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Friday, 5th Mar 2021 19:24 by Clive Whittingham

A fortnight ago QPR would have been all over a trip to Bristol City like a donkey on a waffle, now not so much.

Bristol City (14-3-17, LLLWWL, 12th) v QPR (10-10-12, WWWDLL, 17th)

Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Saturday March 6, 2021 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather — Bright, dry, cold >>> Ashton Gate, Bristol

Before we go all ‘typical QPR’ on this narrative, let’s pause for a moment and reflect.

Twice this season QPR have caught teams at precisely the right time. Derby away, when the division’s most dysfunctional club and out of control dressing room were conspiring to get Phillip Cocu the sack so Wayne ‘FIRE MAKES WAYNE HOT’ Rooney could start flexing his managerial muscles, couldn’t help but be won. Even Macauley Bonne scored. Cardiff, similarly, prior to their infinite run of wins under Mick McCarthy, weren’t even feigning interest in keeping Neil ‘that rotter turned up to my cousin’s funeral wearing white jeans’ Harris in a job when we rolled up and won 1-0 in January. That winning margin would have been significantly wider with a different referee. It probably wouldn’t have been a winning margin at all had it been played a fortnight later. You might, potentially, be able to lump Blackburn at home into that pot as well.

So, yes, it’s annoying we’re playing Bristol City now, at the peak of their Nigel Pearson powers, with Nahki Wells looking like QPR Nahki Wells as opposed to Bristol City Nahki Wells, instead of a fortnight ago, when Wells looked like he wished he’d listened to his twins and stayed near the zoo, and I could have put together a team from the Crown and Sceptre regulars that would have got at least a point from a game against Dean Holden’s side. Mel up front, and he’ll do the entertainment after.

That’s Blockbusters.

Of course, had we played them a fortnight ago not only would they have been stumbling around like your nan in her final days not even fully aware she’d shit the bed, but we’d have been the red hot team of the Championship moment. Six wins from seven games, Charlie Austin broadcasting master of Selco (it’s where the trade go), Stefan Johansen the midfielder of our fever dreams, Todd Kane running up and down. How quickly things turn. The defeat to what I considered (some of you disagreed, fair enough) a pretty exceptional, and certainly superior, Barnsley side in the week only exacerbated the annoyance at taking only a point from an average Preston team and a desperately inadequate load of slop at Birmingham. One was considered a good result, basically because it was far away and wet, and the other unlucky, essentially because the pitch was shit, we’d played three days prior and were winning for a bit. We’re not going anywhere with that attitude or those results, precisely because whenever we come up against a Swansea or Barnsley type side we’re miles and miles off.

Those of you that did think we were in the same stratosphere as the Tykes on Wednesday night have, rightly, pointed to early chances missed by Charlie Austin and, more pointedly, Lyndon Dykes. Go 2-0 up there and, then, in theory, 3-1 with Austin’s actual goal, and it’s a very different ball game against the excitable, irrepressible northern children. Chase around in your dust cloud all you like while we sit here in shape reading the paper.

Dykes’ miss was spookily similar to a spaff at home to Stoke before Christmas in one of the two games we’ve had with crowds this season — on his heels, caught in at least two minds, hesitant, over thinking, worried. Livingston Lyndon Dykes, Scotland Lyndon Dykes, dumps goalkeeper and ball in the back of the net in an awesome hail of violence and asks questions afterwards. QPR Lyndon Dykes is a lethal combination of not good enough, and knows it.

How much that ‘knowing he’s not good enough’ is the fault of the massed online hordes of frustrated QPR fans locked in their homes, and just the simple fact that he’s scored one goal from open play all season and nothing at all now for 18 games, was the subject of this week’s pre-match Warbleton in which the manager said the Scotland international was “perhaps guilty of paying too much attention to social media”. Trying to explain, sometimes gently, but often through obvious exasperation and fury, how much of a contradiction it is wanting QPR to invest more in youth, give our young players a chance, give more gametime to Bettache, Willock or whoever the flavour of the month is at any point, and then absolutely torching them on Twitter and Instagram if it doesn’t go well, has been a regular theme of Warburton’s reign so far. He was particularly aggrieved last season, when both Josh Scowen and Joe Lumley deleted their social media accounts under the weight of criticism and abuse, at the attention his young goalkeeper was getting online, and the affect it was having on him.

