firstdivision

Very ballsy decision that with quite a lot of fans supporting him. I’ll still be supporting the club though and paying to watch. Won’t be demonstrating either. Managers come and go. My hope is that we can find one that can encourage us to play some attractive football, maybe even pass to one another rather than lumping it up the field to 5’10 strikers. SL left us short this season. No doubt. Had to spend some of the Scott money on a central defender and a midfield player. So it’s a very tough decision, but football is a ruthless business. I remember the reaction when Brighton sacked Chris Hughton… On we go - things might even improve.

I don't think many of us expected to get anything today. I certainly didn't. It was an absolutely dire game, though. Boring as hell. Cardiff chased and harried effectively. I didn't think we'd score if we played all night. We tried hard, but we displayed a huge lack of quality. I thought we looked like a solid league one team playing in a cup match - no surprise with the injuries. But a general point: 'we'll outrun the opposition' is not going to cut it. We need more than that as a playing philosophy when/if we get players back.

I've seen it back a couple of times. No way a penalty. He falls over his own feet, aided by standing on the ball. Lacked balance and conviction. A cannier, older pro would have got a pen there, or scored.

Spot on.

I’m so disappointed by this news. His post-match interviews used to brighten up my weekend, especially if we’d lost.

I think he was being ironic, the point being we hardly tore up the league before the injuries. See our home form. But like you, It seems obvious to me that if we play a high intensity game, we’re likely get more injuries. That’s why we needed a bigger squad. We are at least two decent players light. To have Andy King playing centre back again within three months of the season starting is simply ludicrous. It drove me mad when we were forced to play him there last season and now it’s happened again. Also, when you have a small squad, you can’t afford to get too many signings wrong, eg Roberts, Mehmeti, Cornick. And McCrorie is the unfortunate one. 4/7 of this year’s signings are not working.

Yes, it wasn’t just Max’s error. The tracking of Broadhead was non existent. Pathetic actually.

I thought Leeds were the best or marginally the second best team we’ve played this season. Our only threat really was from corners. In forwards areas, Leeds ran with purpose, passed it well, and looked a consistent threat. No disgrace to lose to them but again it shows the level we are at. We might have pinched a point with that header (cleared off the line) but it would have been sunlight robbery.

Let’s be fair, they’re significantly better than us (whatever the reasons). Makes it easier for them when you hand them a goal though. Don’t know why we don’t just kick it in our own net sometimes. Had 3-0 written all over it. But that’s football.

A night of profuse swearing ending with a moment of glorious quality. I think that’s about it.

Yes, one of those days, Dave. Imagine if we’d played like Stoke, and Stoke had played like us. We’d all being saying ‘great win but not quite sure how we got away with that.’ Even so, desperately frustrating. I couldn’t help feeling that a good Championship side would have put Stoke away no trouble at all (especially from where we were after 15 minutes).

True, Dave, you might not have to be as good as Leicester to get promotion. But I feel you need to be at a certain level and we are not close enough yet. Not that I expected us to be. I just expected us to improve on last season. And I think we will, unless we have significant injuries.

For me, ‘deserved to win’ is the most meaningless phrase in football. You can ‘play well’ (nice passing, possession, a few chances) but only one thing matters. That night against Norwich, we gave them two goals (what do you ‘deserve’ for that?) and we barely threatened to score after it went to 3-1. Antoine popped up with a goal but that apart they held us at arms’ length. Attractive, entertaining match and all but…we lost. There’s a difference between playing well and deserving something. I tend to largely focus on how many times you can get the ball over their line compared to how many times they get the ball over ours when it comes to deserving to win.

I thought we looked a fairly limited, albeit hard-working, team that didn’t have the confidence to pass the ball and retain possession. Lots of long ball in the hope that are runners could get on the end of it. Spent most of the match defending. Rarely looked like scoring. Ordinary final ball. I was interested to note their manager thought they’d played a perfect match. Controlled the game. Did what they had to. Thanks for coming. The reaction from our fans has reminded me of Norwich away last season when we played sort of ok but still lost. Underline lost. Leicester did what they needed to. Their goal felt as inevitable as the sun rising. Our failure to score felt as inevitable as the sun setting. The match, for me, showed the distance we still have to go.

Yes, Dave. His best display for us by a long way. Looked a different player today. I thought Swansea were so poor though. They simply didn't work hard enough to close space. No energy or drive. Not that I care. I hope everyone plays like that against us. My only slight regret is that we didn't win 6-1. In the first half, I thought us poor saints must have run over a black cat. But that was a different game, where the Black Cats ran over the Saints.

From memory, John Galley scored in a 1-0 win over Sunderland for our first home win that season in December. Slid in at the back post at the Open End. I can still recall the relief. NB - just checked it. It was 25 November.

'So you are happy with that?' Ah, that's a different point. No, I'm a little frustrated, but I have been for many many months of the 52 years I've been a supporter. It was just that you brought up the historical context so I thought you might, on the off chance, like to see some facts to consider to go along with your opinion. I was merely pointing out that the SL's years compare extremely favourably with what we've achieved in our history. (Btw, my post should have read 'second most successful period...in over a hundred years' btw.' Apologies. It was a typo.

We've spent 14 of the last 16 seasons in the Championship, which compares very favourably with our history. From 1965-1981 we were in the top two divisions all the time. Before that, you have to go back to the period before and after the First World War to find a better run than now. So basically, this is our best consistent spell in terms of which division we are in for over a hundred years. The things history teaches us, eh?

Their bloke just fell over following a normal aerial challenge at the Holt End. It was cheating and the referee went for it. It was pathetic.

That penalty at Villa was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen given against us. It actually looked more than simply a poor refereeing decision.

'Bored' hits the nail on the head. I thought the atmosphere before the Preston game was great. Then, absolutely nothing to get excited about for 42 minutes (until Sam missed his chance). I can't remember a home game like this. We were all sitting there thinking 'really? Is this seriously it?' Then it happened again, but worse, last Saturday. I suppose that's what happens when you sell Antoine and AS, and TC is injured, and the players you bring you in are limited willing runners. Room for improvement...and a little bit of excitement. Please.

So three of the top seven, not five, Nick, for Lee. I somehow overlooked those two seasons for Gary - still getting over the disappointment of Wembley.

Under Lee Johnson, Bristol City finished in three of their five highest league positions since 1980. 8th in the Championship (2018-19), 11th (2017-18) and 12th (2018-19) Also in the top five: Gary Johnson - 4th in the Championship 2007-08, Jimmy Lumsden 9th in the 'Championship' 1990-91.

I listened to the whole press conference, Dave, because a lot of people said he was tetchy etc and there’s something up with him and Uncle Steve. I didn’t necessarily think so. I’ve heard him do much tetchier ones. He must have agreed the wage restraint - after all, he criticised our mad spending during previous regimes. He must have been frustrated by the sale of AS because, like all of us, he knows we have a better chance with him than without him. But he also must have known he wouldn’t get stacks of the AS cash - that’s why made the comment about AS’ wages before he was sold. What I do know is that the biggest metric for success is spending on wages. And we’re doing it much cheaper now it would seem. Not sure how it compares with other Championship clubs. More than some but less than others?

I think you should pick the team, Dave. We are lightweight with the current structure - and without Tommy C. I would like to have seen Mehmeti, Conway, Bell. I wonder if he’ll get there eventually (quite a while now with TC’s injury), just like he got to Cam Pring eventually, and a back four eventually. I don’t mind your idea of Mehmeti in the 10 role either. God, I miss Antoine. And AS. And TC.