Panto Villains...

It's FA Cup third round weekend and I must admit, I'm rather excited. This game was approaching and with Buckle at the helm I wasn't looking forward to it. Not only would we have lost but Buckle would have gotten hounded by the supporters for yet another abject performance which would make Gasheads look terrible to the watching nation. The board wouldn't have been immune from criticism either, as they would have backed Buckle despite his clear lack of ability, therefore there would have been plenty of anti-board chants directed to box 1 too. What an embarrassment.

Now though we supporters can look forward to the game and do our bit to roar the lads on to a famous victory. Wishful thinking of course but not impossible. Despite Villa's recent win at Chelsea, they've been struggling a little bit and their fans are from content with gaffer Alex McLeish, who joined the club from near neighbours Birmingham - hence the dislike towards him. The Scotsman has thick enough skin to stop that from bothering him too much although he has promised that the travelling army of Villains will see as strong a line-up as possible against us. Shay Given and Carlos Cuellar are definitely out and won't feature, but Darren Bent and Gabby Agbonlahor are expected to start. A very fast strike pairing and they will certainly cause our shaky defence problems but hopefully our defenders will put in a strong performance to impress our potential new managers who shall be watching. Emile Heskey has become something of an internet sensation following the numerous YouTube videos created about him and his ability (or lack of it), so many Rovers fans will be hoping the big man features at some point. No doubt he'll score now I've taken the mickey out of him - SODs law.

Talking of SODs, I'm praying to high heaven that we can appoint former Bournemouth and Doncaster gaffer Sean O'Driscoll. He has attracted interest from other clubs including League One Preston, but I'm hoping that we can pull it out the bag and bring him in. It would show great ambition by the board of directors and could be an absolute masterstroke. He'd need to know that the ambition was there to match his, so hopefully Nick Higgs and Co. can/have done a good job of selling the club to him. He's witnessed first hand the magnificence of Rovers support, as he was in charge of Donny when they defeated us in the JPT Final in 2007. He must have heard the superb support and been impressed with the number of Gasheads that were there supporting the team, couple that with the potential new UWE Stadium and it could be a big enough draw to get him here.

Maybe I'm kidding myself, but I can dream. Sean, if you're somehow reading this, please become manager of Bristol Rovers. You will not regret it. Knowing my luck he'll have joined North End as I'm writing this. I'm going to go and check.

Let's show the lads we're 100% behind them tomorrow and do our football club proud. Over to you Gas. Goodnight Irene.