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Best game in a City shirt.

After less than 65 hours which included over 450 miles of travel since outplaying Premier League Nottingham Forest for over 2 hours, the last thing Bristol City fans expected was to dominate and beat Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium. A match setup for Liam Manning's tired side to collapse instead was as convincing as his group have been - both with and without the ball. By far the better side first half as they raced into a quick 2-0 lead and brilliantly organised in defending a one sided second half fightback from Boro. City's enterprise in passing sharply through the lines was too much for the home side to deal with - in a breathtaking first half where the lead could have been even bigger. Harry Cornick and Sam Bell both brilliantly sprung clear one on one only to be denied by Boro keeper Tom Glover either side of the visitors actual double jab. First Rob Dickie fed Jason Knight who took his time to turn the keeper to put City ahead just past the quarter hour, then Matty James strode upfield a minute later before slamming home a low second. Manning went into the game with questions about league form and the hangover of late exit from the FA Cup after City's spirited 120 minutes at Forest, a fourth undefeated cup tie in a month against top flight opponents. He made six changes - resting Joe Williams, Tommy Conway and others, but it was those he restored who seized control, James and defender George Tanner dominant in a one sided opening. The game was all in Boro's half when a half cleared corner saw Tanner loop under the bar and into Glovers hands. The only response from the hosts saw one time City man Luke Ayling - up against his former side in their urine on grass tribute kit - cross into Hayden Hackney who wriggled this way and that to find space only for Zak Vyner to block his shot. It was a rare attack as for the next 15 minutes the well organised visitors took Boro apart. James brilliant ball put Cornick clear from the left to race in one on one and see his shot pushed away with players queueing up to tap in the rebound, Sam Bell eventually collecting but blocked. Then the quick fire City assault. Rob Dickie marauded forward and picked out Knight in the box who showed composure to not take the quick shot and instead shield the ball to turn the helpless keeper six yards out and drill home. A minute later it was two, James roared out of midfield and Boro defenders, already mindful of the visitors quick passing combinations, all picked someone to close the passing lanes to, so instead James kept running before lashing a low shot past the keeper to send the away corner into chaos. There was more to come - Tanner's corner was almost headed home, then Nahki Wells got in behind from an amazing combination and Cornick dummy, desperately cleared for the latter to hurl in a long throw which Dickie hooked just wide. At the midway point of the half Boro finally found room again via Ayling out right but City were flying into every block and an eventual low cross was turned wide by Hackney. Ten minutes later Tanner stole back possession brilliantly and won a quick free kick from which Knight forced a save. It could and so nearly should have been 3-0 minutes later. Boro's attack broke down and City cleared the lines up to Cornick, turning brilliantly in midfield before holding the ball up to tease midfielders before picking out Bell's run with a lifted through ball that sent the winger miles clear one on one down the middle, keeper Glover out to the edge of his box to desperately block. Before half time Max O'Leary - so far untroubled - parried away Finn Azaz' effort, whilst Bell ran clear on the right but under pressure fired well wide. At half time Anis Mehmeti replaced Cornick - either injury or giving Boro something else to think about at the restart after their rapid comeback at AG in the reverse fixture. This looked on the cards almost immediately as the hosts got in down the right channel and squared but O'Leary claimed. City didn't sit back. A slide rule lright touchline pass put Tanner into space to send a wicked cross in which begged for a finish, Bell close before having a second attempt blocked. Next Cam Pring stung Glovers hands from Wells cross. From then on it was all Boro - yet City dealt with everything thrown at them. O'Leary saved from Sam Greenwood, while Dickie's brilliant clearance under pressure fed Anis Mehmeti down the left who put Wells away to win a throw in. The hosts were trying to pick their way through Manning's side and Greenwood sneaked behind the lines to go clear ten minutes into the second half but O'Leary made himself big and smothered the shot. Manning sent on Conway and Ross McCrorie for Wells and Bell to tighten up. Approaching the hour mark Middlesbrough did everything but score. A well worked flick on and lay off saw Marcus Forss disguised low shot through defenders legs curl wide of the post. Minutes later they drilled a cross into City's box that was inprobably cleared under incredible pressure. It was one way traffic as Boro won corners and free kicks but City tidied up everything thrown at them. Joe Williams, exhausted man of the match on Wednesday night, replaced James as Manning looked to control the final twenty. In truth City finished the match dealing with attack after attack - although at times it felt like they might never clear their lines. Ayling again was the outlet with 20 left looking for a crossing lane, the visitors twice clearing before Rav Van Den Berg had a split second to fire home and O'Leary showed incredible reactions to parry at point blank. Our final change saw Hayden Roberts replace Pring as we clung on grimly, Sam Silvera bundling one back in injury time and Knight, machine to the end with a 94th minute goal saving tackle. O'Leary 8 Tanner 9 Pring 7 Vyner 8 Dickie 8 James 9 Gardner-Hickman 8 Knight 9 Bell 7 Cornick 7 Wells 6 Mehmeti 6 Conway 6 McCrorie 6 Williams 6 Roberts 7

