Shuffle

Hope I eat my words but that team selection is bizarre to say the least. Just makes no sense to me.

That’ll be the Marvin Brown connection as he runs his own academy & connected to Keynsham first team

Not related…. Young ones have a few out on loans & a few injuries inc Wood,Backwell & OTC. The likes of Yeboah, Nelson, JKL have been fast tracked because of first team squad depth so been missing for a number of games. Lots of young ones playing as they make their push for pro careers which means a number of current ones who are19/20 won’t make it and end up being released.

Manning has been set up for failure by the Lansdowns and Tinnion who let’s face it are the only ones who genuinely believe we were top 6 quality. The narrative is not sensible to blame culture which frankly Pearson transformed in front of our eyes & whilst we lacked quality we finally developed into a team proud to wear the shirt. I do feel for Manning as he’s in a no win situation as if he fails to win every match will get analysed to draw comparisons to Pearson. A point wouldn’t have been a disaster today and everyone wouldn’t be feeling so pissed off. We as fans were realistic to know we were progressing under Pearson & only us can score an OG by firing him. This is all on the Lansdowns and their egos & inability to have honest discussions with a very respected and honourable man. I hope they are as pissed off as me by the defeat today cus I’m still seething that we threw it away. The football is definitely different and not sure I’m patient enough for patient football but time will tell. I suspect the nest egg will be used in Jan to save face. This was all so avoidable.

Agree 100% with this & squad depth was and remains a joke. As for Tinnion saying we had 2 players for every position we named a squad for first game of 26 that included 3 x GKs and 3 academy lads who were involved from the 2nd game at Millwall but not one had ever started again. Add in McCrorie, Benarous and Atkinson who were all out long term and still in December remain unavailable. We had 19 outfield players to choose from but that relies on no injuries which with our squad was never going to happen. We’ve lost Conway, Wells, Naismith, King, Williams, Roberts for significant periods & some we could have predicted. The Lansdowns cut the budget & didn’t back Pearson for what we assume were personal reasons but this club rhetoric regarding 2 for every position is utter bullshit. Pearson suffered with it and the problem is now Mannings. I’m so pissed off with the comment from Tinnion regarding numbers but most of my anger is to Lansdown who tightened the purse string. I fully expect the nest egg to be used to try and save face as if we do nothing then we are in trouble. Don’t even get me started on quality within squad!

Agree on his defensive side was terrible & was screaming at him to track his runner as he was just letting him go. As for the comment about give your head a wobble if anyone wants to start him over Bell then I’m not sure what Bell has brought to the team in the last 4/5 games. I thought he was a passenger again yesterday and offers little in an attacking or defensive sense. I get he’s our top scorer but imo hasn’t played well for weeks & Anis at least offered something going forward. I would have no issue with Anis starting ahead of Bell but not sure either is the long term answer.

21s played Monday night so was always going to be 18s

I hope I’ve caught him on bad days but not been over impressed with JKL when I’ve seen him & certainly see Araoye ahead of him.

There is no magic solution in the 21s to address goal scoring issues in the first team. Yeboah was on the periphery of game & Pearson was a bigger threat for me. Equally, the midfield admittedly on tonight’s performance in atrocious conditions didn’t have anyone who would run at people and open them up. Araoye was decent but no LWB & Rose at RWB had a mixed night so nothing coming from wide areas. Probably not the best game to assess the talent pool but Big Rob leapt out at you as being our standout player tonight. Agree, we need Wells fit and firing as imo knits our attacking threat together as such a clever footballer.

The big positive on the night assuming he suffers no reaction was Rob Atkinson who was very good. The weather was horrendous but wind dropped second half and thought Sunderland were the better team. There were glimpses of quality from a number of the players but not consistently over the 90 minutes which you would expect from younger players. Bajic was decent & nearly got the penalty but beyond a busy display from Pearson & Araoye who was solid there weren’t any other standouts. The weather certainly didn’t help so hard to judge fairly.

