What is the chemical formula of the gas, nitric oxide, understood to help brain cells transmit messages to each other? And is this related to the term ‘gashead’, applied to Bristol Rovers fans? The answer to both questions is NO. Followers of Bristol’s more cerebral football team acquired their nickname in the 1960s because Eastville Stadium was in shouting distance of a gas works.
Eastville’s proximity to Stottbury Road, Horfield, also explained the Blue and Whites’ strong claim on the loyalties of St Thomas More’s RC Secondary School pupils. St Tom’s fifty-year life span, until its closure in 2005, corresponded more or less to that of St Thomas Becket Catholic High School in Huyton, Merseyside. Although St Tom B’s intake was never quite so captivated by the blue side of Liverpool, gifted student Joey Barton dreamed of playing for Everton.
Mind you, Joseph Anthony Barton had a tough childhood. As a result, his career has been punctuated by numerous contretemps and bust-ups, and he’s served time in prison. One might say this-or-that individual was dealt a similar or worse hand in life, yet was never such a turbulent character. Maybe so; but if others – including some of those who judge Barton – had had to contend with the disadvantages he faced, they might have gone off the rails even more than he did.
So let’s not go there. Barton was a tenacious and hardworking midfielder. One of his finest moments came in the second half of a UEFA Europa League match between Olympique Marseille and Borussia Mönchengladbach in November 2012. He scored directly from a corner to equalise for the Olympians, whose fans voted him their best player of the following month. Only Paris Saint-Germain prevented Élie Baup’s side from capturing the 2012-13 Ligue 1 title.
From its HQ in Dalmally, Argyll, Mary’s Meals provides nutritious meals every school day to 2,279,941 of the world’s poorest children. The story of the charity’s rapid expansion, and its origins in an aid agency called Scottish International Relief (SIR), is told in a bestselling book by founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, The Shed That Fed Two Million Children. Among many prominent celebrities who’ve lent support, Real Madrid playmaker Luka Modrić used his profile to promote an outstanding film called Child 31 (now available on YouTube). As a refugee with his family in the Croatian city of Zadar in the mid-1990s, the future Ballon d’Or winner was a beneficiary of humanitarian aid from SIR.
I had this in mind last December when I decided to send Joey Barton a bright blue and white Mary’s Meals Christmas card, adorned with a snowbound image of Dalmally’s famous shed. Inside, underneath the festive greeting I wrote a message which went something like:
“A few months after you were born, on 20 November 1982 I attended my first ever football match; an FA Cup tie between Chester City and Northwich Victoria at Sealand Road. It finished 1-1 and Northwich won the replay. They went on to reach the FA Trophy final at Wembley, as I’m sure you know.”
Joey Barton’s Dad, another Joseph, played semi-professionally for Northwich Vics and is likely to have featured in the Chester game.
“Come on you Blues!”
On New Year’s Day Bristol Rovers languished in 18th place, just a handful of points above the relegation zone. January however turned out to be an excellent month, in which they recorded three wins and a draw. While a lot of the credit for the transformation in the Pirates’ fortunes is laid at the door of loan-signing Elliot Anderson, he didn’t make his debut until February. Besides, it was no doubt important that Rovers were on a bit of a roll when the Geordie starlet was enticed to tear himself away from St James’s Park.
Saturday 7th May, the climax of the 2021-22 season, will always have a special place in Rovers folklore. In order to pip Northampton Town to the last automatic promotion place, Barton’s protégés knew they were likely to need a cricket score against Scunthorpe. At the interval they were only 2-0 up, but moved to 6-0 on 79 minutes. In the 85th, Anderson headed home goal number seven. The scenes which followed can only be described as pandemonium.
We may never know if Barton’s Mary’s Meals Christmas card made a difference, but stranger things have happened. Leicester’s rise from the bottom to the top of the Premiership in 2015-16 had nothing to do with the arrival of a new manager or any particular player. Incontrovertibly, the timing of the Foxes’ turnaround coincided precisely with the boost to civic pride generated by the re-interment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. When LCFC were crowned champions, fans waving banners of England’s last Yorkist king knew what they were doing. York City, whose burgesses had tried but failed to have Richard’s relics translated to their own famous Minster, were banished to the Conference a few days before.
With last season’s stunning finale still fresh in the memory, Joey Barton has now been sent a DVD of Child 31. Maybe it’ll inspire him to take his charges to the Championship, or a Wembley final. One thing every intelligent Rovers fan knows, is that it’s high time we were back on level terms with our south Bristol rivals who shall remain nameless.
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