Keep the Faith

A shot. We’re really growing into this game now…

I would have thought that if he knew the players were against Manning but didn’t want to upset the club he just wouldn’t say anything about it rather than stating the opposite.

I think this is a huge part of it for me. Mid to lower table teams at home. Unless we work out how to win/draw the majority of these we aren’t going anywhere. I’m relatively comfortable with how we play and fair against better opposition at the moment (clearly improvements can be made there as well). Home games against Cardiff, Swansea, Blackburn, Huddersfield and Rotherham. We need points and far more convincing displays.

Not entirely sure what people want from a debut other than a goal, someone who made us seriously dangerous from set pieces for the first time in donkeys years and generally made a nuisance of himself high up the park. He wasn’t perfect and tried a lot of things that didn’t come off. I was happy he was trying. If he is type of player and style of play Manning wants I’m in.

What that video reminds me is not only what a great finisher he was but how much I miss Dele Adebola.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had a coach/manager good enough to be poached by someone better.

I think the reaction on here alone would be worth an LJ reappointment!

Don’t get the anti Rowett stuff. He looks a decent option to me. Complaints about playing style seem slightly odd as Pearson didn’t exactly deliver earth shatteringly good football or results at home and I say that as someone who has no issue with him.

Some people believe the preservation of native species is more important than football. Which is a fair view.

I’m a bit surprised they didn’t flag Wells offside…

But then it is close to the Forest of Bowland, Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District with Manchester and Liverpool not far away. He probably wouldn’t live in central Blackburn!

Absolutely spot on here. You just can’t compare football and rugby. When a penalty is given in rugby usually it’s involving the forwards and they are shattered from the last phase of play and in a pile on the ground. It just isnt the same as football where they are relatively fresh players within yards of the red all on their feet with a decent view of the incident. Only the captain being able to talk to the ref would be the best way to take something from rugby if it could be managed. It would take a lot of strong refereeing to dish out the yellows and reds when it was first done but I feel it should be achievable.

There’s usually something similar in any sport where you have to turn a blind eye to something to allow you to enjoy it at the highest level at least. I love watching professional cycling. I know the history of the sport wi the regard to doping. I’m sure there are athletes doping and/or manipulating the rules to their advantage but I still love to watch it and just have to not think about it otherwise the joy goes. Same goes here in football.

Whilst my comment was a bit tongue in cheek if found guilty what does this open them up to in terms of being sued by pretty much anyone for some sort of loss of revenue? Could be an epic class action!

Can we have the league cup they screwed us out of in 2018?

Alex Scott that is another level. Good lad waiting for the game after the window closes for that piece of class.

Swansea isn’t so bad. The area around the marina is quiet nice, the beach is serviceable and the Gower is just around the corner. Obviously it’s no Bristol!

Shaun Goater around the same price as Mickey Bell must be up there as well.

For a first goal for the club as a young lad that is an absolute belter. Well played Sam Bell!

It was hard enough getting my 4 year old to sit still for 95 mins on Saturday!

I think it comes down more to people being able to make a choice rather than not being able to cope with a game of football being postponed. The two should not be conflated. Another example would be the Bristol Half Marathon next weekend. Say that we’re taking place this weekend is it right to cancel something at the last minute that people have invested significant amounts of time and sometimes money in when they may have no particular strong feelings about the death of the queen? Of course it could still be cancelled. Perhaps some feel that it should I would say it could have an incredibly negative impact on thousands and that isn’t necessarily fair.

There were some interesting views from French cyclist Thibaut Pinot recently on Rafael Nadal and how he manages his injuries through regular injections to numb pain, a treatment which is banned in cycling because of the potential performance enhancement. Lots of people saying Nadal is a hero for playing through the pain but effectively he is taking injections to enhance performance. Everyone knows the issues cycling has had with drugs and it is almost certainly not clean now but more so than it used to be. It is definitely a physically brutal sport and they can certainly suffer more than most!

Whilst clearly this would be what everyone would prefer a vaccination could be years away or not arrive at all. We can’t wait for it. It has to be treated as a good to have if/when it arrives and not something that starts a return to normality. I also don’t really see how trying to restart football will have a negative impact on vaccination research but I’m happy to be corrected on this. They claim to have more testing capacity than is currently being used and will continue to expand it before football restarts so that shouldn’t be a major issue (although the government’s record on this is terrible). Clearly if they are taking testing capacity away from more essential areas then this should be a major consideration. The same goes for the emergency services but again I imagine they hope that that the situation is a little less volatile by the time it restarts so it should be manageable. If not then again they will have to have a massive rethink. It might not lift your morale but I imagine there are plenty of people who would be delighted to be able to watch some football on TV and have one extra thing to think and talk about that isn’t the virus. They may well come up with some very creative ways of making the viewing experience more appealing especially given that it’s not likely to be a short term fix but could be in place for quite a while. These people’s livelihoods are directly related to football. They have to think about how to start things again just like every other business in the country.

Before I right this I will state that I am as conflicted about the place of sport during this situation as anyone is and don't know what the right answer is or really what my opinion is! My view seems to change every day. I miss football, professional cycling and as an amateur triathlete all my races have or probably will be cancelled for the foreseeable future. All these things upset me. However I will say that it is interesting how it has taken a crisis in the developed world to make people take the view that there are more important things than sport. There are international crises every single day. Right now east Africa is going to be consumed by a plague of billions of locusts which will wipe out crops for millions. Virtually nobody outside of the affected regions would even know about it let alone do something about it. The suffering of refugees in camps across the world is horrendous. We don't assume that we should stop sport until these issues are solved. I don't know why this is, perhaps because they aren't in front of us every day, or maybe because people don't think there is a solution. Perhaps sport helps us forget or ignore these thing by giving us something else to focus on. I include myself in this. Perhaps that is a good thing as there will always be things like this and if you can avoid it people don't want to think about it. If this is going to be with us for years then are we just going to have to accept that and start things up again as normal with the acceptance that death rates will be higher and life expectancy a bit shorter. We have such developed healthcare systems in the developed world that perseveration of life at all costs seems to be everything. Should we just change our view on this? This situation gives you time to think about these things. I don't think my simple mind is really up to the task!

And they've just appointed Tony Mowbray. Solid appointment at this level and with the new manager bounce who knows where they might finish.