Olé

Let’s just remember that we had the ball in time and space on halfway and with all our players up ahead of us and in the box when this guy goes down. He was down for more than the minute quoted, probably 90 seconds at least, almost 2 minutes, and by the time he had finished the game was more or less over. The referee, who has had a very good game despite being ridiculed by Huddersfield fans from the start (for reasons I think we all know), gives THEM the ball back which is extremely generous even though they won’t remember or mention it - unless the idea was for them to punt it back to us. Which of course they didn’t do, they played up to their striker and kept it. People keep talking about them fighting for their lives, if we had anything to play for Huddersfield would be remembered for years as cheats for that gamesmanship, they gamed the ref and then worse fair play at the restart when it was quite clear the ball should be back with us. They’ve got away with it because we were all largely drifting out and couldn’t care less about our season. The fact the ref is still in a position to give a soft penalty when she does is solely down to their own cheating and it caught up with them. Pure karma. But of course they’ve all organised a social media pile on for the referee who they were abusing from the very start. Pathetic lack of self awareness.

Absolutely nothing to do with the penalties, one of the best refs I've seen in a long time - was so consistent in how he judged things and always tried to let play go and only bring it back if the advantage wasn't there. Was never too fussy, cards were a last resort, and didn't want to be centre of attention. Looked like a normal bloke too rather than a failed footballer with an ego. More refs with this approach please.

Millwall worldie

There are videos every week of all kinds of exuberance in away concourses which let's be honest is absolutely fair game if you treat your customers to concrete and breeze blocks. Why then does a meaningless mid table game at a shit ground suddenly turn Northumbria police into a disgusting press gang that keeps storming into the away end every ten minutes to pick off and bravely haul away yet another fan. When they came for two 14 year old girls it was too much. Jostled and pulled down the stairs not just by WPCs but also fully grown men who decided this is why they wanted to join the police. Besides Wales or Birmingham it's a long time since I've seen the police act like their job is to treat us like dirt. Had a good day chatted to some Sunderland fans no idea why Northumbria Police woke up and chose this today.

Hoovering up the best young players from other clubs across England and Europe doesn't seem to get you very much these days.

Ah fair play I just went for the first Chris I found on Google from Millwall youth. Ping @Davefevs. Randomly Big Kev Nugent is their Under 23s coach.

Chris Parr no? Referred to his Millwall youth team and playing us this season.

Good to see we've embedded a consistent way of getting injured all the way through the age groups.

Thank God the co commentator finally acknowledged he should stop calling one of them City. Main commentator seems more than happy to keep doing so.

POTS = Rob Dickie (by a mile) YPOTS = Tommy Conway (not a lot of choice) Champagne Moment = The complete evisceration of the club's hierarchy and their lack of clarity by @Ron W on Sky Sports* *If everyone could vote for this as Champagne Moment the penny might finally drop

Ahem First 4 were NP but still. After yesterday (this was flashed up by Sky before the game) Manning is W2 L5 vs the top 6, and as a club we’re W2 D1 L8 vs the top 6. Which is where you’d expect mid table to be, nicking the odd result.

My MotM too and said as much after. Was absolutely faultless especially in possession. Also a big fan of how fast we were to second balls. Every. Single. Time. We were first.

Amen. I know we’re all supposed to get over Pearson and move on, but **** me if you want to understand what feeling an engagement with or affinity for the club looks like, it’s being genuinely invested in the thoughts of the manager even when we lose because we knew with NP it came from a place of experience, humility and honesty. Why this club repeatedly wants us to form an interest in and build affinity for extremely inexperienced coaches who waffle on a lot is beyond me. The Lansdown’s want to be the puppet masters who create some sort of footballing alchemy by getting the whole club pulling in the same direction and hanging on the words of complete bluffers. It’s not going to happen, just like the last god knows how many times.

@Davefevs the computers are coming for you. An AI model trained with lots of historical corner kick positional data in partnership with Liverpool. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45965-x

