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For as long as Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine they should be suspended from all sporting events.

With all due respect, this is a touch naive. Should Russia play international football, and win, it will be spun as a victory for the might of the Russian nation. In effect, by letting them compete, it allows them to release propaganda off the back of it. It would be the same for any Russian based teams in things like the Europa League. I feel for the players, it isn’t their doing, but you have to not let Russia compete for the above reason.

It’s tough on the Russian people, but it has to happen. South Africa was excluded from international sport and it was absolutely the right thing to do, and played its part in ending apartheid.

The Russian media has control over what the people see or hear. Unless they have access to foreign news they will have a distorted view of how the rest of the world regards Putin’s actions. Banning Russian football from international competitions would be one small way of getting the message across. By itself it won’t achieve much, but it should be part of a large range of sanctions. Each small sanction helps

Yes. Putin loves sport, so he shouldnt get any benefit from seeing his National play anywhere. We should definitely follow Polands lead and refuse to play the game. FIFA havent got a spine, but the likes of Poland and I'd hope England could help them develop one

Sorry this is a bit of a rant, but how on Earth are we expected to make any level of progress when our forwards are routinely expected to score three goals for us to win the game? We have Kalas and Klose, two CBs who have both secured promotion out of the Championship before playing in a defence which is more porous than a house on a flood plane during Storm Eunice. We signed Danny Simpson for absolutely no reason whatsoever despite our financial difficulties and have chosen instead to rely on youth to fill the RB / RWB spot instead. We are five points worse off after 35 games than last season and in my view the only reason the defence is getting relatively easy ride from the fans in terms of criticism is because the bottom 3 are probably the worst we have seen in the Championship in living memory, and two out of the bottom four have suffered points deductions. This time last year Rotherham were 22nd with 32 points, for example. You are welcome to tell me I am being overly negative and I appreciate our young players have improved a lot, and that our future looks brighter than it did 12 months ago. But is it too much to ask to watch our team keep a clean sheet for once in a while, especially given the level of experience within the CB position? Kalas cost £8m and Dasilva cost a packet too I think - it really shouldn’t be as bad as it is. Anyway, rant over and enjoy your evening!

Yes. Personally I would’ve pulled out of Qatar WC too. I also think FIFA is corrupt too, and I’d like to see a general breakaway from them too.

For your attempts to needlessly hijack a thread about how sport responds to a global crisis, purely to score political points, please accept this Golden Shoehorn.

I have tremendous respect for any of the protesting Russian citizens, it is an extremely brave action. Getting arrested in Russia is not like being arrested in the West, they are putting their lives and futures in jeopardy by standing up to a Fascist Dictator. I don' t know if i i would have the courage to do the same?