Warburton is an odd fish. As an interviewer you only get to spend a finite amount of time with these people anyway, but more than any of his predecessors I’ve found it impossible to get a read on exactly what sort of a person Mark Warburton is, what he finds funny, what he does to relax, what his politics are… anything really. I guess we were spoilt with the oversharing of Ian Holloway but Warburton has the poker face to end them all and my best assessment of him from limited material is he is an obsessive, perfectionist. You see it in his over the top responses to the lockdown return date, the fixture list, the state of the pitches. His standards are sky high, he wants things done a certain way, when they’re not he seems to obsess about it. I saw Tweets to Joe Lumley last season telling him to “get out of my club”, a club he’s come through the ranks at , a club he cares about, a club he still celebrates goals and wins for manically even though he’s now a distant second choice to Seny Dieng. Warburton is right to detest that and call it out, but he also didn’t care for the LFW end of season review which said both goalkeepers had poor seasons and cost us points, nor my assertion in the interview (which had long since gone south after an earlier smart arsed remark) that Kelly and Lumley had had “mixed” campaigns. He can, sometimes, be too Warbs. But he has a valid point.

Now here I go along a fine, and often contradictory, line. Your Tweets are bad, my reports are ok. Running this website for the best part of 20 years, and the Twitter feed that goes with it, means I have, inevitably, at times, been hostile and over-the-top in criticism to certain players. Rob Green, Joel Lynch, perennially 28-year-old Sandro, and others have all copped it. If I don't call it as I see it, I may as well work for the official website and churn out the company line. I’m often accused of doing that anyway, protecting some sort of perceived position of influence. Anybody who has had the misfortune to sit near me at matches will know what a lunatic I am, unable to sit still, incapable of shutting up, regularly losing the plot, frequently infuriated by our own players. Lynch, in particular, in his early December run of ridiculous attempts to get a red card, followed by the inevitable hamstring pull in the game before Christmas, used to absolutely drive me round the fucking bend. So who am I to criticise anybody else?

Football supporters work hard for their money, and chuck completely out of proportion amounts of it into their clubs. They deserve a say for that, more than fly-by-night players and managers who are here for a matter of months. If you want to talk about mental health then talk about the value in these people coming out of the drudgery and grind of everyday life and being able to have a bit of a blow out on Saturday, have a few beers, go to a match, shout at the players and the referee. As a professional footballer you have to accept a certain degree of that as part of an incredibly well paid, privileged job. More in a month than I earn in a year for four two-hour training sessions a week and a football match on Saturday? You’ll deal with me shouting at you. Where it becomes hilarious is when beered up, angry, gobshite football fans get on their precious high horse about a footballer celebrating in front of them, or giving a bit back. It’s all part of it, both sides should accept. If we all sat there and politely clapped along for fear of offending anybody it wouldn’t be the same sport, or the same atmosphere. Chanting Lee Camp’s name 15 minutes into Radek Cerny’s debut? Probs a bit much. But we’ve seen with the crowds being taken away and the introduction of VAR just how damaging it can be when you start fundamentally changing the fabric of a sport that’s been around for 150 years.

Where the line is, now, is increasingly blurred by social media. At the top end footballers have social media accounts run by agents and representatives to “build their brand”. If you’re doing that, to pile millions on your further millions, and somebody has a go at you for playing poorly, I feel like that’s pretty fair game and you have to suck that up from atop your pile of money surrounded by many beautiful ladies. People talking on Twitter, Facebook, message boards and so on about who’s playing well, who’s playing badly… that’s just football and sport. Watercooler stuff. It’s been taking place in pubs, radio phone ins, newspaper letter pages, long before the internet. If footballers tune in, go looking for that, and don’t like what they hear, that’s on them. Again, I would say that wouldn’t I? I run this website.