I honestly expected to get a notification by now from a club tweet to say Manning has gone, to be honest I’m a little surprised he hasn’t. The football is absolutely dire, league position is irrelevant, it’s when the product on the pitch is so visibly awful and regressive that the real alarm bells should all be going off and is when SL normally acts, and Steve is not stupid - bad decision maker yes but he knows an irredeemable shitshow when he sees one, it was the same at the fag end of the Holden experiment and SL admitted as much when he pulled the plug. You’re a sensible and balanced poster and I'd like to hope I try to be too and I am already in the same place as you - not being in the least bit knee jerk but absolutely convinced of the need (with some urgency) for Manning to go and hoping SL is seeing the same things the rest of us can all see - he’s totally out of his depth. It’s actually frightening how fast he has sucked the life out of a promising team and devalued and demotivated so many players. I actually feel a bit sorry for players who are playing within themselves in a laboured and emotionless fashion. The emotion piece is an interesting one. Pearson used to talk about something similar but not eradicating emotions but being able to always have control of them. He knew that emotion is a huge force and extra percentage if channeled correctly and a huge problem if not under control. Asking players to own and manage and use their emotions went hand in hand with his repeated mantra of asking the players to take responsibility for finding solutions. Players tasked with developing personality and leadership that contribute to us playing with pace and passion. Manning, on the other hand, by simply switching off emotion and force feeding the players the same relentless script as ‘process’, has created robots stripped of the instinct and fight to play with a zip and determination and perhaps even to entertain. Which is why the football is so utterly tedious and uninspiring, and which is why in turn you can see visibly so many City fans recently walking out of matches from Hillsborough to the Hawthorns looking like zombies, hollowed out and brain numbed from the suffocating lack of emotion in our football any longer. The great irony where emotion is concerned is while removing their ability to channel and benefit from positive emotion Manning has left his side totally exposed only to negative emotions, of which there are lots: players with confidence shot to pieces, players sulking, players frustrated, and in the case of Tommy Conway, once a key asset of ours, all three. For SL that is the biggest alarm bell of them all. Pearson had it right, there will be emotion so control it and use it. Manning has got this approach, like many other things, badly wrong and we’re far worse off for it. Sadly this is par for the course for Monotone Manning and his monotone brand of football - he is out of his depth and I will say it again, I am genuinely surprised he hasn’t gone already today.

Liam Manning's side something something I fell asleep O'Leary 5 McCrorie 4 Roberts 6 Dickie 6 Vyner 7 King 4 Gardner-Hickman 5 Sykes 4 Mehmeti 4 Knight 5 Conway 5 Twine 7 Wells 6 Cornick 6 Tanner 5 Pring 6 Bonus manager rating 0 never seen a team of half decent players rendered so completely anonymous by one man and his tactical revolution. Crafted a team utterly lacking pace, emotion or instinct and which he insists must do the same utter shite all the way to the very end. Even LJ worked out how to have a go.

Despite your absence from the Spanish all season I love you (and @Davefevs) but I honestly have no idea what the pair of you are on about. Mr Pop keeps showing us a table based only on the period Manning has been in charge. The latest one shows us now 18 points off the play offs. The one yesterday showed us 15 points off. Both are solely the result of his time in charge, it has nothing to do with NPs 15 games and 4 point gap. It's not a net effect it's an artificial table based only on Manning's tenure. NPs 4 points off POs extrapolated for Manning's tenure is 5.6 points off. Together we should be 9.6 off yes but that is not what Mr Pop is showing us he is showing us 15-18 off for a 21-22 game period under Manning. It's the league if it started when LM joined. NPs form extrapolated would be 5.6 off. 15-18 off is AT LEAST a 10 point regression in little over 20 games.

People rightly pointing out that a 4 point gap will widen with the additional games played (as just extrapolation rather than anything to do with Liam Manning) missing the point that @Mr Popodopolous specifically posted only the period Liam Manning has been in charge for which shows us 15 points off 6th from 21 games vs 4 points off from 15. 4 points off the playoffs from 15 extrapolated to 21 games is still 5.6 points off the playoffs not 15 points. 15 points off from Manning’s 21 games is a 9.4 point negative swing in less than half a season and almost half a point worse off per match. That is huge regression - stop doing the clubs work for them by defending the return on their decision.

Is the Lansdown’s own private scorecard on Liam Manning Positives Negatives Healthy Talks to us Brian likes him Makes us sound progressive Jon has more time for colouring in between shots on target Our top 6 squad keeps getting beaten by the bottom 6 Our main product at Ashton Gate has delivered 5 goals in 8 games this year Our main product has delivered 4 0-1 league defeats from 6 so far this year Those people below us in our own stand look like they’re asleep He’s delayed the early bird Season Ticket renewal income for yet another week Jon keeps having to rewrite the Season Ticket renewal marketing Been told to **** off by over 30 different Twitter profiles since yesterday YouTube views are down as nobody wants to listen to the coach The players no longer seem to be showing our famous togetherness Is making Conway’s saleable asset valuation worse by several million Tommy no longer wants to be here either Is making Vyner’s saleable asset valuation worse Is making Pring’s saleable asset valuation worse After another go Mehmeti still hasn’t got a valuation No longer on course to sell Yeboah to Bournemouth in 2 years Did that thing with the subs bench that Cotterill did to wind us up Players are still getting injured all over the shop in training Brian was lieing to us Lee Johnson is available make a note poss. replace Sid as DOF Marina Dolman’s snoring is annoying

