Bedred31

Either side will nick this- hope to God it’s us. 97th minutes fine by me.

Drive past the old R&D ground regularly. It’s a real shocker. Was a small but tidy stadium- bit like a smaller version of Brentford’s new ground. Now completely levelled waste ground.

The old Wembley was rubbish really- until Euro 96 when they removed the fences and it was a completely different place. Forgot to mention the old Shrewsbury ground (wife from there and got married at Meole Brace), with the chap in a boat picking the ball out of the Severn.

Daughter went to uni in Leicester. Moving in day a temporary car park was set up on a piece of waste ground. Lugging a box into the hall of residence I saw a tiny road sign saying Filbert St. Car park guy confirmed it was the site of the old ground. Showed me a bit of turnstile left in a blackberry bush. Really weird- and looking around, I could literally see the ghosts of that FA cup win.

Live the dream and move to Bournemouth’s bench.

I’ve sat in the front row of the upper tier at Wembley and it was bloody terrifying. Surprised this doesn’t happen more often. Hope the lads ok and wish him a full recovery.

Are they prepared to subsidise losses of £20m pa at a pretty average mid-table Championship club?

I was at the game at the Gate when he was injured and the ambulance drove onto the pitch. Seems like yesterday. Astonishing player- sad news. Rest in peace, Stan.

He’s Bristol footballs Steve Borthwick. God, what a depressing day.

Promotion would decide all their futures, as none of this bunch are really good enough for the prem. Which seems something of a disincentive for a mid table + squad.

‘Surrender’- Cheap Trick

Manning’s obviously got something about him- the Southampton performance wasn’t an accident- but I’m struggling to lose the sense that he’s a very good League 1 manager whose building a good League 1 side by recruiting solid/promising League 1 players. He’s clearly adjusting to the Championship but may run out of runway before we get airborne.

Now 30/70. How do you lead on goals, shots and corners on 30% possession!

Penalty shootout’s never going to favour a side that never gets awarded a penalty.

I parked at County for Forest years ago. Looks next door but there’s a gert river in the way, and I seem to recall a longish walk to get to a bridge? Seemed quite a bit longer than the advertised 5-10 mins walk?

Fairly ambivalent about promotion to the prem, to be honest, particularly if it comes via a late push to 6th and success via the playoffs. I can’t think of a single member of the current squad that you could say with any real confidence would be a solid top flight player. Doing a Florist and buying 45 new players in the close season doesn’t really appeal.(In that great 1976 game at Arsenal that another poster mentioned, City started with the same 11 that had one promotion. And yes, we had to strengthen and certainly it was a struggle, but it was a happier experience than now). Sure, if we got auto with a solid spine and high confidence, but Burnley did that last year and have been rank this season. As an older man, wins/good football makes me happy, while defeats/bad football makes me miserable at 5pm on a Saturday. After the last 3-4 years, my main ambition is simply to experience more of the former than the latter.

And wasn’t that bit of the Clock End for Arsenal fans? Maybe mistaken, but seem to recall that City fans were everywhere at Highbury that afternoon.

Seeing Cauley Woodrow scoring for Luton last week and Smodics smashing it at Blackburn suggests that the ‘standards’ problem is sometimes with our club and not the player.

Dire ITV from Anfield. Relentlessly disrespectful to Norwich. Just replayed both Liverpool goals while referring to a Norwich goal ‘sandwiched between’ ( ie an equaliser). While telling us all that the only ball we’re interested in during the draw is Maidstone’s. Frankly sick of this tabloid style- look for the story and plug nothing else style of coverage.

Still can’t believe I missed the Final in 1986. Student at Leeds University- last finals exam on Friday 23rd- ticket and coach booked. 21st birthday Sunday 25th. Then someone noticed that ‘the computer’ had scheduled the ‘Modern Jewish History’ final for 1030 on Saturday 24th. There followed a protracted bru ha, as, not surprisingly, most students of Jewish history were actually Jewish, settled by the simple expedient of rescheduling, by swapping my Friday paper with the Saturday exam. It seemed unwise to protest and that was that. Did, of course, make the 87 final v Mansfield, which we naturally buggered up.

Used to live on Britain’s first and only Red Route- the bit of the A1 in N London at the Archway/ Holloway Rd. About as far removed from the road in the photo as it’s possible to imagine. And shouldn’t there be red double yellow lines on the carriageway?

Wish they’d stop banging on about Conway- at least until the window closes.

I’m pleased we’re tentatively back in the loan’s market. No loans was one of NP’s eccentricities I was never convinced by. And this seems a decent shout, albeit one motivated by a short term desire- a pretty desperate desire- from the owners to rescue something from the second half of the season and justify the managerial swap. We’ll see what Twine is made of as he’ll be properly incentivised. Seen too many loanees playing for as long as it takes to confirm the soft contract.

No such thing as a ‘mid table team’. There are average teams with the potential to challenge and average teams who are vulnerable to the drop. We’ve had almost zero investment for a couple of years now- certainly when compared to sales. I was expecting SL to back Manning well this window and in the summer, as he’s 100% their appointment when there was no real fan agitation for a change. If decent incomings don’t arrive soonish, we could rapidly find ourselves in a relegation scrap. I’ve always assumed that the Lansdowns’s wouldn’t let that happen and would spend ( even recklessly) to avoid it. But I think they’ve checked out, emotionally as well as financially, so it might be worth appreciating what we’ve got while we’ve still got it.

It was right in front of me. His daughter was in the band- she knelt down beside him as the rest of the band kept marching up and down. Completely horrific in retrospect but at the time it didn’t seem so. Terribly sad, obviously, but it just seemed like an incident to be overcome. Certainly no suggestion that the match be abandoned. Surprised it was as late as 1988 incidentally- I thought it was during our Div 1 period.