Where it goes over the line, I think, is at our level, when it’s clearly not some PR representative running the Twitter feed, and ridiculously angry young boys are direct messaging the worst possible thing they can think to say to the player, for missing a good chance against Barnsley, or duffing a clearance away to Fulham. Raw fury, from some spotty teenage boy, piped directly into the phone of the player. Next time a black player - Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford - misses a sitter, sit back and watch their Twitter mentions. Angry, angry little boys, thinking of the most vile racial thing they can say, because they wanted Man Utd to win, and now they might not, safe in the knowledge that they’re behind the cloak of keyboard invisibility. Watch how quickly Twitter acts to hammer somebody posting a video clip of a goal in violation of valuable Premier League copyright laws, compared to the snail’s pace of the response to Aubameyang being called a ‘jungle monkey’.

Do we want to be that club where hard working but limited pros like Josh Scowen, Joe Lumley and maybe soon Lyndon Dykes are so sick of what they’re sent that they delete their accounts altogether? Feels like more of a Chelsea thing to me. But then I’ve had frequent replies on my own Twitter when I voice this opinion calling me out for writing horrible things about them, Tweeting derogatory things about them, shouting horrendous things about them at matches. I was an angry little boy too back in the day, I remember a good friend of mine and my dad’s, Ian Furey, pulling me one night after I’d completely lost the plot during a draw at Scunthorpe asking me, genuinely, if I was ok, and why I was so pent up and angry at that age. I had my reasons. I’ve no doubt that were Twitter around when I was early teens, I’d have been sending horrendous stuff to Tony Roberts and Karl Ready, because I hated them, I thought they were dreadful, they ruined my Saturdays, and when you’re 14 and the chemicals are starting to flow that’s how you respond.

So who am I to talk, when I draw the line now at ‘say what you want about them, but don’t copy them into the Tweet’? That’s my line now, because we shouldn’t all sit and clap politely through a descent into mediocrity, and I wouldn’t have a website if we did, but also it’s obviously counter productive for Joe Lumley and Lyndon Dykes to be receiving dozens and dozens of messages telling them they’re fucking crap on a daily basis. Mark Warburton’s line is further one way, yours may be further the other.

There’s something acutely affecting about receiving a direct Tweet, in particular, slagging you off. It comes direct to your phone, you get an alert telling you about it. It means you might be asleep, or it might be the first thing you see when you wake up, or it might flash up while you’re chatting to your mum, or having Sunday lunch in a pub. It might arrive at a point when you're positive and strong enough to ignore it, or land when you're on the tube home after the shittest of days and already beating yourself up. It invades your safe spaces. You go to the pub you expect banter, you go to the football you expect it to be a bit raucous, you ring your mate up you expect some chat. You wake up at two in the morning for a piss, glance at your phone for the time and see a message calling you out, your head isn’t in that space, that’s the end of your sleeping for the rest of the night. Or, it is mine. If you’re a footballer I guess you expect to cop a bit of grief in the ground, but if you’re sitting down for Sunday lunch with your wife and kids and your phone is pinging because you’ve skied an open goal the day before that’s weird, it’s invasive. It does things to you.

I’ll share a paragraph now and then shut up, something I’ve held off saying because I didn’t want whoever it is to know it was getting to me, I didn’t want them to know I was reading it, I didn't want them to know the places it's driven me, and I didn’t want to let the prick win. I’ve also feared that were I to call it out I’d be immediately besieged by ‘whataboutery’ around my own behaviour online, and at games, which is far from exemplary. One of my troll’s previous incarnations once accused me of stealing a photograph of Idrissa Sylla celebrating his winning goal at Fulham. The photograph was taken by Neil Dejyothin, who takes photographs for this website, and so I rejoiced in a victorious reply. But you’re never victorious in reply to these people, the reply is their victory. From there they just drag you down to their level, endless replies and ‘whataboutery’, until you eventually lose it, as I did later that night, and surrender the moral high ground. The fact the account has pursued you for months, made up shit, coated you off, libelled you from behind the cloak of anonymity Twitter provides, is irrelevant. You got drunk and called the guy a cunt, now it’s on you.

