RoystonFoote'snephew

It's coming up to the end of the season and I was musing about the summer and friendlies while thumbing through past community match programmes when some familiar but not so familiar names got me thinking again about poor signings. Every team ofcourse has made poor signings, and we're certainly no exception, but the 2016/17 programme for our match with Bristol Manor Farm contained a City squad with no less than 3 players that we'd signed (not loaned) who were never to wear a 1st team shirt in a competitive fixture, namely Tin Plavotic (now with Austria Wien in the Austrian Bundesliga), Paul-Arnold Garita (now with Al-Faisaly in the Saudi 1st Division) and Diego de Girolamo (now with Buxton in National League North). None of these players were blighted by injury just (presumably) deemed not good enough. I wonder how many other signings, not loans, there have been. 

After a very late stoppage time equaliser at Dortmund, Leverkusen remain on course to become the 1st team in Bundesliga history to go through a season unbeaten. Under Alonso they have now gone 45 games unbeaten in all competitions and scored an incredible 26 goals after the 80th minute in games. 

20 minutes ago, winsaw said:

VAR is killing football 

You surely haven't just worked that out. VAR had done nothing to enhance the game, made worse by the fact it's now being used for incidents beyond its remit. It's purpose was to correct CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERRORS, not to pick up all and sundry. It should be scrapped or at least be limited to clear and obvious errors viewed in real time and decided upon within 2 minutes.  If you can't decide within 2 minutes it ain't clear and obvious. 

The offside rule has to be one of clear air, it shouldn't be determined on the size of someone's footwear. 

32 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

One of the most embarrassing statements from a club I’ve ever read 

FA has already announced they'll be investigating the statement. I'm not sure what action Forest think they can take but if they're suggesting the ref in the VAR booth was biased he might have an action against Forest for defamation of character. 

20 hours ago, Leabrook said:

It’s incredible what winds people up 

I wasn't wound up. Just making an observation which is provably a, symptom of the modern era I just don't remember seeing players wear gloves in April back in the 70s etc. 

I'm not always fussed about the PL, but on this beautiful spring day in April I find myself watching Wolves v Arsenal to find 3 Wolves outfield players (Gomez, Traore and amazingly Doherty) wearing gloves!!! 

1 minute ago, EstoniaTallinnRed said:

Who scored the 2nd?

2 minutes ago, EstoniaTallinnRed said:

Who scored the 2nd?

 A 19 year old kid called Ashford with a massive deflection off Jan Bednarek. 

11 minutes ago, luke_bristol said:

One goal in the first half an hour in all the 3 o’clock kickoffs! Hopefully things liven up.

Yes, but what a great goal as Southampton are winning at Cardiff

6 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

I was wondering earlier, will any Championship sides make a statement . Would the perspective or ex Prem sides feel they have to tow the Party line ?
When you get down to it, it's the top sides that have been pushing for fewer domestic games , the ones that want more Euro involvement or lucrative tours . Dress it up how you want , they are all about the money and don't care about the vast majority of Clubs. 

They don't really want less games. They want space in the calendar so they can sod off to the Emirates or South East Asia for lucrative exhibition games. No real concern for their players or, given the air miles, the global environment. 

2 hours ago, Club and Country said:

Hope we release a statement, all championship clubs seem very quiet (which is disgusting as they are all chasing the prem money) 

Hope someone organises an efl boycott 

Given the clear strength of feeling I'll be disgusted if City don't condemn this move. Clubs are rightly pointing to their history and ours is no different with winning at Leeds in 1974 a great highlight. I'm not entirely surprised by the actions of thoughtless few as their downplaying of the cup in recent years is testament to their 'money is God' attitude. No thought whatsoever has been given to the damage that's being done to the reputation of English football among lovers of the beautiful game and the FA should hang their heads in shame and charge themselves with bringing the game into disrepute. 

1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

I read that as ‘ big pussies’ . 

Seems like your Isewater(ing) too much Major. 

Mehmeti has shown improvement but this shouldn't come as surprise with a coach who shows more faith in him and gives him more game time. Tanner and Roberts are the big plusses for me. 

Expect to see Oxford United on the list which, if away I'd go to as a new ground. 