Agree with this and everything else in the rest of your summary. I wrote a long reply to explain why I'm doing match reports less often (big away days and everyone is there or it's forgettable and I forget it) and to share my own thoughts, but it all disappeared when East Midlands Rail had its unusual internet meltdown and OTIB wasn't able to save what I wrote. Suffice to say I thought we were great for large periods, controlled the game well without being defensive. Seemed to get better as Forest stretched the game by tidying up, working the ball around to force Forest to reset and then working it into the final third with quick combinations. Looked the better side. Massive shift from all and I honestly felt we'd win it second half of extra time and we really should have done - Wells square to Cornick miss, James volley just over, Bell into Wells on the line) and Forest would have had no complaints had we done so. Penalties were always going to be a lottery after that. Hard to single out any player but Bell and Williams were immense, Bell did not deserve his storyline, and Conway plays with a certain swagger against Premier League teams, his shoulder drop turn and finish was class. Surprised at the criticism of Mehmeti, thought that was one of his best games going at players. The only player I didn't think was at his maximum was McCrorie but he was up against Gibbs-White and yes he had to counter balance all Mehmeti's freedom. And Cornick feels like someone who will never succeed with us, plenty of honest endeavour but seems to lack the quality where it counts. Poor man's Marley Watkins someone said to me last night. Finally special word for Nuno. He plays more like a conventional winger than a manager, out on the touchline and so often creeping slowly into the final third. He's done brilliantly well to get through another ninety minutes against us up and down the wing, always in space looking to affect play with his presence. I think last night he must have been in his actual "technical area" for all of 2 minutes and spent more time on the pitch than some of his players. I'm not sure what the point of fourth officials is. He's literally wearing a dark top and is a metre or two out of his space literally on the wing. I swear we played out from the back to him twice in the first half of ET.

On Wednesday 28th February. Since when has the Fifth Round been played midweek?

So desperate for Cabo Verde to win. Semis would be the furthest they have ever gone and they are worth it despite being by far the smallest country in the whole tournament. Play great one touch counter attacking football, where I grew up as a kid a lot of my friends were from Cabo Verde and as mixed race myself they are also a country it is easy to feel close to because that is the norm. Back there in March during the international break (local island not the tourist stuff).

The hosts are having an insane tournament. This is absolutely ridiculous. 100% Netflix material. Lost twice in group stage including 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea, Sacked manager but qualified as worst third place team. Beat Senegal in last 16 on penalties, 1-0 down and 10 men first half today scored 90th minute equaliser and 120th minute winner. Mali totally lost their heads and attacking ref. Afcon is pure entertainment.

@cider-manc is coming so I assume he has found a way (or driving). I've also WhatsApp'd him.

Genesis chapter 11 verse 5 in the bible

Kings Cross includes a rail replacement coach from Grantham to Bedford so 3 trains and a bus in total from Middlesbro. St. Pancras would mean several changes to route via Sheffield. Both are 4-5 hours rather than around 3 on a good day.

East Coast Mainline is closed all that weekend John you seriously don't want to go there or back via London. I resisted the obvious return flight gags

Small miracle - the "CBS Arena" has to be the worst away ground in the EFL all things considered and that's a hill I'm prepared to die on. Even in the bowl stakes worse than Stoke and Derby and marginally worse than even Reading. Such a shame as Coventry is a great place with some fantastic historic boozers and as home support goes Coventry's is a match for anyone in the Championship on its day, but seriously a ground in the absolute middle of nowhere with zero transport in 2024. Even Reading have managed that one now. Add in it either doesn't get home fans through the turnstiles very quickly or there isn't enough room outside to queue up so people are squeezing past the end of queues just to get around the ground, and that every year they seem to spend the game hauling large Gaza style metal barriers into place everywhere outside for after, which seems to irritate home fans just as much as it does away fans. I am at about 70-something of 92 these days and honestly there's not a ground in the EFL I less look forward to visiting, even allowing for our purple patch going there in the 2000's. Like I said, no slight on the atmosphere, Coventry fans make a decent amount of noise for an identikit bowl (certainly far more than Stoke or Reading have ever managed in theirs) but it's an absolutely painful day out.