As that troll died away, another magically appeared. Same generic headshot, same generic name. Hated me, hated anybody who dared to run a podcast, or a website. Tweeted endlessly about Brexit, abused the left leaning panellists on Question Time, and so gathered genuine followers of a similar political persuasion from the QPR support base, and with that started to come after me, Paul Finney, Flo Lloyd-Hughes, Dave McIntyre and others. It is a systematic failure of Twitter that you can block and ignore people, but it doesn’t stop them seeing what you say, nor mentioning you in their Tweets. They wait for you to get involved in a conversation with somebody else, then join in with that, becuase they know you see it that way, and there's nothing in the 'blocking' mechanism to stop it. On the rare occasion they do something bad enough to warrant a ban, they simply start another account, and so you end up being targeted in turn by DavidW, DavidWilliams, WilliamsDavd, DavidW1882, DavidQPR1882 and on and on it goes. Just get rid of Twitter Clive. Love to. The website, my income, my mortgage, depends on the traffic.

Let me tell you about that targeting: Tweets about how I’m behaving in the pub, and where my reserved tables are, to let me know they’re close; Tweets about how I’m behaving, what I’m shouting, who I’m with, during home games with Middlesbrough; Tweets about me illegally streaming matches (not true) when they know I work for a company for whom that would be an issue that could cost me the job; Tweets about me getting advance information on transfers in return for a favourable write up (Paul Morrissey would piss himself at the mere idea); accusations I’m afraid to say negative things about QPR (pur-lease) because I get access and free VIP seats (the regulars around my paid seat in F Block wish it were so). "Clive Whittingham, the guy who spent his dead dad's inheritance pretending to be a sports journalist" - direct quote from one of his Tweets, because if you appear on a podcast you leave yourself open to that, apparently. No word of a lie, there have been direct private messages sent to my mates telling them I’ve been seen touching up their wives, and they need to watch me. Because what’s a destroyed marriage, and friendship, when it comes to the serious business of undermining somebody who dares to run a QPR website?

You mute, and block, and you report and report and you report and you report, and still it’s there, piped into your phone, while you’re at home, while you’re at work, while you’re asleep, while you're happy and don't care, and most crucially when you're sad and you do. Genuine, actual, real QPR fans you’ve seen at games following, retweeting, calling it “important”. It never goes away, by and large it's one negative comment amidst 200 positive, but it rots your brain like an invasive worm. If it’s like that for me, fuck knows what it’s like playing up front for the team, with no goals from 18.

This idea that ‘they need to know’ and it’ll ‘toughen them up’ and it’ll somehow help is every bit as fanciful as the idea of sending me into a northern secondary school called Clive, and calling the abuse character building. More like soul destroying. Steady coastal erosion on whatever you were as a person before it started.

One day that oh so important opinion, or clever bit of trolling, that simply had to be voiced to somebody trying to play up front for Queens Park Rangers, or write a poxy blog about the team, is going to send somebody under a train.

Links >>> Pearson halts Robins’ nosedive — Interview >>> Opening day thriller — History >>> Give and Tyke — Podcast >>> Bad memories — Referee >>> Bristol City official website >>> The Exiled Robin — Blog >>> One Team In Bristol — Message Board >>> Bristol Post — Local Paper >>> One Stream In Bristol — Podcast

Geoff Cameron Facts No.134 in the series — Geoff was the original bassist in Uncle Dirtnap.

Below the fold

Team News: Jordy De Wijs has travelled. Apparently he’s been struggling with existence, which is a particularly niggly one that takes time to overcome. A 45 minute aerial tour of Aylesbury in Les Ferdinand’s helicopter for the first person to actually spot him. George Thomas misses out with a fear of the West Country accent. Little Tom Carroll, Big Bad Luke Amos and Charlie Owens are the long termers.

Bristol City have been decimated by injuries all season long. Nathan Baker, Callum O’Dowda, Liam Walsh, Marley Watkins, Andi Weimann, Pew, Pew, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub, Wash, Soak, Rinse and Spin are all definitely out of this one. Jay Dasilva has a broken leg. Tommy Rowe is just too damn good looking. Jack Hunt suffered a knock to the head during the midweeker with Bournemouth so may have to sit out under concussion protocols. Jamie Paterson may not live through the night. Chris Martin is trapped under a collapsed pile of pizza boxes. Joe Williams is struggling with brain and nerve tonic addition. They’d use penicillin, if Mark Paxton hadn’t used it all up getting knobrot off some tart. It’s estimated that the 1-1 draw at home to Swansea in October, when they were missing five players, is the closest to fully fit the Robins have been this season and they lost Weimann and Stephen Sessegnon to long term problems in that match.

