"i'm A Winner."

[Roger Red Hat]

Cheer up :-) what's the worst that can happen we get relegated have to play in a league where our youngsters get a season or two of playing and growing into a team? That's the worst assuming the senior pros have relegation clauses and get to take a pay check for failure.

The best is we start again next season in this league with a clean slate. That's assuming we don't string together a run to the playoffs

But our youngsters wont be allowed a season or two will they, we'll be in the relegation zone, a different manager will be appointed and a new bunch of journeymen will be imported, as experience will be needed to haul us out of trouble........................oh wait a minute................

[samo II]

Of the 13 games left, I can see us going unbeaten or close to it at home and only one away - Peterboro - where I would be surprised if we picked up anything, based on the home game against them.

Nothing to do with the constant SO'D/SC Civil War on here, but just had to highlight this and ask; are you serious?

 

Not deriding you or anything Nick, but I seriously doubt we will come even close to this on current form.  Swindon and Preston alone are two games I think we'll be lucky to get anything on our form, and in terms of away; Peterborough currently looks utterly unwinnable, while Wasall and Rotherham are pushing for the playoffs.

 

We need to be realistic; we're likely to get stuffed several times before the season is out.  It is the matches against the teams sharing the bottom of the table that will need our focus.

[Aizoon]

But our youngsters wont be allowed a season or two will they, we'll be in the relegation zone, a different manager will be appointed and a new bunch of journeymen will be imported, as experience will be needed to haul us out of trouble........................oh wait a minute................

 

It's deja vu all over again - maybe we should be called the Bristol Groundhogs...

[Roger Red Hat]

It's deja vu all over again - maybe we should be called the Bristol Groundhogs...

.......yes, we're permanently in a daze...............

[NickJ]

Nothing to do with the constant SO'D/SC Civil War on here, but just had to highlight this and ask; are you serious?

 

Not deriding you or anything Nick, but I seriously doubt we will come even close to this on current form.  Swindon and Preston alone are two games I think we'll be lucky to get anything on our form, and in terms of away; Peterborough currently looks utterly unwinnable, while Wasall and Rotherham are pushing for the playoffs.

 

We need to be realistic; we're likely to get stuffed several times before the season is out.  It is the matches against the teams sharing the bottom of the table that will need our focus.

 

Not sure I worded the original post that clearly, but to clarify.

 

Looking at our home fixtures, most are against lower placed teams so yes I can see us only losing one or two and not impossible we could go unbeaten.

 

Away, as I said, and like you I agree, Peterboro will stuff us unless they've regressed a lot since the home game and/or we've improved massively, but other than that we play a lot of teams who are not much different to us, from what I saw of them in the home games.

 

So it would only take a small improvement in form and confidence to potentially see quite a big improvement in results.

 

Yet this forum is full of threads that give the impression our fans don't want that to happen because its much more fun slagging off the manager and players.

[BCAGFC]

Coco the Red Nose clown has replaced Chico the Ringmaster at the BCFC circus.

 

When SOD took over, I fully bought into the clubs new philosophy of building a young sustainable team, trying to play the right way.   After all, that is what has been successful for us in the past.

 

As soon as SOD left (and even I agree he had to because it wasn't working), we had to get the right person in to continue the clubs philosophy, even if it meant we went down again.   We would still have a young side, on sustainable wages, trying to play the right way.   Yes, they would make mistakes but I can take that.

 

We have now employed a pretend cockney wide boy clown, who thinks he is a tactical genius & our saviour but in reality he hasn't got a bloody clue on how to sort us out.   He has brought in players on extremely high wages that just haven't improved the team and if left to his own devices, will set us back years....just like Pulis did.

 

Let's hope that JL was right and we have a cheap get out clause and employ a manager who will continue the clubs philosophy.

[Bedminster Born And Red]

Coco the Red Nose clown has replaced Chico the Ringmaster at the BCFC circus.

 

When SOD took over, I fully bought into the clubs new philosophy of building a young sustainable team, trying to play the right way.   After all, that is what has been successful for us in the past.

 

As soon as SOD left (and even I agree he had to because it wasn't working), we had to get the right person in to continue the clubs philosophy, even if it meant we went down again.   We would still have a young side, on sustainable wages, trying to play the right way.   Yes, they would make mistakes but I can take that.

 

We have now employed a pretend cockney wide boy clown, who thinks he is a tactical genius & our saviour but in reality he hasn't got a bloody clue on how to sort us out.   He has brought in players on extremely high wages that just haven't improved the team and if left to his own devices, will set us back years....just like Pulis did.