I walk very quickly back to Temple Meads after midweek and night games to catch the last train home (and including being in mathematically one of the last seats in the Dolman able to exit) and without fail whenever I’m walking up the incline to the station around 2220 a bus is almost always just pulling up and a handful of away fans drift off. To be honest I have no idea where this bus picks up or even if that one is the first to have left but I assume it must be? For an 8pm kick off as with Leeds next week and Southampton 10 days after it will be even tighter so probably not the time to find out as I would have thought if it’s already no faster on a regular kick off, it will be worse for later.

Ghana have been absolutely awful, we dodged a bullet with Chris Hughton, Mozambique shouldn’t have needed injury time to knock them out, even Semenyo looked totally lost Cabo Verde story is beautiful, smallest country in tournament by a mile, and played easily the best football so far and biggest results. Football mad place with limited space for football:

Unlike the promising Conference manager who reached the Championship play off final!

Perhaps it could be turned into a drive through club shop? You could drive up to the intercom and request five badly designed O'Neils training tops monogrammed with a clipart Robin, then get to the window and be told they have only 1 badly designed O'Neils training top monogrammed with a clipart Robin left (in extra small). The advantage of my drive through solution is when it turns out that the collar is misshapen and the sponsors logo is peeling off (about five yards past the serving window) you can drive round the building and rejoin the queue in order to returns said items before leaving.

Egypt - Mozambique is absolutely sensational (on Sky right now). Not your usual stodgy AFCON game it’s been end to end. Salah and co scored after 1 minute but the rank outsiders who have never won a game at the tournament in their history and have a 40 year old running the show, have looked slick on the break and in transition from then on and have now just scored twice in a minute in the second half to go ahead on the hour. Egypt absolutely rattled and all the local fans supporting Mozambique.

A year has passed since City finally ended their more than decade long winless run at Deepdale at the 10th time of asking last February - but the more things change, the more they stay the same. Star of that show Alex Scott has gone, as has manager Nigel Pearson, and yet while Liam Manning’s well drilled young side came into the game confident against pessimistic hosts Preston and dominated for an hour, they lacked the finishing touch and then inexplicably threw the game away, contriving to lose 2-0 to what is arguably the worst North End side they have faced throughout that long period. With one eye on Tuesday night’s televised FA Cup Replay against Premier League high flyers West Ham, in truth City beat themselves - as nervous, stuttering Preston looked unlikely to do the job, pinned back in the first half and often chasing shadows against Manning’s patient passing. But striker Tommy Conway was completely isolated and anonymous up front, and wide men Sam Bell and Anis Mehmeti rarely had room to get in behind the hosts deep back line, forced to play in front of the home defence from where the visitors were largely restricted to speculative long range efforts wide of goal. Preston fans could be forgiven for reacting angrily to their out of form side looking comfortably second best all over the pitch and were just waiting for an excuse to show their displeasure at manager Ryan Lowe. So there was little clue what was coming when with just 25 minutes remaining keeper Max O’Leary - recently in such good form - had his now customary periodic head rush and unnecessarily raced out onto a George Tanner header only for Will Keane - one of 3 half time subs - to steal past him on the edge of the box and tap into an empty net. It turned the game on its head and City fell apart. There was little clue what was coming as City spent much of the first half probing their ineffective hosts and should really have found a way through. Little more than five minutes had been played when impressive Joe Williams challenged in midfield and the ball spun loose to Taylor Gardner-Hickman who ran clear and drove a well struck shot towards the bottom corner which Freddie Woodman scooped wide. Just past the midway point in the half Bell cut inside and forced a corner, from which Woodman had to parry away Jason Knight’s near post back heel. Another corner and next Dickie tested the keeper. It was solidly one way traffic with City players camped forward and before the half hour even Tanner found himself on a rare overlap which Williams did brilliantly to pick out with a smart lifted ball, the full back combining with Gardner-Hickman on the right to tee up Zak Vyner who forced a desperate block at the near post. A minute later and it was the other fullback Cam Pring who sent over a deep left wing cross and Knight slipped away from Preston’s centre backs into space beyond the far post but on the turn volleyed well over. By now it only seemed a question of when - not if - City would go in front. Mehmeti, with his ability to run at opponents, was increasingly the focal point for the visitors search for a goal and with ten minutes left in the half he collected a loose ball out wide and skipped down the left channel before curling a tame low shot into the bottom corner which Woodman held. Preston actually had a rare sighter on the break - and out of nothing - springing clear down the right and drilling the ball low across goal which Bell completely mis-kicked in an attempt to clear, the ball reaching Liam Millar at the back post who forced O’Leary to bundle away with a lashed shot back goalwards. Mehmeti won another corner on the run which was taken quickly and short back to the Albanian wide man who chipped the ball across goal to where Knight sprung clear but headed well wide at the far post. City would rue yet another wasted chance as Preston rang the changes at half time and looked a better side after the restart as a result, although it was less than 10 minutes into the second period before Mehmeti again caused problems, fed by Williams he dropped a shoulder, cut inside and fired a skidding shot unerringly just past the far post where Bell was closing in on goal himself from the other flank. Before the hour mark Knight stole the ball in midfield and embarked on a goalbound run before being chopped down by Keane just outside the box, from where Mehmeti, facing into the bank of travelling City fans, steered his free kick over the wall but into the keepers grateful hands. A minute later Mehmeti laid the ball back to Gardner-Hickman with time and space, who drilled a 20 yard effort wide of Woodman’s near post and into the hoardings. City were now camped again at one end - and in front of their visiting supporters - and Knight had another low long range shot saved after a well worked move. Then out of nothing the calamity. Completely against the run of play Tanner under pressure from a Preston long ball headed it backwards for his defensive colleagues to mop up, but O’Leary - perhaps cold or even bored - raced out to claim himself, only for substitute Keane to step across his run and intercept the ball, leaving City’s keeper completely out of position and the striker with an open goal to tap into and put Preston 1-0 ahead. In the wider context of the game it was a ridiculous scoreline, but it was exactly the foothold that a struggling side short on confidence needed and they never looked back. Conversely Manning’s men visibly shrunk after the embarrassment of contriving to be behind in a game which they had dominated, and the visitors had lost their way long before the City boss made his own - possibly far too belated - triple substitution, introducing Nahki Wells, Matty James and long awaited debutant Ross McCrorie. In minutes they were two behind, Emil Riis given too much time out on the right by an increasingly out of sorts looking Pring, to cross into the near post where Keane stole away from slow to react Vyner and headed inside O’Leary at the near post to put Preston two goals up. This was now comically smash and grab after all of City’s probing and the visitors had no answer to it, by now even surrendering possession too, a rusty looking McCrorie among players to give the ball away cheaply in the final exchanges. They would only go close one more time as Knight made it a hat-trick of efforts off target volleying wildly over after Wells knocked on Pring’s cross. Manning added Harry Cornick and Andy King in the final minute but by now City were going through the motions. You could say the Deepdale curse has returned but while the scoreline flattered Preston, City only had themselves to blame. O’Leary 5 Tanner 5 Pring 5 Dickie 6 Vyner 5 Williams 7 Gardner-Hickman 5 Knight 5 Bell 5 Mehmeti 6 Conway 4 Wells 5 McCrorie 4 James 5 Cornick 5 King 5