Good day fellow-Reds, today will see a sold-out crowd at the City ground as NP takes his team to his home town. We will all remember what happened in the 90th and 91st minutes when we last faced them back in October at AG, in the pouring rain. If you can cope with the misery here are the highlights: https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/highlights-bristol-city-1-2-nottingham-forest/ Be warned they are one of the leading late goal teams in the Championship! Earlier in the campaign data-crunchers from the USA predicted they’d finish one place below us in 19th: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/nigel-pearsons-bristol-city-predicted-6025959 Steve Cooper might have something to say about that! When Cooper arrived at the City Ground in September, Forest were rock bottom of the Championship after a dreadful start to the season under Chris Hughton. Since then the men in red have been in great form and are currently in tenth place on 48 points. Forest have gone from fearing relegation to targeting the play-offs under his leadership. Last Saturday their game against Bournemouth was called off at short notice and on Tuesday they drew 0-0 away to PNE, managing just two shots on target. Their keeper Ethan Horvath was their standout player against Preston and he will get another chance to impress today. Predicted Forest XI: Horvath; Worrall, Cook, McKenna; Spence, Yates, Garner, Lowe; Johnson, Davis, Zinckernagel. One of their key players is Johnson who has started all 32 Championship games for the Forest this season, with a goal contribution of 15. The 20-year-old midfielder has eight goal contributions in his last 11 league games therefore he will be full of confidence that he can make a difference in the game against the Robins. The Welsh international enjoyed a very successful loan spell at Lincoln City last season where he contributed to 27 goals in 48 games earning him a place in Steve Cooper's side on a permanent basis. Perhaps our most memorable game at the City Ground was the League Cup semi final played the evening of Wednesday February 15 1989 which finished 1-1. The EP coverage might bring back a few memories from that night 32 years ago which was watched by 8,000 traveling fans! https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-flashback-jordans-underdogs-4571059 Our head-to-head record, played 97 matches, we have: Won: 22 Drawn: 33 Lost: 42 Their last six games = three wins, two draws and one defeat. A flowing move led to this goal at their place back in 2019: Forest facts Formed: 1865 Stadium: City Ground Nickname: Forest, The Reds Manager: Steve Cooper A really good watch is “I believe in miracles” on Netflix which tells the story of their rise from the second division to the then first division under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor - followed by two consecutive European Cups in 1979 and 1980. Some great interviews with the players then and now. The man in charge today is Darren Bond who took up the whistle at 15, he progressed to the Select Group 2 referees list in 2016, having over 20 years of refereeing experience, which includes a year as an assistant referee in the Premier League. He made his EFL Championship debut in February 2013, taking charge of the Millwall v Peterborough United game. Despite his experience he has a Facebook page entitled Darren Bond is the worst Football League referee! https://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/category/Public-Figure/Darren-Bond-is-the-worst-Football-League-referee-1716815508590411/ Nottingham nonsense Two anti-pain devices, ibuprofen and shin-pads were both invented in Nottingham. The world’s oldest guinea pig, Snowball, died in Nottingham in 1979. He was aged 14 years and 10 months. The Great Nottingham Cheese Riot took place in 1764 over the price of food. There are over 700 caves under the streets of Nottingham. The man who was in charge of cataloguing them had to have confined-space training before he could do the job. He's called Dave Strange-Walker. The Nottingham Inclosure Act of 1845 made it illegal for people to rent out caves in Nottingham. The law is still in force. PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals - tried to get Nottingham to change its name to 'Not-Eating-Ham'. In the 1950s David Frost was once offered a contract to play for Forest but said no because the maximum wage was £15 a week. Every single Bramley apple is descended from the same tree in a Nottinghamshire garden in Southwell. Pubs and grub If you are looking for somewhere to drink prior to the game, there are a variety of pubs close to the City Ground but only one regularly welcomes away supporters, which is the Broken Wheelbarrow pub. This is located at Notts County FC’s Meadow Lane Stadium. It is less than a 10-minute walk from the City Ground and offers all pints at the price of £4. Otherwise, it is suggested to head to the City Centre to find an away-friendly place to drink. Broken Wheelbarrow, Meadow Lane, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG2 3HJ Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Brewhouse Yard, Nottingham NG1 6AD https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/pubs/nottinghamshire/ye-olde-trip-to-jerusalem/?utm_source=g_places&utm_medium=locations&utm_campaign= The Nottingham Britannia Club, Trentside North, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 5FA http://the-brit.org Larwood and Voce, Fox Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 6AJ https://www.larwoodandvoce.co.uk Stratford Haven, 2 Stratford Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 6BA https://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/pubs/stratford-haven/ Best chippy is an eight minute drive from the ground the Oakdale Chippy, 106 Oakdale Road, Nottingham NG3 7EH https://oakdale-fish-bar.business.site Nawaab Saab is a very decent Indian restaurant which is about a 20 minute drive from the ground, well worth finding, Smithys, 4 Nottingham Road, Nutall, Nottingham, NG16 1DP https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186356-d14077462-Reviews-Nawaab_Saab-Nottingham_Nottinghamshire_England.html + https://www.nawaabsaab.co.uk Here’s to another good City performance and three points. Wherever you are supporting the Robins today enjoy the game and stay safe. COYR.

Absofreakinlutely. Russia is already a plague on sport with it’s organised doping programmes now the madman invades a brother country. How can anybody possibly condone playing a sport with them?