Elsewhere: Rotherham richly deserved their spectacular last second winner at Sheffield Blue Stripe during the week after a spate of questionable refereeing decisions from our old mate Darren Bond had artificially brought the Owls back into the game. And they’ve got another ace up their sleeve ahead of a home game with Justice League leaders Racing Syon House, probably the best team they’d have played all season — a Covid postponement. This will leave the Millers, hit more than anybody else by plague and bad weather this season, with four games in hand on those around them at the bottom of the table, and if Billy Davies taught us anything while at Nottingham Forest it’s that this is worth roughly 18 points. Shrewd move.

Bad news indeed for the St Andrew’s dwellers three points above them in the table. Birmingham are the latest to venture into the category five Barnsley hurricane at Oakwell, while Coventry host Wayne Rooney’s Derby County — a planned return to the Ricoh Arena announced in principal this week has immediately turned me against this otherwise likeable, progressive, attacking, attractive young team. Have I missed going to football enough to go to watch QPR at the Ricoh Arena next season? It’s not a conundrum I’m looking forward to addressing with any seriousness, so fuck them, I hope they don’t win another game. Sheff Wed and Wycombe, away at Reading and Stoke, are getting to the requiring snookers stage. Both dead on arrival really. Shame, great trips, good clubs, nice people, will be missed.

Sporting Huddersfield are still trying to work out whether they fancy getting involved in all of this. One win in 13 games and a goals against column that looks like a prolapsed rectum has them peering over the edge, and a televised home game against Cardiff City won’t help much tonight. Seven wins and three draws since Big Mick McCarthy stuck Neil Harris’ white jeans in the charity bag has seen the old dog immediately net a two-year contract extension — you just know he negotiates for TC as well — and they’re in prime position to take advantage of any further wobbles from Harry Redknapp’s latest moneybox on wheels who have an awkward trip up to Preston Knob End this weekend.

Look how much ground we’ve covered there. Only left to mention Borussia Norwich continuing their procession back to the Prem with a home win against Lutown, Swansealona’s date on the Thirteenth Annual Neil Warnock Farewell Tour, and Miwwllwwwaaaaaawwwwwwllllll (fack’s sake Wawwll) playing the Mad Chicken Farmers for their own amusement and nobody else’s.

As always, pray silence please, for Nottingham Florist’s attempt to safely transport that squad down to Watford tomorrow for the early lunchtime game. Love in the time of Covid-19.

Referee: Tony Harrington for this one, a swift return to QPR action after he oversaw our win against Blackburn in February. Fresh from a card fest at Bournemouth v Watford at the weekend, he’s the same referee that had this fixture the season before last when Steve McClaren’s Rangers were denied a deserved point by a scandalous last minute penalty award against Darnell Furlong, something the referee and PGMOL later wrote to QPR to apologise for. I don’t know, no real logical rhyme or reason to this, but I feel giving fixtures back to referees who’ve fucked them up before (and this is far from an isolated incident) just feels needlessly provocative to me, and makes the apology letters they send out ring rather hollow. “Sorry you lost at Bristol City on Tuesday because our referee bollocksed the whole thing up, but to make it up to you we’ll give you the same referee for the same fixture next time…” yeh, cheers lads. It also puts a pressure, or at least a doubt in the mind, of the referee and the people watching and playing in the game — either ‘here we go again’ or ‘watch him even this up’ — that just doesn’t need to be there given the sheer number of fixtures and referees there are. A lousy appointment really, completely unnecessary. Case file.