Albano Correia

City had a player who was born in Bissau. It's one of the poorest countries in the world. Good luck to them!

As you know Dave, this is something I know a fair amount about (my old business was one of the first ever to implement 3DS in the UK). I would say there is a good chance there is something wrong with their 3D Secure implementation in the platform our booking fees pay for (!), and your point on it relating to specific SCA trusted device/card combinations has some logic. As @italian dave said (and I always experience) this error can be rectified by a MOTO purchase over the phone using the exact same card As @mattjb alluded to, you can try several cards and find a card that works, suggesting it's previously used card x device combinations I used this card to purchase away tickets all the time, but I have a feeling I only get this problem on City's site when using my work laptop I had the exact same error in a prior season, I opened a different browser same machine and it worked (device fingerprint includes browser) All of which points to 3D Secure failing on a specific prior card x device combination. Also instinctively the timing of the error after 4-5 seconds from payment submissions feels like the result of a convoluted failure of 3D Secure message exchanges too. What I can't understand is why these errors (have existed for at least 2 years) are not being logged and investigated.

Tried 2 cards but none worked. Messaged Jerry (legend) on Twitter who rang me back and took a phone payment with same card, worked. Pity the systems we pay a £1.50 booking fee for don't actually work. Perhaps Jerry should be getting all the £1.50's (and would deserve it!)

Every season it's the same with "buying your own seat" for cup ties.

It's covering the original seating slope if the venue is used for athletics etc. The lower tier is built over the top and closer to the pitch with the open area used to cover the difference. You could see the old seats poking out from below the open area.

With the massive advances in Artificial Intelligence I’m wondering if we can wire up a kettle (or train Downsy) to go “a frustrating day [MANAGER FIRST NAME] but what are the positives you can take from today” and “a word for the fans, [NUMBER] of them here and they really made themselves heard?” after every match.

Complete embarrassment. 9,500 fans travelling to support the team and they can't even play in anything resembling our own identity or crest. I thought the SC&T already escalated about the absence of consultation in hoisting some clipart on the club, what kind of message is it to then wear it for our biggest game of the season!?!