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Uwe Rosler chose to use his post match Bristol City press conference last night to take a thinly veiled dig at Brentford’s home supporters.

Rosler told the press – “We always have very good away support, but I have also have to pay tribute to the Bristol fans. They are bottom of the league and 2-0 down but still the supporters were behind them. I wish we had that in our home games.”

Rosler was quite cleary annoyed on Saturday by the booing of his subsititution of Adam Forshaw and the subsequent singing of “sacked in the morning” as his team trailed Colchester after a fairly tepid hour or so of League One football. The song, whilst perfectly audible, was probably sung by a maximum of 30 supporters.

The good news for Uwe is that the song also irked what I would refer to as “the silent majority” of Brentford fans. Supporters that simply go to watch football, and who believe that support, not criticism, is vital within the ground itself. The vocal support for the team, if anything, improved following the song.

These same supporters have now, however,  effectively been criticised by their team’s manager by Rosler’s broad brush strokes of distain last night. Uwe’s comments were simply not necessary and, to be honest, have more than a measure of petulance.

The point that irks me most is that Rosler was not even factually correct about events last night. When City went 2-0 down, their stands emptied and the supporters in the stand next to me started loudly singing a song to boss O’Driscoll. The song suggested that he would be “sacked in the morning”. Sound familiar?

I have a strong belief that the success last season was due, in part, by the strength of unity between the team and supporters. It was unity that started on the tour of Germany pre-season and lasted the entire season.

Without doubt there are increased expectations around Griffin Park this term – brought about by how close we came to promotion in May as well as continued investment in the playing squad.

Most supporters, however, understand that it sometimes takes teams time to gel, and that the most important league table is the one published at the season’s end.  So far, though, we have had to put up with numerous unexplained team changes and a number of players playing out of position.

If Rosler really wants unity and empathy then perhaps he should use his time with the press to explain some of these decisions rather than taking a swipe against Brentford supporters.

Condorman

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