It’s funny you say this mate, it was totally lost in the hysteria of going 3-0 up against Southampton, but I’ve noticed the same for a few weeks so was purposely watching his movement and contribution in that game and by half time largely thought he was awful and with a terrible attitude - it was a storyline that was totally forgotten after our second half. There’d a fantastic striker there and I really want him to still be a success with us under a new contract but he is just going through the motions, probably with something else already lined up in the summer. He’s never been the biggest or strongest but he isn’t going into 50-50s any longer with anything other than to keep himself safe or feign a foul. I’ve also noticed (Southampton first half again a case in point) he is probably the most half hearted in the press, or at least isn’t quite so quick into the block while at the same time pointing and gesticulating at teammates to close the lanes around him and make his task a bit easier, when in fact they’ve largely been doing a far better job of that. He is a fantastic player so this is all behaviour driven - i.e. either checked out or low on morale and in either case going through the motions. Let’s not forget that as well as the terrible service you’ve called out, he also thrived much more on NPs counter oriented game, it’s no coincidence both goals against West Ham were on transition given space. Manning and Tecknical Tinnion may already have decided he is not part of the future and certainly not the style.

After City wins against Middlesbrough and Southampton right after an impressive cup run, last weeks feeble loss at home to QPR was jarring for Lee Manning and his team. The City boss said he planned to make full use of a first clear week of training with his squad since November, but whatever they worked on backfired spectacularly away at Sheffield Wednesday as a second straight relegation threatened opponent made easy work of three points, the Owls clearly very limited but needing to do little to overcome visitors who were abysmal in every phase. Manning's side started with 5 changes and supposedly ready to address their surrender against QPR. They started strongly and yet besides a few flashes of interplay in the first half, they would go behind twice and end up well beaten, even unable to turn a one man advantage and a rare 3 striker line up into serious chances at the end. Early on before the break the hopeless pairing of unfit Cam Pring and anonymous Anis Mehmeti on the City left allowed the hosts to twice provide Iké Ugbo opportunities to turn home, either side of Jason Knight's well glanced header. Despite throwing on two substitutes at half time at 2-1 down and another 3 all at once just past the hour mark, incredibly City were even worse second half, producing a half of mind numbingly second best football, losing passes, second to every ball and hopeless in attack, even totally unable to open up the Owls after Di'Shon Bernard was sent off for a second offence (he should have gone first half) and with three strikers on the pitch. For Manning not only a setback but alarming to the over one thousand travelling fans who expected more from a week of preparation. There was little indication of City's hopeless performance in a dominant start. After five minutes Tommy Conway found space in the right channel and teased a defender before dropping his shoulder and getting a shot in from an acute angle that goalkeeper James Beadle had to push away. Slowly the hosts settled and after the quarter hour and with City under no threat they made easy work of Pring, Liam Palmer going clear to cut back for striker Ugbo in the box who had time to shield the ball before turning sharply to fire past Max O'Leary to put Wednesday ahead. Manning's team were already resorting to punting long aimless channel balls toward the diminutive Mehmeti who looked like he was a bloke crossing a local park trying to briefly impersonate a footballer yet also desperately trying to avoid coming into any contact with the ball. The winger lost out yet again midway through the half, once more City's left flank was exposed for Wednesday to roar clear and cross, the visitors able to half clear their lines only for Ian Poveda to be easily first onto yet another second ball but slashing his fierce shot wide of goal. Down at the other end in front of away fans Mark Sykes exchanged quick passes with Conway to steal in from the right only to see his cross cut out for a corner - which Taylor Gardner-Hickman's flag kick centered and energetic Jason Knight met at the near post to glance backwards brilliantly dipping into the bottom corner. This could have been the kickstart that City desperately needed and before the half hour with Conway offside a cute through ball put Knight clean in but he was clipped down by last man Bernard. The often one sided ref produced only a yellow. To be fair, five minutes later Rob Dickie got caught out deep on City's problem left and had to pull down Ugbo for a similar yellow. By now Manning's side were still strong on possession but picking cheap passes which the home side easily intercepted or simply bullied from the second ball. So no surprise before half time as