 

Let's hope that JL was right and we have a cheap get out clause and employ a manager who will continue the clubs philosophy.

If you want to use a circus analogy I would suggest that the clowns at Bristol City are the ones who lace up their boots every week. But at least with a circus clown you get a performance worthy of the name every time. Our clowns decide for themselves when they can be "bothered" to put it in. Nothing to lose away game at third in the league? Yes, I'll give that one a go. Tough relegation six pointer away to in form side? No thanks, too much like hard work to give the 900 travelling fans a performance.

 

The likes of Moore, El Terribly Bad, Flint, Osbourne, Pack, Gillette and Barnett must be laughing their socks off at how they escape the flak whilst Cotterill, Baldock (the one player above all others who puts it in every week whatever you think of his wages and finishing) and JET cop for the lot from you people on here.

[BCAGFC]

If you want to use a circus analogy I would suggest that the clowns at Bristol City are the ones who lace up their boots every week. But at least with a circus clown you get a performance worthy of the name every time. Our clowns decide for themselves when they can be "bothered" to put it in. Nothing to lose away game at third in the league? Yes, I'll give that one a go. Tough relegation six pointer away to in form side? No thanks, too much like hard work to give the 900 travelling fans a performance.

 

The likes of Moore, El Terribly Bad, Flint, Osbourne, Pack, Gillette and Barnett must be laughing their socks off at how they escape the flak whilst Cotterill, Baldock (the one player above all others who puts it in every week whatever you think of his wages and finishing) and JET cop for the lot from you people on here.

I totally agree with you that the players are to blame but SC isn't doing himself any favours by playing a woefully underperforming El-Abd/JET and putting square pegs in round holes.

 

When a club is in trouble, you play safe, basic tactics that even the most dim player can understand and play players in positions where they are confident of their ability.  

 

And you certainly don't carry passengers, you need 11 players giving 100% in every game and if they don't, you fire them out of the club ASAP.

 

I still maintain that this group of players have more than enough ability to get us out of this mess but so far 2 managers have failed to motivate them.

[Oxford Red]

Is that the one where we should have been out of sight and Shef created one chance to win it at the death?

It would appear the regression from that point is considerable...

That game summed up to me how bad things had got under that last idiot.

Hoofball and possibly the worst game of football seen in years.

It was dire a long time before that ruddy great donkey hacked another into his own net.

O'Driscoll and passing football ? Anyone ever thinks that should be made to watch that game.

[HoldenBall]

That game summed up to me how bad things had got under that last idiot.

Hoofball and possibly the worst game of football seen in years.

It was dire a long time before that ruddy great donkey hacked another into his own net.

O'Driscoll and passing football ? Anyone ever thinks that should be made to watch that game.

The SOD fans love to tell everyone how he only lost won game in seven, this was the one game he lost in that time, Christ he should of sacked 5 minutes after that game the performance was so horrendous.

[Gene Hunt]

If you want to use a circus analogy I would suggest that the clowns at Bristol City are the ones who lace up their boots every week. But at least with a circus clown you get a performance worthy of the name every time. Our clowns decide for themselves when they can be "bothered" to put it in. Nothing to lose away game at third in the league? Yes, I'll give that one a go. Tough relegation six pointer away to in form side? No thanks, too much like hard work to give the 900 travelling fans a performance.

The likes of Moore, El Terribly Bad, Flint, Osbourne, Pack, Gillette and Barnett must be laughing their socks off at how they escape the flak whilst Cotterill, Baldock (the one player above all others who puts it in every week whatever you think of his wages and finishing) and JET cop for the lot from you people on here.

Not the worst post ever but Pack? Pack is a quality player and has been good for us, much like Skuse before him an important part of this team.

[Gene Hunt]

The SOD fans love to tell everyone how he only lost won game in seven, this was the one game he lost in that time, Christ he should of sacked 5 minutes after that game the performance was so horrendous.

It had nothing on Rotherham.

[i hate you butler]

maybe steve c just found out over the weekend hes the longlost love child of Michael winner

 

maybe that's what he meant

[HoldenBall]

It had nothing on Rotherham.

Rotherham we actually scored, somehow.. So no it wasn't.. Plus Rotherham are a good team, United were absolutely horrendous

[BCFC Jordan]

The SOD fans love to tell everyone how he only lost won game in seven, this was the one game he lost in that time, Christ he should of sacked 5 minutes after that game the performance was so horrendous.

