RedM

I'm probably going to get battered for this...but I think on the whole Max has looked a lot more confident since Manning. Yes he has some errors in him, he's a keeper and mistakes really show, but his shot stopping and confidence has much improved, the reaction stuff. It seems when he has time to think he isn't at his best.

Great write up as ever @Olé, but I think you were quite generous with your marks like the poster quoted above. If 5 is Championship average, I assume, then my belief that there were quite a few below that standard today. If I am totally honest, I'm not sure if you could find 11 players who played worse across the whole Championship today. It's not acceptable that after a week of preparation they produce that.

I can't get my head around how we were so up for Southampton and so opposite for QPR and Weds. Fair enough we raised our game for the cup games but to go from Southampton to this is a shambles.

Luckily for our players when they came over at the end that Weds cranked up the music and were celebrating like they had won promotion, they didn't hear the boos.

The pitch doesn't look that great, to my untrained eyes of course.

Those were my thoughts too. Gutted for him as he had just put that match behind him and was ready to get more experience for the rest of the season. Small consolation too is that he will have the full support from his parents, Mickey must have come through a fair few injuries and will have first hand experience of the months ahead for Sam.

I'm struggling too

That's why for me it was so refreshing to see Twine, even if it was only for one match. It really made me realise how predictable and stale our fk and corner routines are.

I would take that to mean he has lacked in time to do 'basic/standard' training and has had to focus on pre match prep as we've had so many Sat/Sun and Tues/Weds/Fri games for the past few weeks. As we all know 2 Cup replays, extra time etc are all additional. Add into that away travel and that's a day less out of his coaching week. I just think this maybe what he is alluding to?

That's got to be a security concern at the very least

I've seen it every time I've sat (legitimately) in the Lansdown. A bit of a giveaway are those that place themselves in the spare hospitality seats then don't go in at half time. True there are no really bad views in the ground but a prime place side view is always going to be better than behind the goal and is priced at a premium. Similarly Dolman wings are cheaper than centre etc. People do buy cheap tickets and sit in expensive seats. If the club are stupid enough not to close the loophole then people will do it.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the club will review it some day. At the moment they have given out a shirt for a cheap ticket. I thought the shirts were to prevent kids wearing ManU/Chelsea etc shirts in our city and to catch them young, fans for the future etc. Well if the child isn't attending and the parent isn't spending on sweets, burgers, soft drinks etc for them that already money lost? The kid might be happy with the shirt, but if there is no real connection with the club as they don't attend then are they likely to pester for additional shirts or kit? Again money lost perhaps? Meanwhile the adult has plenty of space next to them, the option to upgrade or sneak a mate in on a child's ticket, and most importantly the guarantee of an option to buy for a big name cup tie or playoff game. That said the club aren't going to bust a gut and make loads of SS seats for POTD by a buy back scheme for example, they probably think that if a casual fan wants to attend badly enough they will pay for a dearer ticket.

That's why I made a point of checking when I took the photos and stating the timings. I guessed that with an 8pm KO them most people would be in their seats as in reality it's 20 mins later than normal. Same with after HT. If your not back in your seat 15 mins after the restart why attend games!

Great point, and the 8pm KO probably made catching buses or trains even more difficult with connections etc

The Dolman looked pretty full from what I could see, but I did pass my ST on to someone and they said there were quite a lot of empty seats near them.

I've seen this a few times. My ST ticket is as I said in the Dolman but if a workmate cannot attend I use their ST's and sit in the Lansdown. Often I have got to their seat and someone is sitting there, I advise them it's my seat and they move without problem (as they aren't meant to be there, and obviously don't want to draw attention to this). They often move a few seats or rows away until the same thing happens! I have seen stewards occasionally ask other people to leave the Lansdown stand and point to where they are meant to be, eg the SS or even the Dolman! But no, it's certainly not monitored very well.

I read on another thread about people saying we should limit the number of away fans, and replies were that the club wouldn't do this and turn down money. I had a better view from the Lansdown on Tuesday than I usually do from the Domain regarding the problem of empty seats. Yes it was half term, but I don't think this is too unusual. People would buy these seats if they weren't 'seatblocked' by ST holders. The first phot taken almost 5 mins into the game and the 2nd 10 or 15 mins after HT

Yes, I was just about to comment how both teams were slipping a lot. I haven't noticed this quite so much before in any weather.

I thought we more than matched them. I'm expecting them to go up a gear or two 2nd half, but they are no Leeds. They aren't on an unbeaten run for nothing though.

We play on Tuesday so that's one day off limits for starters. I don't know if Bears or the women are playing but that's potentially another day if not two again off limits. I guess with the stadium being used more it's hard to fit tours in, also someone has to do the tour. I guess Jerry has his day to day work to do as he is an employee so he can't just drop everything to take multiple groups round on tours?

This would be good. I'm sure people would be willing to pay/donate. I would.