beaverface

Just thought I'd provide a little balance with regards to the City vs Rovers comments.

For perspective, in the 1980's we were unbeaten in 11 matches, compared to Rovers being unbeaten in 15 matches. 

However, moving into the more recent 1990's, City were unbeaten in 12 matches, compared to Rovers being unbeaten in 9 matches.

We did however win MORE matches against Rovers in the 1990's compared to how many times they beat us in the 1980's

Now that.............was a nice kit 

17 minutes ago, The Bard said:

My fear is that they panic and waste the Scott money in late January with our first Overpaid bluffer signing since Johnson's era. 

Be interesting to see if they break the wage structure that NP established just to save face 

3 minutes ago, AppyDAZE said:

Any idea why JL would call himself the Spaniard?

Because everyone keeps telling him his name is Juan Kerr!

I wonder if the senior exec who criticised NP for picking Andy King will be critical of the team selected and the 2nd Round of subs made tonight??

37 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

... the nest egg will be used in Jan to save face.  This was all so avoidable. 

I posted several weeks ago about the club going down the "rinse and repeat scenario" again, whereby we recruit players for big money, on large and long contracts.

I can see a situation where we blow the nest egg, hit the limit on wages, and find ourselves up the river when they realise Manning isn't up for it!!

I want Manning to succeed, I really do, but I don't want to be having to go through another 3 years of cutting our cloth to balance the books again  

13 hours ago, pongo88 said:

What about Terry Cooper? He had a fantastic career for  Leeds and England before becoming City’s manager.  (I’ll ignore his brief spell at Eastville). Although his time managing City was in the 4th and 3rd division what he achieved, in the dire circumstances of those times, was amazing 

Mentioning TC got me thinking that some managers are better when it's an "us against the World mentality". Back then TC didn't have a pot to pee in, and everything he did was based on squeezing every last drop of something out of a situation or player. Every penny counted.

I thought LJ out stayed his time with us eventually, but when we had players missing through suspension\injury, the players he made do with seemed to galvanise the team, and provided some of the best football under him at that time.

Likewise, (I think) something similar with Lampard at Chelsea when he had to rely on the players in his squad and couldn't make signings.

NP got on with the job in hand also, and never moaned about things publicly. I thought he did a great job considering.

Sometimes adversity really makes a player, team and manager, and creates that stubborn\can do attitude.

In my eyes, it all boils down to what constitutes a challenge.

If the striker was attempting to get the ball off of the keeper, IMO that's a challenge. If the striker touches the keeper, but isn't trying to get the ball, then that's not a challenge, and not a foul either (dependent on severity)

A lot of people forget that you can touch someone in football and not commit a foul, and that's what annoys the hell out of me with some VAR penalties, with all the ex-professionals saying things like "he got the player before the ball" - so what !!! Touching someone doesn't make it a foul, football isn't non-contact.

It's no different than two midfielders jockeying with each other in the middle of the field whilst they wait for for a keeper to kick the ball from his hands. They're not challenging each other for the ball, and I do believe football isn't a non-contact sport, therefore unless one of those players is using excessive force, it's not a foul. Same applies to the keeper in this instance.

TBH, if this happened against us this evening, I'd be livid. Probably more so with our goalkeeper going to ground trying to make a meal of it. Let's be honest, keepers are some of the biggest players in the team and have no need to go to ground when brushed.

I didn't catch it very clearly on the radio as there was chatter in the car, but when LM was asked about TGH strike, he didn't seem overly enthused, and almost seemed to change the subject to it being a team game and being about principles rather than talk much about the goal\TGH.

Did I get that wrong? Like I say, I didn't hear it too clearly.

I seem to recall having a cracking day out on the 3rd May 2014 at Crawley. Not quite sure why I enjoyed it so much, it may have been their hospitable clubhouse that I went in before the game

I was rather hoping they'd show the City fans in this video. It was pre-Hillsborough, and one of the most packed I've ever been on some terracing.