Form

Bristol City: Getting rid of Lee Johnson towards the end of last season hasn’t freed Bristol City from their extremely streaky nature that has both blighted and lifted their recent campaigns, almost in equal measure. This is a club that either wins every game every week, or loses for months at a time, and rarely anything in between. Their 2017/18 season remarkably contained an unbeaten run of 12 games, another sequence where they lost one and won ten of 12, a seven game losing run, a run of one win in eight games, and another sequence of one win in 13. In 2018/19 they had one run of four consecutive wins, two sets of four consecutive defeats, and nine wins in a row through January and February. So when they lost only one of their first 12 and two of their first 18 in 2019/20 they probably should have known there was some shade to go with their light just around the corner. Four straight defeats for Christmas was recovered rather in January, but as the country locked down for the summer they’d taken two points from a possible 15 and they returned in June to four quickfire losses that killed their play-off hopes and ended the tenure of Johnson. More of the same in 2020/21 with six wins and a defeat to Premier League Aston Villa to start Dean Holden’s reign, spells of three straight wins and three straight defeats, spells of five wins and a draw from eight followed immediately by six defeats in nine, and then the annual cliff dive of seven straight defeats, the last five of them to nil, including a 6-0 at Watford, to end Holden’s brief tenure as manager. Since Nigel Pearson’s appointment they have won impressively, 3-1 both times, at promotion chasers Boro and Swansea but were beaten here 2-1 in the week by Bournemouth thanks to two defensively shambolic goals after taking the lead. It leaves them on a four game losing run at Ashton Gate, and overall this year they’re 7-2-8 at home — only Preston, Birmingham, Rotherham and Wycombe have lost more home games. It’s been either one thing or the other for the Robins so far, nobody in the league has drawn as few as their three. That means they’ve been able to stay buoyant in twelfth despite 17 league defeats, at least five more than any other team in the top half. Only Rotherham (18) and Wycombe (20) have lost more games, only Huddersfield (51) and Wycombe (55) have conceded more goals than City’s 46.

QPR: Speaking of streaky, here come your rip roaring Rangers, no wins in ten games, followed by six wins from seven matches, followed by a draw and two defeats. Rangers finished thirteenth last season with 58 points, 67 scored and 76 conceded. If they can better that with the players that have since gone out of the team that would be some achievement for 2020/21. They currently stand 18 points shy of the total with a clutch of home games against Wycombe, Huddersfield, Millwall, Coventry and Sheff Wed lying on the other side of this tough trip to Ashton Gate where they’re without a win in ten visits dating back to 2003, and have lost their last four. They’ll have to go some not to significantly improve on the defensive record with 39 goals conceded so far (1.21 a game compared to 1.65 last season, eight clean sheets so far compared to last year’s total of six). Rangers conceded 56 in their first 32 league games in 2019/20, 17 more than their current total. The defeat at Birmingham last weekend broke a run of six unbeaten away games, including three wins, lifting them to four away victories for the season. They managed seven last year, which was their best total since the 2013/14 promotion year. Nahki Wells scored 24 goals in 56 starts and 16 sub appearances across two loan spells for QPR before joining Bristol City at the end of the January transfer window in 2020. His goal at Loftus Road for City in early December this season was his fourth against the R’s in seven appearances for City and Huddersfield against us. Since New Year’s Day 2020 only Ilias Chair, My Chemical Hugill and Bright Osayi-Samuel (seven) have scored more goals for QPR than Wells (six) even though he’s only played four games for us in that time. His goal for Bristol City in the first meeting this season means he is the joint top scorer at Loftus Road since the start of 2020 with six from four appearances, level with Chair on six from 29 home appearances.

Prediction: We’re indebted to The Art of Football for once again agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. Last season’s champion Mase offers us this…

“Those playoffs are looking a long way off again. Nigel Pearson has had a positive effect on the Robins' recent results and with our flagging confidence and increasing raggedness for all to see in the last few games, this is an unfortunate moment to be heading to the West Country. Hoping for better from the home matches next week.”

Mase’s Prediction: Bristol City 2-0. QPR. No scorer.

LFW’s Prediction: Bristol City 2-1 QPR. Scorer — Nahkiiiiiiiiii Wells

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sinceApril66 added 20:01 - Mar 5
I think it’s brilliantly open and courageous to write about the impact of virtual (only very real) abuse. Especially to do so while highlighting the complexity of the argument and empathically presenting conflicting perspectives.
11

LongsufferingR added 20:07 - Mar 5
I'm absolutely gobsmacked by that and glad you shared it. If it was me I'd be going straight to the police, although I quite understand why you wouldn't want to. Also, someone must know who it is. We have a wide range of supporters on here, so hopefully someone will cotton on and out the cnt.
6

Patrick added 20:42 - Mar 5
You were absolutely right to share that. Don't let the bastards get you down.
7

dutch added 20:46 - Mar 5
Blimey mate (not that we are, but I've read you so often and admired you no end so it kind of feels like we are) you should not have to go through that. Stay strong.
7

WokingR added 20:49 - Mar 5
Blimey mate, had no idea the sort of shit that comes with running this site.
Makes me glad I’m not on social media in any form
6

thehat added 20:57 - Mar 5
Really sorry to hear that Clive - Can you imagine the pathetic sad lives these people must lead to have the energy to troll decent folk.