Unfortunately it will do quite the opposite as he will just delight in the lack of action being taken against him and his regime. Understand it’s not ‘fair’ on the sports people themselves but sanctions of all sorts need to be taken against this regime, including sporting.

Why not boil your piss in his work mug. That'll teach him.

Pearson’s lack of loans is easy to understand in my opinion. He is trying to build a long term side and squad. There is no point in doing that with loan players who won’t be here next season. If we had a better squad and were pushing for play offs then I think he would get a loan or two to make us stronger and hopefully get us over the line. There was no point this season in getting a loan or two and finish 12th instead of 16th. What’s the point ? Waste of money and resources. The only benefit would be to make the fans feel a bit better. It’s a long term strategy and loans by definition are short term

Yes, big deflection….did you watch it on the wireless? ?

Matty James on the bench?

Do we all have to get your permission to find if a topic is acceptable or no? Like the ******* gestapo

A lot of people complaining about Bentley, it took a deflection and he's made 3 big saves already. We could realistically be 4-0 down going in at half time had it not been for his reflexes.

What I find weird Is that in 50% of the matches City look like a good team that’s developing, but in the other 50% City look like a team heading for relegation. I know young players can be inconsistent, but City has a few very experienced players who can’t play well for two matches in a row.

Played them off the park just really unlucky- crap ref and parachute payments

Feels like you’re jumping on a defeat to have a dig, with an argument that you could’ve last week, but because we won, you couldn’t make it. Would give you more credit if you’d made the argument in the last week, and had courage in your conviction / logic. Instead you just wait for a defeat. We are trying to “get by”, it’s sub-optimal….shit happens. I’m happy to be patient. I’m happy to accept sub-optimal / inconsistency at this point of the rebuild. Fine if you aren’t.

You want my reason we have no Plan B, it's not actually Pearson but the players we have. I don't think Danny Simpson was ever a player he wanted, I think that was down to the club and just so we could say "we have a right back", the truth is we have no right back nor anyone who has any real natural ability there. DaSilva is a quality player but the fact is that he's not a right back/ wing back which means as we play our 3-5-2 full counter tactics when it doesn't work we cannot switch to 4 at the back without putting someone out of position. The purpose of a plan B is to be able to switch the style of play to better suit our strengths against the opposition but without that right back we'd only be putting square pegs in round holes. The real test for Pearson IMO is when we have a squad capable of being able to play more than one type of football, the fact that we've progressed on the pitch is a credit to Pearson, the defensive awfulness comes down to always having to play 3 at the back as even the best teams in the world struggle to make 3 at the back work, especially when you've been playing it for so long and opposition managers know how to play against it. It's at this point you'd say "well that's down to the manager" but as I mentioned, we don't have that right back to play a "normal" back 4. If you're forced into playing with a back 3 then you need to have a very strong midfield both physically and mentally but we've got a midfield mostly comprised of younger players who are still learning. Ultimately we can't really switch to playing 4 at the back until we have a consistent and natural right back which limits almost every formation that you can play short of playing a flat back 5 which requires creativity throughout the midfield, which again, we don't have. I think Pearsons goal this season was simply to improve our 3-5-2 counter attack tactic whilst keeping us out of a relegation battle so that we can get a right back and develop more tactical options over the pre-season. If we can in a good right back and maybe add a few calmer, experienced players over the preseason and then develop a tactic to slowly build up our attacks with 4 at the back in the pre-season we'd go into next season with a lot more tactical options, depth and composure. If we enter the next season with still only a single game plan then my opinion on Pearson may very well change but for now I think it's a case of him trying to make the most of the tools he has been given.

Those five thousand face fifteen years in prison just for the protest. These people are extremely brave and have no desire to send their sons, husbands or fathers to war to satisfy the megalomaniac in the Kremlin. Will Putin risk his life for mother Russia ? will he **** as like.

Not naive. I understand your point though but if the Russian football team want to play in Europe then surely this will be a negative impact on Putin. The issue is Putin and not Russia

If there is to be any chance of a revolution from below, i.e. from the people, then yet another sporting frustration after losing the Champions League Final, the Grand Prix and now, potentially, the possibility of competing in the World Cup can only help. And, for goodness sake, whilst recognising their may be some Russian athletes who don’t use PEDs, let’s bring an end to this farce of letting Russia compete as ROC.