I think we had a very slight chance of making the play offs IF all the results went for us that day. As it happens, they didn't, but a great day out nevertheless.

https://youtu.be/Evkj2QVjT14

39 minutes ago, supercidered said:

The Vetch for me.

They had broken glass set in the cement on top of the walls. To keep people in !!!

Pretty sure Barnsley's stand might have the same !

24 minutes ago, glastored said:

I remember going to Huddersfield’s old Leeds Road ground in the Sixties and recall that the toilet consisted of a single wall painted black, open to view!

Not far off the old East End toilets at Ashton Gate then !

I agree with a fair few of the comments already. I think Leicester, Derby, Brentford in their old grounds were always good - probably due to our results rather than the grounds themselves

However, I also liked a few of these others (pre-development) where we had good results on the day, but stood on cold, crumbling, dilapidated terracing - but you could sense the history of the club, but due to low crowds when playing us, felt like the stadiums belonged in a bygone era: Barnsley, Blackpool, Wolves, Watford, Millwall, Portsmouth, Newcastle(Keegans first game as manager was brilliant) - but all would've been rocking when full to the brim.

I would've loved to have gone to Stokes, Huddersfield, Boltons, Charltons grounds when at the height of their full terracing. Unfortunately, I've only ever done their new builds

11 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

I reffed a game for one of our U11 teams yesterday - was more of a “development” level and you can’t help but see the difference - it’s part age and part level. Even though it’s only a year from where we play, the intensity and pressure is far less - and the kids were far more polite. 

Theres definitely a difference between - not even HML and AYL - but moreso the top 3 -4 divisions and the bottom 3-4. I think at the lower levels you tend to get more kids (and managers) playing for the love of football. At our level, it is more intense and you do end up with more coaches and players who are “win at all costs”. That leads into worse behaviour to officials from players and coaches alike, which is a shame.

But if any of our lot ever get done for dissent, then I don’t think I’ll ever be more disappointed. It’s not how you do things.

The age I coach at, we've had 4 teams at the same age level for a number of years all moving up year after year, and you can pretty much guarantee that in all that time, the teams we've played in the lower divisions contained some really nice players and parents, and then the higher you go up the divisions, and the higher the standard, the worse they become.

I don't know if the players become more strong willed, or have win at all cost mentality? But the intensity is definitely there.

One thing I have noticed, is that the lower down the leagues you go, the players tend to have multiple interests. So you'll have players who are into climbing, cricket, athletics, kick-boxing, BMXing. Basically other interests outside of football, whereas the top divisions, have players who are pretty much focused on football and football only. I'm also aware of some teams who won't have players play for them, unless they play for a County side also.

39 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

Thought this might refer to us and our penalty conspiracy but it doesn't line up with when we were sponsored by that random betting firm!

But seriously.....

As a coach at grassroots level, I get really disappointed to see the stuff that goes on, and some of that comes from the opposition coaches!  @Silvio Dante and I teach the kids to respect the referee and hush them up if they start moaning at them.  Naturally we call for decisions, but that's it.  If it's not given it's not given.  No amount of bitching is going to change their minds.  Many of these referees are kids themselves and the stick they get is awful, especially given their age.  As other coaches on here will know, parents tend to mysteriously get a phone call when we head in their general direction with a flag, leaving us to run the line.  This exposes us to the parents of both teams for one half.  Several times I've turned around to parents to tell them to get off the referees back unless they want to pick up a whistle themselves, but that shouldn't be necessary.

One match this season, the opposition players (under 12's, mind!) were bitching and moaning all through the match, but you could see exactly where they were getting it from as the coaches were doing the same, often straying 5/10 yards onto the pitch to remonstrate a decision.  Change needs to happen across all levels and all types of participant though whether it be coaches, players or spectators.

As an addendum and bit of advice to other coaches, we seem to have finally cracked the flag duties problem, by asking for two volunteers to do a half each on rotation.  When they know they can concentrate on what their kids are doing for half the match it makes them far more agreeable to doing it every few matches. The hypocrisy is not lost on me though that Silv & I can't solely focus on our own kids at all because we're keeping an eye of all of their kids as a team, but we'll take the win where we can!