Absolute pondlife.

Keep going pal the silent majority in there thousands love your brilliant writing.

You articles give us all something to look forward to and enjoy.


7

WigRanger added 22:52 - Mar 5
Clive I don’t know you,but I use this site religiously for coming up to 20 years!
Keep up the amazing work you do.....and boy Rangers test us many times!
But with lockdown.....it’s brought out selfish,horrible people I’m afraid,but remember there is a lot of good people out there...good Rangers fans,so please keep going and COYRS.....stay safe 🙏🏼
3

CliveWilsonSaid added 00:24 - Mar 6
“a goals against column that looks like a prolapsed rectum”

Well it’s getting more and more difficult to find the cock jokes in these but here we go 😀
1

SonofNorfolt added 00:50 - Mar 6
& I take the pens.
0

snanker added 05:54 - Mar 6
Clive another great piece on a 21st century malaise but take a deep breath or twenty, these social media idiots with their empty lives and mendacious shite aren't worth the time of day. Thank gawd they are in a moronic minority and you have many many people who greatly appreciate your fine efforts and top notch reporting hang on to that when these prixs start to get you down. It takes a great sense of irony to support our R's and these tools wouldn't know the meaning of the word. Keep up your excellent work and avoid the mainline please.
1

BlackCrowe added 07:38 - Mar 6
A miserable read not just because you and others have had to suffer such vile, brainless abuse, but also because there seems to be so many dysfunctional vermin like this in the world.
0

BigWilly added 09:27 - Mar 6
Terrific piece Clive - brilliantly written, strongly and evenly argued and totally authentic - well done!
0

TacticalR added 10:23 - Mar 6
Thanks for your preview.

In theory, didn't we play Birmingham at 'the right time'? Except it turned out it wasn't the right time.

It sounds like Warburton is wary of giving too much away. Maybe he just sees the media as a negative.

Fans bashing the players online or in the ground is counterproductive, but it isn't going to change.

I'm not on Twitter, but can't you disable notifications at certain times, e.g. at night?

Unfortunately, it sounds like your stalker is a QPR fan if he's in the ground. I hope you have a minder with you at all times.
0

NewYorkRanger added 11:02 - Mar 6
Hi Clive,
I don't often post on here but I frequently read and enjoy your previews and match reports and felt compelled to give you my support. It's obvious from your writing that you are a passionate fan and only want the best for the club. You are also about as objective as it's possible to be whilst having a strong allegiance to the club.
Why on earth someone would want to dig you out and pursue you online for what you do is beyond me, but I can empathise with the impact this can have on anyone.
Not much I can offer by way of practical help but I thought it may be helpful to at least signal my support, and also state that this idiot who is bothering you is likely to have some significant personal problems that he has unfortunately chosen to take out on you.
Easy for me to say, but try not to take it personally. It can't be personal because the idiot doesn't know you - although of course it sounds like a personal attack.
Try to focus on all the positive feedback you get - and let's be honest, there is a ton of that on here. Your writing is very high quality, impassioned, knowledgable, informative and frequently laugh out loud funny.
Please don't let the w*nkers get you down. Keep up the great work. Loads of us on here really appreciate what you do.
All the best to you sir.
1

AshteadR added 12:51 - Mar 6
Keep up the great work Clive. Bullies always come a cropper at some point. There’s always somebody tougher that will eventually teach them a lesson. I’ll buy you a pint of Peroni as a small token of thanks when life resumes.....
1

QPRski added 14:55 - Mar 6
Clive, a brilliant truthful and deeply personal report which is painfully true of a real problem.

Thanks for your sharing your thoughts and insights.

I really sympathise with your problems and yet again thank your for your efforts “in spite of” these issues.