For me it's all the things that Secret Sam and ExiledAjax have said plus that its one I want to go to and look forward to going to not just that I go to through loyalty to the team. 

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

A problem is that in general (not always but in general) performances and results tend to align.

There are exceptions in respect of performances continuing to outstrip results over a season or vice versa but eventually the two meet somewhere in the middle, or regress or progress to the mean.

This is true but points are a reality whereas performances that satisfy are subjective. I'm old enough to remember Jack Charlton's Boro, one of the most boring turgid sides I ever saw but they won every week and you didn't hear much moaning around Ayresome Park. 

They're down and I'd be very surprised if they bounce back in a hurry. But if Cotts stays, and if Vince follows Lansdown and buys the star players from clubs in their league, I might be proven wrong. 

At current performance levels it would be madness to sign him (so we probably will). Injuries and lack of game time in the past couple of seasons indicate a player in decline and I think there are better options to be had. 

10 hours ago, Dr Balls said:

So unbeaten in the last 5 games, which is good, but the results have generally been better than the performances. Dreadful first half against Huddersfield today, a copy of the Swansea game last month, with not a single shot in the first 45 minutes. Last weekend indebted to Max for keeping a clean sheet against Sunderland. Good win against Leicester, decent performance versus Plymouth, while the Blackburn defence was giving away more gifts than Santa at Christmas!

Happy we have the points, and defensively we look pretty good, accepting that we were missing both Dickie and Vyner today. However, still unconvinced that Manning has really cracked how to get us playing forward, particularly how to break down teams that sit in and play 2 banks of 4 across the pitch and are happy to watch us huff and puff in front of them with minimal penetration. Also very lucky to come away with a point this afternoon.

And I hope that trend continues into next season. I want us to perform well, of course I do, but I'll take points over performances if it gained us promotion at the end of it. 

The way results are going this season there's a real chance that someone is going to get relegated with 50 points. 

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

I don't think these final four games mean anything at all. Someone the other told me that every game matters...which really isn't true. These last four don't matter to us, not beyond the final whistle anyway.

I agree that squad churn will be a factor of course.

I think also - your form before the "strong finish" should factor in as well. There's a big difference between a team that has been strong all season "finishing strong", and a team that was recently in relegation form doing so.

I just think it's a meaningless phrase trotted out because it sounds like the right thing to say.

I wrote it the other day. Every player, every Coach/Manager and every passionate supporter believes it and so do I. Confidence and pride in performance matter. 

1 hour ago, cidercity1987 said:

Never seen us line up without a CB before 

We played Sean Dyche and Julian Watts together and based on their performances we didn't have a CB then. 

2 hours ago, Robbored said:

It was excellent - but look who the opposition were. Another great atmosphere at AG was when Christian Roberts scored the winner against the Monkey Hangers and the Dolman Stand shook! That’s probably the best atmosphere that I’ve experienced at AG.

That said in the average league match the atmosphere can be non existent. It’s rare to see AG rocking. However for a league match on a Wednesday night against Blackburn the ‘buzz’ around AG was pretty good as City romped to victory.

There have been plenty of occasions where the ground has shook but atmosphere is always better when you're winning. In addition to the monkey hangers and Manure games against Portsmouth and Liverpool immediately spring to mind, as well as several occasions against the SAGS as Beadle scored twice, and JET and Bryan scored stunners. it doesn't surprise me though that away fans rate the atmosphere at the Gate higher than we do. Over the years many an opposition manager has said that it can be an intimidating place to play. 

As someone who has been watching City for over 60 years I now try to take all the complaining (or adulation) in my stride, albeit I don't always succeed. I remind myself that in dealing with Bristolians the normal factory setting is pessimism and constant moaning, so a win, particularly of such magnitude is so unexpected it is met with exhilaration that goes beyond mere joy. As I'm only half Bristolian (mother from Bristol, father from Melksham) and born and raised in the land of the Moonraker I will try to curb my enthusiasm and simply say Proper job last night... Next. 

1 minute ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

Yes. I've lost ITV HD. 

Just come back on. 

1 minute ago, phantom said:

Good to see a bit of a shake up of the team tonight 

Has anyone else lost ITV HD? 

Having to watch on SD on sky 

Yes. I've lost ITV HD.