Wind killing this game….. Rob Atkinson was solid & looked fit & flew into a couple of tackles & was fine. Really impressed with Sam Pearson albeit feeding off scraps

Give the pod a break as just fellow supporters having their opinions in their own time. It would be a dull place if we agreed about everything & you always have to right to not listen if it winds you up. Some people have proper tantrums if their opinions are different from theirs.

He’s back because he couldn’t get in FGR team so city pulled him back. He couldn’t play for first team until Jan as you can’t cancel a league loan.

Fabian Hurzeler

Excellent today as he was last week now he’s playing in his correct position.

If the Lansdowns had come & said we are dismissing Nigel because he’s coming to the end of his contract that we will not extend so best to make the change now to allow a new manager to have 32 games to build towards our ambition then I’d have more respect for them. The fact that they are savaging men’s reputations such as Nige, Rennie & Euell is a cheap shot & frankly stinks. The top 10 budget has to be a myth but in essence the Lansdowns are cowards who hide behind results & inflicted injuries as the reason. Just say it’s becoming untenable to work with Nige so let’s change direction. I’d have more time for them if they showed a degree of integrity but the constantly hide behind lies. Just grow a pair and tell the truth as we can deal with that !

I’d go the following if the 3 returners are fit: MOL Tanner Vyner Dickie Pring TGH Naismith Knight Sykes Conway Memehti Personally would leave out Bell & thought Memehti did well at Cardiff & need to get our £1m back at it.

Yes just asked two Blues season ticket holders & one said” popular at Blues and unlucky to be sacked. Too cautious for a lot of people as that could be due to squad we had. I’d give him 7/10. The other said “ he will be brilliant, united a club at its lowest point, very personable & will be great for you”

Thank you Nigel for behaving with integrity and decency and caring for our football club and being the adult in the room. You will be forever be welcome in Bristol as we all know the cards you’ve been dealt with were all designed to facilitate your failure. You’ve stabilised our club, given us a playing style & built a team that plays with pride and passion. I’ve had my wobbles and doubts about you during your tenure but my god I was so wrong. Thank you & good luck in whatever you do.

Well I wasn’t expecting nothing before the game with all the injuries. However, I was pleasantly surprised that we competed and imo thought we deserved a point. The positives were; TGH & Knight showed there is life after James as both really good. Sykes just gets better and better Dickie in the last few games has been very good Memehti was decent and now needs a run of games Im out of that bloody escort and home now is the biggest positive

I think one of the most frustrating things is that players are close and the timeline just slides. Wells was pushing for a return possibly against Ipswich and now not available to god knows when. Tanner was a knock but should be back after international break & now we have no idea on a return date. Joe Williams was two weeks & another not likely to be fit for next week. Agree it would be good to get a more in depth update.

Well he’s coming out fighting with a picture of himself in a City shirt on insta saying “hungrier than ever” …… if I wasn’t such an old bastard with limited technical knowledge, I’d post it. Good to see that response

I agree with what you’ve said & all players mentioned are at risk of exiting the club. My slight hesitation about academy football was purely how lads not involved with u21s and let’s face it we are nearly in November, are elevated straight to first team ahead of others as surely the natural progression would be U21s rather than continue with 18s. I can’t quite work out why from Aug- Oct neither James or Nelson bar odd appearances aren’t selected for 21s but are for first team.

The fact academy players are training with the first team & developing in house is a positive. My only issue is that the promotion of academy boys over others seem bizarre. This is nothing against anyone in the squad yesterday as frankly I’ve not seen enough of them to comment in depth but how does James leapfrog Leeson as an example to become RB cover. Leeson played pre season & scored a couple & is U21,RB. Equally how does Nelson become picked as a wide player over Francois or Pearson ? Neither James or Nelson are established in U21 team but clearly being fast tracked. I understand that clearly the club recognise the potential but you would expect their development to include 21s experience before sitting on a championship bench.

He started superbly so clearly there is a talented player in there. However, he does make wrong decisions by either taking a touch too many and losing the ball or not picking the right pass. How can he go from the player we saw at Sunderland away to now as wish I knew ? That said how do you play a player back into form if you don’t play him. His confidence must be broken as seems Pearson prefers anyone over him currently. Currently looking like a £1m wasted & cannot see how it changes for him here as Pearson not having him.