If Russia are suspended from all sporting events then it’s the Russian people that miss out and that might help for them to rebel against his regime - who knows?

I'm still amazed this question literally pops up for every game now I'd have thought every one would know how to check for themselves by now

Disappointing to lose today but City are now 14 points off the top six and 17 points above the drop zone so are comfortably in mid table and that’s pretty much where many of us were predicting where City would end this campaign, given the three seasons Nige has undertaken. Another couple of wins should see us finish the season comfortably placed and imo Nige will have done as well as expected - especially so with the loss of senior players through various injuries over the season. In fact I don’t think that Nige has been able to select his best 11 at anytime. The positives are clear to all - the emergence of the likes of Semenyo, HNM, Scott, Pring and Bell all suggest a better season lies up ahead. No doubt we’ll lose one or possibly two this summer to balance the books just as we’ve seen plenty of times before and personally I’m not too concerned, it’s the way it is the football world after all.

Thanks…Which is pretty much what Nige has said. There is no “abhorrence” to loans, just him / RG trying to run to a budget, not break FFP and build something that is “ours”. Go back a few years, we loaned 3 Chelsea players at high cost, then had to buy them to “stand still”. Why isn’t the rhetoric - “haven’t we done well to be safe without having to resort to loans which would constrain next season’s budget”. But we want it all and we want it now….sod the financial repercussions of choosing that option!

The latitude Pearson gets ain’t down to anybody on here, more a case of Steve Lansdown’s pocket. He did say a it would take a number of transfer windows but presumably you don’t have the bollocks for it?

Complete ban on all sports for Russia and totally isolate them. Putin may not be bothered but the Russian people will and hopefully take to the streets and put pressure on to force a regime change

I wonder if the players will now take the knee for Ukrainian lives matter?

The club have actually done a lyric video… I’m willing to bet they don’t do the same for “City boys are on a bender…”

The Messiah said the first goal was a deflection in his post-match interview. Was it? I’ve watched it back about ten times and I just can’t see one. It looked like a really really poor piece of goalkeeping from DB who otherwise made some excellent saves. It looked the softest goal imaginable, which is very unlike us. That apart, it was a 2-0 thrashing.

Paul Ince working his magic then. Keeps on complaining that certain factors means that he is overlooked for jobs, but fails to realise that he is just shit in management.

Massive deflection he had no chance and has made 3 great saves.

Applause for Ukraine at Forest today. They have a large Ukranian community. Hope our fans join in

The Czech Republic and Sweden, the winners of whom will now play Russia in the playoff final, are also apparently in talks to agree to refuse to play them as well. Let’s hope that common sense will prevail and Russia are expelled from the tournament by UEFA who are responsible for running the playoffs.

Why?. It is Putin that is the issue and not the majority of Russians or there football clubs. My opinion is if the Russian football teams are willing to travel then lets play. Why should the world wide greatest sport be a pawn in a chess game with an idiot like Putin.

From Scott's penalty appeal to the clear handball for the winner, that home game was a great example of how a referee's performance can actually decide the outcome of a game.

Played for the move, got the move, then sat on his wallet (and chips) and coasted for most of the rest of the time he was here.

Bentley has been the best player for us this half. Without him today this game would already be over. Would be 3or 4 already.

Can't take a city seriously where men say "aye up, me duck". Woss reckon, me babbers?

What do we reckon: Bentley Dasilva | Kalas | Klose | Pring Williams Scott | Massengo Weimann Semenyo | Martin (Bell and Benarous dropping out)

How will Ukranian sportsmen and women feel if they have to compete against russian teams or competitors? I think we should be banning Russia from all sports in solidarity but it would be interesting to hear their views. I saw a tennis player saying today he will be going back home and joining the militia. If that is any indication we should be 100% behind a ban. Allowing them into the olympics as ROC was a joke.

%100 YES Russia needs to be made a complete pariah state , in every single way, frozen out from the civilised world

He’s not very photogenic now is he ?