ralphindevon

Not recently but I’ve done exactly the same before and was surprised when I couldn’t pick it up on the Saturday having ordered in the previous week.

 Not wanting to derail the thread but I thought the ‘74 anniversary shirts would be ready for collection now, anyone know?

40 minutes ago, reddoc said:

My dentist is a Stoke fan and he knows I'm City. I'm scared enough of dentists as it is.

My wife is a Stoke fan, I’m scared too.

4 minutes ago, Tim Monaghan said:

Something isn’t right about these stats :

Maybe penalties don’t count as shots?

That was good!

I’m enjoying these clean sheets and now goals galore. Also enjoying see a city team not putting their flip flops on just because we’re safe.

Missing tonight’s game as I didn’t feel up to it after having to get our 21 year old cat put to sleep this afternoon but that has cheered me up.

Blackburn have looked so poor at the back and we should be 4 up but still very enjoyable. 

Tommy won’t get an easier chance of a first half hat trick 

1 minute ago, GrahamC said:

If it was, he wouldn’t have started at Gillingham or ever played for us.

Very true and something some of our fans should remember. Like the critics of O’Leary, if this keeper that’s better than max that doesn’t make mistakes exists, he’s hardly gonna be demanding a move to Ashton Gate. 

7 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

There is only one game that springs to mind for me when playing Blackburn. First game back in the old Division 2 after the 1990 promotion. Blackburn seemed a tough ask, packed Ashton Gate, 4-2 win with Bob scoring two. All looked so bright and then bloody Hearts came along.

(Btw for those of you who didn’t see Dave Smith in action check the fourth goal. Try keeping up with that)

 

Smith was like lightning, sadly the end product wasn’t always to that standard 

13 minutes ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

Well, 7th March….0-0 away to Huddersfield.

But that wasn’t ‘mathematically’ safe at that time, in hindsight we now know that it was but that’s not what we’re talking about. I don’t think people were too worried last season as our performances and results improved consistently from Jan onwards. Something that can’t be said this season.

It wasn’t until our 2-0 defeat at Watford that other results meant that we couldn’t possibly go down no matter how the rest of the season panned out.

With enough games left in the season, teams below you is irrelevant as is bookies odds. I personally only felt really concerned when the results started coming in later in the afternoon after our defeat to Cardiff. Even then I knew we had plenty of time to sort it out even if performances weren’t promising.

Either way Im happy we’ve avoided the embarrassment of relegation this season and I hope LM can prove me wrong next season.

 

Yes I wasn’t criticising your post just looking at it from a different view which may have been quite surprising to some. I do make it the 25th of February with a 1-0 win over Hull though.

I think it’s the first time in my 48 years of supporting City that we’ve had such a long period of mid table finishes. There was a time when I craved it, especially in the Championship, now I’m getting a little bit bored of it but be careful what you wish for I suppose.

10 minutes ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

Just saying…

We achieved mathematical safety last season on April 15th, game 42 of the season.

Tomorrow is game 42 of this season.

 

 

Last season we actually had enough points, 45, by the end of February, game 34 I think, but still people were worrying right into April.

it’s not just points ahead of the team 3rd from bottom to look at but also how many teams lie between you and them, they’re not all going to win every game while we lose every game.

I’ve not been concerned at all this season, even at the end of the bad run we always had quite a few teams below us. 

42 minutes ago, Gimme Shelton said:

Days/evenings like these are rare for most supporters unless you live in Manchester or Liverpool. My son's first season ticket season was 97/98,I warned him 'its not usually like this,you know' !

Yeah maybe it’s the same for most fans but it does feel we have fewer big occasion matches than others.

If you’re forever in mid table that’ll be the way I suppose. Look at Rotherham, they get regular promotion seasons but of course have to put up with relegation seasons to get that.

But you only have to look at the fact 50 teams have played premier league football and we, with our nice ground and over 20,000 ave attendance aren’t one of them. 

It’s memories like this that make you realise just how few great moments we have as City fans.

That was a truly great evening, beating our local rivals after what had gone on earlier in the season, a comprehensive win and a general feeling that there would be no stopping us winning the league.

It just feels like days/evenings like that are very few and far between for us. 

Spoke to a few Plymouth fans in the pub on Monday before the game and they were all very keen to get Nige onboard. 

48 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Cheeky, you.

I was about to like that post until I read the last five words! 

Back to L1 for the janners please!

I’m home from an away day earlier than I am for a home game and with Torquay almost in the same league as Bristol Manor Farm we need all we can get.

And we’ve done the double on them and I had a gorgeous pasty! 

A lovely day out in Devon.

Great to see us beat a poor team, Plymouth didn’t look anywhere near the goal threat they looked at Ashton Gate. Even though they lost that 4-1 they came very close a number of times that night. Today they never looked like scoring. Hope they stay up though. 

Once again a lesson for all those quick to write off that what you see when a player has a bad game isn’t necessarily what you’ll get going forward. These players train full time and there’s every chance they’ll improve.

I guess we should say the same about the Manning too, I’m sure during those dreadful games he wasn’t thinking this is fine, surely he was looking for ways to Improve and this weekend we have.

I’m not saying he the messiah all of a sudden but we’re stuck with him at least until at least Christmas I’d guess, so here’s hoping. 

The shortest I’ve had to travel for a City game since I lived in Bristol 21 years ago. When the fixtures came out I was hoping we’d still have a chance of getting in the playoffs when we visited Plymouth. Looking forward to it anyway.

A draw, probably 1-1.

21 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

The Britannia`s still there - it`s a Wetherspoons now.

Yes that’s where we’ll be heading

1 hour ago, TV Tom said:

See you in the penny-come-quick 

Crikey, I’d forgotten about that place. A search shows it  closed 18 years ago and is now student accommodation.

1 hour ago, redkev said:

Do they still dislike us down there Ralph when I use to go down there as a young un it was always pretty lively , quite a lot of animosity towards us bit like Swindon do 

Certainly the fans I know that are around my age don’t have a problem with us at all but it wouldn’t surprise me if the younger fans from both sides had a little scuffle in the park at some point. 

1 hour ago, Mike Stone said:

He maybe averaging himself out a bit with us now Ralph but dear god hes had a few shockers down here.

Yes he’s been a right pain in the arse at times over the years but sadly there’s plenty of competition right now for being the worse. 

His appointment to our games always seems to get it’s own thread but I don’t think he’s been the worse ref in recent years, not even close.

Not a season he’ll look back with much fondness, it could have been different.

Two attempts he’d expect to normally take, one late in extra time to beat Forest setting up a home tie v Man Utd next and one which would have surely seen us go on to beat Ipswich which would have had Manning and Tinnion purring about it until Christmas.

3 hours ago, Bristol Oil Services said:

Cheers, mate. Where were you with all this 39 years ago (yesterday)? What would you advise if they slow the thing up to a crawl on its approach into the station and then they don’t want to let us get off and get to the game, and put a chopper up overhead?

Crikey! 39 years?

Good Friday 2022 Stoke 0 City 1

Good Friday 2023 Stoke 1 City 2

Good Friday 2024 Vale 2 Gas 0

If only every day could be Good Friday in Stoke on Trent.