I've had parents refuse to run the line because, in their words, they don't understand the rules of the game, and yet they're more than happy to complain to me about why x is playing instead of their son, any why is so in so in that position over their son. Some parents definitely put their children on pedestals !!

8 minutes ago, CodeRed said:

13 out of 15, the 2 overseas grounds Schalke and the Calderon stumped me!  slight guess on Ninian Park as I don't ever remember it being open terrace like that picture but the shirts helped and by elimination it couldn't be the others.

 

Here's another old lost ground, picture taken in 1929 and it staged league football until 2005 (redeveloped obviously) when the club moved to a new stadium. which club?

 

Swansea?

16 hours ago, TV Tom said:

In the very unlikely event that i was to take drugs into a football ground the drugs would be inside my pants and not my wallet !!! 

Brings a whole different context of "doing some shit" !!

If I asked someone which road they lived on, and they said the top end of "blah blah lane", I wouldn't expect to travel halfway along that road to get to their house.

If I offered someone a bite out the top end of my chocolate bar, I wouldn't expect them to guzzle down half the bar!

If a Chairman of a football club said he expects to be challenging at the top end of the division, then finishing in the top "half" wouldn't be the top end either IMO.

Top end means the end of the measure, or in football terms, the top 6 six places of the division. If your team is a just a few points outside of the top 6 with only a 3rd of the season gone, I'd say that a team in and around ~8th position would constitute challenging the top end - and it's at this point NP was let go.

As has been said many times, the hierarchy at Bristol City have now set expectations for the season, and should be held accountable for their actions.

Without stating the obvious, isn't this football in a nutshell?

Coaches and managers are always trying to find that perfect balance between scoring enough goals, and keeping the goals out.

Generally, coaches say it's quite easy to set teams up to be really tight, but that's at the expense of not scoring enough, and conversely, you can also set your team up to be too gung ho, and attempt to out score the opposition.

Ultimately, teams get relegated when they can't do either of those things correctly.

Just now, Phileas Fogg said:

Well, if it’s good enough for @BendSinister86 it’s good enough for me - who could it be!

The weird thing is, even in a total fantasy, I cannot think of a candidate that I'd find exciting??!

Keegan, Dalglish, umm, Pep? Can't think of any others

Unless it's a player manager, like Ronaldo !

"Gonna need 6 transfer windows to sort out this mess" !!

2 hours ago, Selred said:

To be fair, Sheff Weds CB's are VERY quick.

I did like the look of Wednesday's number 5, Diaby I think it was. Tall, strong, powerful, and fast.

4 hours ago, Ian M said:

Given we are going up this season it should be a nice simple E I E I E I O with Pearson is our king at the end?

I think a lot of posts on this thread have got it wrong!

We're clearly going up with the squad we've got and now that we've got rid of Nige, therefore we should sing "we are going up" regardless of what the score is !!

Time for the board to live and die by their sword!

1 hour ago, Alessandro said:

Slightly paraphrased but main takeaways:

• Players and staff in shock
• Knock on to 30 or 40 people, other employees, when a manager goes - not just one person is sacked.
• Nige will be back and they will work together again
• David Rennie one of the best in the business and has done a fantastic job
• 2 wins in next 2 games and table would have/will look very different
• 4 weeks time and the conversations over injuries would be very different - i.e many are returning over next 4 games or so, already 3 back in contention for Saturday
• His focus is on Saturday and that's it - focus is on the boys(players) - absolutely no conversation about putting name in the hat
• Talked a bit about Nige's achievements and legacy - culture installed and proud of what they've done here.
• Sad to be leaving, it's a great club, who wouldn't be sad

He also mentioned that the lads always train for several months and then have a break during the International break, and that's happened several times during the last 2.5 years. Basically justifying what DR and JE did.