a woeful Mehmeti was slow to react from yet another Wednesday transition across to the right and in behind, their drilled cross half heartedly cleared to Marvin Johnson in miles of space at the far post, whose strike was steered in by Ugbo. Manning has seen enough of City's failure to control the flanks and at half time hauled off Pring and Sykes for Hayden Roberts and Ross McCrorie. Yet one of their most useless halves of Championship football was still to come - every ball laboured and easily given away or every second ball gobbled up by a faster stronger and hungrier opponent albeit in the bottom three. Bar Williams forcing a corner after a 1-2 with Knight, it was nearly the hour when Mehmeti's skill wriggled clear on the break as City poured toward working it across for George Tanner's blocked strike. Tanner, who gave it away cheaply twice in the first half, went from a sighter on goal to a desperate goal saving tackle just past the hour, disrupting Ugbo as Wednesday again found it easy to play into City's box. Anthony Musaba and Ugbo wasted chances - often put straight into O'Leary's hands or wildly wide - before Manning made it clear what he thought about the hopeless display from his side, making a triple substitution, as forwards Nahki Wells, Harry Cornick and midfielder Andy King raced on for Mehmeti, Tanner and Gardner-Hickman. It didn't get any better. With just under 20 minutes left Pol Valentin raced through onto a long ball, Roberts slipped as final man but thankfully Dickie got across and forced him wider to make him slash his shot right across goal. With quarter of an hour left Wells smart flick out on the right touchline allowed Conway to roam - he was cut down by Bernard but the advantage was played and Williams strode forward on goal before slipping it to Cornick whose drilled cross was ripe to be turned in and eventually half cleared to Roberts who curled a shot that was blocked. The referee, who continually waved away fouls on City's players, begrudgingly produced a second yellow for Bernard's earlier foul on Conway, when he could easily have gone for his foul in the first half with Knight clean in on goal. Home keeper Beadle took the opportunity to milk five minutes off the clock (which the ref was obviously going to forget to add on) as he sought treatment for a sudden injury but by now City looked utterly clueless anyway. Before the 90 McCrorie - who gave it away cheaply twice - cut inside and went off on a run before lashing over. Sure enough the ref only added on five minutes, deep into which Manning still had his side passing sideways until Rob Dickie went roaming forward with players camped forward only to hammer an ambitious 25 yard shot over the lot of them. In the final seconds Wells won it off an Owls defender out literally at the corner flag and turned inside to allow Conway to slip into the box, sliding it across for King's finish which was desperately turned away for a corner. That set piece was quickly headed behind but as the visitors lined up for the next kick the ref blew up for full time, prompting City's furious players to surround the official, with Williams eventually hauled away though still remonstrating. The flashpoint showed more ambition than Manning's squad exhibited all day, utterly lacking both hunger and quality. Prior to the match all the talk was about the first week off since the end of November - a first full week of training under Manning in a rare week without a game. Even allowing for the fact the players were given both Sunday and Monday off after the QPR debacle, they trained for the remainder of the week and in Manning were supposedly adding patterns of play and strategies for low blocks. In the end little of this was in evidence as City got badly shown up by a Sheffield Wednesday side that had struggled all season yet came up against a histocially bad Robins opponent. O'Leary 6 Tanner 5 Pring 4 Vyner 5 Dickie 6 Gardner-Hickman 5 Williams 5 Knight 6 Mehmeti 3 Sykes 5 Conway 4 Roberts 5 McCrorie 5 Wells 5 Cornick 5 King 5

It’s improving but Moldova suffers from a fair amount of day to day corruption, often from Russian backed officials, gangsters and police, despite having a pro-EU government and people. Bit of a shame as the people are lovely and Chisinău is nicer (greener, cleaner and less chaotic) than Bucharest. Great story about Ion (or Ivan). You’ve already got me searching for builders in London called Testimitanu.

Was my favourite player at the time, and not cheap for his name on the back of a shirt! I ran an all day training session in Chisnau in 2018 or 2019 and took said shirt with me and told them the story.

"We will continue to look at improving communication to fans and hope they are not too inconvenienced by this kick-off change" How many times does one club need to look at improving communication, we're up to about once a month for this crap, isn't it about time we accepted that bar Jerry we're run by a load of amateurs. I notice also that they didn't publish this anywhere other than in the EP when put on the spot by a journalist, so it wasn't a serious apology or admission and they don't plan on doing anything about it. What number are we up to now for lies to supporters this season?