Please take care! Cheers!
1

HastingsRanger added 15:02 - Mar 6
Clive, just another comment of support to you. I have said it before that I read the Previews and Reports religeosely, a they are my eyes and ears for games I cannot go to and reflect what I see, when I do go. It is an invaluable service that I have not got anywhere else.

The faceless trolls unfortunately have such pathetic lives that all they can do is dedicate their lives to ruining others. Or are they Bots?

I am not a massive fan of Dykes or Bonne, or indeed previousy Washington, but one thing is that they clearly are playing their best for the club. The SWPs and Boswankers I detest, with no care about the club and the supporters, not the players who are trying.

As a supporter, surely you should get behind your team. To try and destroy players (not just supporters at our club but clearly everywhere) is plain crazy.

Just feel I have to offer my support as my life would be much poorer without my family's team (lineage back to 1882) getting such interesting, incisive, funny, informative and realistic reporting to keep me in touch with my team. I know I am not alone in this.

Thanks.

PS Totally agree Birmingham was the poor result, not Barnsley!
1

RedbourneR added 17:26 - Mar 6
Just adding another voice in support, Clive; I remain baffled why someone would write that sort of stuff and then post it. Pathetic inadequates.
0

HastingsRanger added 17:27 - Mar 6
And the same point is ditto'd from HastingsR, HRanger, Hastings1882, HRanger1882, 1882Hastings....etc
1

plasmahoop added 20:10 - Mar 6
Wow, just read the preview tonight. I didn't realise you had to put up with all that. Thanks for all you do in runnjng this great website.
I suppose it is all a question of balance. Weve all hurled some abuse out at matches after a few, but as you say, reading personal abuse on your phone in the middle of the night when you go for a piss is another level. I think the club would be right to try and keep lyndon dykes and othets off twitter. Its a duty of care thing, plus hopefully might help them to play better without all this invasive, personal abuse
0

plasmahoop added 20:10 - Mar 6
Wow, just read the preview tonight. I didn't realise you had to put up with all that. Thanks for all you do in runnjng this great website.
I suppose it is all a question of balance. Weve all hurled some abuse out at matches after a few, but as you say, reading personal abuse on your phone in the middle of the night when you go for a piss is another level. I think the club would be right to try and keep lyndon dykes and othets off twitter. Its a duty of care thing, plus hopefully might help them to play better without all this invasive, personal abuse
0

JamesB1979 added 20:45 - Mar 6
Can we keep the negative predictions going? We normally then perform well. As soon as we all start thinking, we’ll stuff Wycombe, wheels come off. 3-1 to Wycombe next.
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Northernr added 21:10 - Mar 6
James - i tend to deliberately predict a defeat or draw because whenever I predict a win it never happens. Never saw that coming today though.

Thank you for the kind comments everybody.
2

w7r added 09:12 - Mar 7
Clive. That makes for some pretty disturbing, but not unsurprising reading. Problem is, as you said you have to have a presence out there it’s just not optional given your profession, so you’re easy pickings for some moron.

I’m in no position to offer advice about dealing with this sh1t - my social media profile couldn’t be much lower, but I will say please don’t give it up, keep on doing what you’re doing mate as the stuff on this site is head and shoulders above anything else out there. Don’t let it get to you, you know there’s a bunch of people out there that support and appreciate what you do.

On a lighter note, regarding you losing your sh1t. I was sat behind you in SAR a couple of seasons ago (can’t remember the oppo was a cup game - of course we lost). Didn’t realise it was you until you turned around, granted there was a bit of choice ranting, but it was amusing, have you thought about taking up commentary? Mmm, maybe not then.

Anyway keep on doing your stuff, and f.c.uk the detractors.





0

rrrspricey added 13:01 - Mar 8
Absolutely disgusting behaviour to someone you hate let alone a fellow fan. Some of our fan base beggars belief sometimes.

I can remember loosing it with some of them when sitting in SAR listening to FItz Hall being booed every time he touched the ball by our own"supporters"

I know it's probably easier said than done Clive (i'd find it nigh on impossible not to react and offer to "discuss" any issues face-to-face) but try not to lets plebs like this drag you down, you do a fantastic job so don't let anyone else persuade you otherwise.
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