues which is good for Bristol. We partied with the team late into the night when we got back to Bristol, what a night, I’m glad I don’t work on Mondays!
Lastly I must remember from my last blog from Florida to say that the Dark Angels hip-hop dance group came 5th in the World, well done guys!!
