Escaping from oblivion... Bristol Rovers!

Bristol Rovers 1-1 Grimsby Town
Vanarama Premier Promotion Final
Sunday 17th May 2015

The day of destiny... or despair!

Ask any Bristol Rovers supporter what their club's greatest achievement is in modern times and, apart from once broadcasting an episode of BabeStation to fans during a half-time break, this particular play-off success will be at the top of most lists.

The Conference Premier (or National League as it's now known) is renowned for being an absolute ball ache of a division to escape from due to there being just the one automatic promotion place. If the culture shock of visiting 'exotic' far-flung sh*tholes like Braintree isn't hard enough to contend with, you also have to get your head around the completely chaotic, haphazard and occasionally blatantly biased way in which the league is run by those in charge.

And though it's reputation has improved over the last few years, it's impossible to forget how poor Colin Peake was when he ran the division's Twitter feed - blocking his critics on a whim, getting into needless trivial arguments and being totally unprofessional at all times.

So, having finished as runners-up to Barnet in the title race; missing out on the final day despite walloping Alfreton Town, it's fair to say Bristol Rovers were absolutely desperate to escape from these dirt-ridden depths of oblivion in the play-offs.

Without blowing too much smoke up people's arses, BRFC are a significant club and they shouldn't have been anywhere near this league in the first place and if proof of their stature was ever needed then it could be found by taking one glancing look at their magnificent support at this game which topped 30,000 people despite 'excessive' ticket prices starting at around £40.

Programme and team sheet for the big game.

I was really looking forward to the clash having found a reasonable enough excuse to attend it in a press capacity given that Mansfield Town (where I was working at the time) had loaned Ollie Palmer to Grimsby and they'd beaten the football giants of Eastleigh to get to Wembley.

I wasn't too fussed who actually won though going into the clash, it'd be an understatement to say that I had an appalling record watching Bristol Rovers.

Aside from a 3-2 win at Leyton Orient in September 2005, on pretty much every other occasion from about a dozen or so which I'd seen them play, they'd lost. Those defeats included one in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final in April 2007 against Doncaster Rovers (their bogey team) and then, seven years later, in May 2014 when they lost their Football League status after a 1-0 defeat to Mansfield Town - when we forgot our own kit.

Even in this particular season when the Pirates were challenging for automatic promotion, I'd managed to witness them get beat - this being at a soaking wet Barnet on a night when Tom Lockyer caught an elbow, broke his jaw and lost some teeth all in the space of a few seconds.

It was pretty apt, therefore, that I'd been dangling by a wire on the Emirates Cable Car (near the O2 Arena) earlier in the morning because I've no doubt that had Grimsby won - thus inflicting a third 'big game' curse on Bristol Rovers (and had any of the Gas fans who were sat nearby found out) then I'd have quite possibly been strung up from the Wembley Arch and it'd have been 'Goodnight Vienna' for me, let alone 'Goodnight Irene'.

Unlike some play-off finals, such as the one between Wrexham and Newport County two years beforehand when the stadium was almost empty and it was a painfully boring game, everything about this encounter was totally different.

For starters, it felt like a proper occasion because the vast number of Bristol Rovers supporters in attendance paved the way for a good atmosphere. There was much more pre-match razzmatazz with 'Nessun Dorma' and a few other operatic hits being belted out beforehand - not forgetting, of course, that signature song 'Goodnight Irene' which always reminds me of my last visit to the Memorial Stadium in May 2014.

Also, there was a rousing rendition of the national anthem (which hasn't always been the case for play-off finals which I've attended) and as if life couldn't get any better, the Football Conference had even laid on some food in the press room capable of preventing starvation - a magnificent feat considering two years earlier, it felt like sandwiches were rationed to put it mildly.

As things transpired, Grimsby should have won this game and they should have had it wrapped up within the first 20 minutes or so.

The Mariners came flying out the traps and took the lead in only the second minute when Nathan Arnold was afforded the time to get into a dangerous position due to some hesitant defending, before Lennell John-Lewis eventually poked the ball home from a few yards out.

Arnold soon flashed a shot wide whilst John-Lewis also forced a near-post save but, arguably the critical moment was when Will Puddy rushed off his line and smothered an angled effort by Palmer just outside of his box. He was penalised and in all honesty, my gut feeling was that Puddy should have received a red card yet he escaped with just a yellow. When I spoke to OP in the aftermath, he thought his attempt was goal-bound had it not been for the intervention and whilst I'm not so sure on that, there's little doubt that a red card would have had big ramifications on the rest of the game.

The controversy was a turning point, nevertheless, which favoured Darrell Clarke's team and having spurned a couple of openings they soon got back on level terms through Ellis Harrison's thunderbolt strike - again, owing a lot to some questionable defending.

Thereafter, the mood, tide and complexion of things changed and Bristol Rovers themselves were soon aggrieved when Matt Taylor was booked for diving, having got through into a one-on-one with the Grimsby 'keeper James McKeown. It was controversial and questionable - maybe the referee had the earlier incident in his mind when he booked Taylor, who knows, but by this point (still in the first half), the Gasheads were well on top.

After the half-time interval, it became much less open as a contest. Both teams' defences were keen not to give anything away because the nerves, tension and pressure were all cranking up by a few notches with each passing minute.

Bristol Rovers probably shaded things, though I think everyone had cautiously resigned themselves to penalties and the trials, tribulations and trauma which a shoot-out can bring, but even then, the mind-f**k psychological games started as Steve Mildenhall came off the bench to replace Puddy in the last few seconds of extra-time.

Even though the spot-kicks were taken at the end where the Grimsby fans were situated, I personally fancied Rovers in the shoot-out for a few reasons. One of them was because I knew Mildenhall's reputation from when he'd played for Grimsby (ironically) and then Yeovil Town under Russell Slade, another was that the Mariners had substituted Palmer (who'd actually been in decent form in the weeks/months leading up to this game and was a goalscorer/forward anyway) and also because Gashead supporters were in attendance 'en masse' - outnumbering their opponents by a scale of 2:1 and they'd been louder, prouder, more boisterous and noisy throughout.

The game is underway!

Nevertheless, you could have still cut the atmosphere with a knife because this was one of those occasions now where everything mattered in these few minutes - a great example of what football is all about when the stakes are piled as high as Mount Everest.

As it was, the Pirates scored all of their kicks which was a good achievement considering McKeown was a decent 'keeper at non-league level at the time. Grimsby scored three of their four penalties with the exception of Jon-Paul Pittman who skied his over the woodwork.

The scenes after Lee Mansell stepped up and converted the final spot-kick were a joy to behold for everyone associated with Rovers as they knew they'd escaped the doldrums of the non-league scene at the first attempt to regain their rightful place in the Football League. The torture was over and the joy was almost tangible! There'd be no more trips to dumps like Braintree or Gateshead. There'd be no more having to put up with the unprofessional 'big wigs' running the Conference Premier in such a 'wishy washy' way.

It was as lucky escape from what could have been a disaster for the club, had they stayed down, as you could possibly have imaged.

For Grimsby, the emotions contrasted sharply. Those in the press box from that part of the world (one of whom I wasn't particularly keen on) looked glum. They were dejected, emotionally gone and they knew they faced another year in the miserable abyss of that league.

View from the press box.