 

We were playing well under SOD up until Flint threw away the three points away against Port Vale. We then had a three game blip (Wycombe, Crewe and Brentford) where the team looked at a lower point than ever before due to a lack of confidence. After that incredibly short blip (performance wise) we proceeded to go on the run of 1 loss in 7 games, and again I'll point out, that loss was caused by an individual error from Flint, hardly down to Sean's tactics. No matter how bad the performance was against Sheff Utd, it was far better than the performance against them the other day. We lost one game under SOD by more than a single goal, whereas it's already occurred four times under SC.

 

In fact, if you look at every loss under SOD this season, I'd say there was only two games where we were convincingly defeated (Posh & Brentford), individual mistakes cost us time and time again (as has been the case so often in recent years). I'd rather lose from individual mistakes than lose by looking a complete disorganised mess as we have done under Cotterill at times.

 

SOD's record was far from great, but it was clear there was progress being made, and in the long-term the club would have benefited for it. Instead the board panicked and let us all down. But hey, at least the anti-SOD brigade are happy that Cotterill doesn't have a 'boring' voice for his press conferences, all is well after all.

[Oxford Red]

Pack is a quality player and has been good for us

Now that is a statement where thousands of people would disagree.

[HoldenBall]

We were playing well under SOD up until Flint threw away the three points away against Port Vale. We then had a three game blip (Wycombe, Crewe and Brentford) where the team looked at a lower point than ever before due to a lack of confidence. After that incredibly short blip (performance wise) we proceeded to go on the run of 1 loss in 7 games, and again I'll point out, that loss was caused by an individual error from Flint, hardly down to Sean's tactics. No matter how bad the performance was against Sheff Utd, it was far better than the performance against them the other day. We lost one game under SOD by more than a single goal, whereas it's already occurred four times under SC.

 

In fact, if you look at every loss under SOD this season, I'd say there was only two games where we were convincingly defeated (Posh & Brentford), individual mistakes cost us time and time again (as has been the case so often in recent years). I'd rather lose from individual mistakes than lose by looking a complete disorganised mess as we have done under Cotterill at times.

 

SOD's record was far from great, but it was clear there was progress being made, and in the long-term the club would have benefited for it. Instead the board panicked and let us all down. But hey, at least some the anti-SOD brigade are happy that Cotterill doesn't have a 'boring' voice for his press conferences, all is well after all.

So under SOD the losses and lack of points was down to individual errors, but under Coterill it's down to his shocking managing ability.. Right.

[Red-Robbo]

It had nothing on Rotherham.

 

 

I have to say Sheffield United at home was the nearest I've ever come to falling asleep at a football match. I managed to endure the first half versus Carlisle despite being jet-lagged and having been awake for 23 hours - and I was positively animated during the second! By contrast I was fairly gripped throughout versus Rotherham.

 

I've only been to one away game this season, maybe the away Sheffield fixture was worse, but in terms of sheer mind-numbing tedium that home game in November breaks personal records for me. 

[Gene Hunt]

Now that is a statement where thousands of people would disagree.

And if you listen to a lot of the views spouted at Ashton Gate on a Saturday you'll come to realise the there are thousands of not very clued up fellas knocking about...

Some of the most knowledgeable people I've ever met when it comes to football rate Pack highly. I'll stick with their views over the majority down AG.

[Oxford Red]

We were playing well under SOD up until Flint threw away the three points away against Port Vale. We then had a three game blip (Wycombe, Crewe and Brentford) where the team looked at a lower point than ever before due to a lack of confidence. After that incredibly short blip (performance wise) we proceeded to go on the run of 1 loss in 7 games, and again I'll point out, that loss was caused by an individual error from Flint, hardly down to Sean's tactics. No matter how bad the performance was against Sheff Utd, it was far better than the performance against them the other day. We lost one game under SOD by more than a single goal, whereas it's already occurred four times under SC.

In fact, if you look at every loss under SOD this season, I'd say there was only two games where we were convincingly defeated (Posh & Brentford), individual mistakes cost us time and time again (as has been the case so often in recent years). I'd rather lose from individual mistakes than lose by looking a complete disorganised mess as we have done under Cotterill at times.

SOD's record was far from great, but it was clear there was progress being made, and in the long-term the club would have benefited for it. Instead the board panicked and let us all down. But hey, at least the anti-SOD brigade are happy that Cotterill doesn't have a 'boring' voice for his press conferences, all is well after all.

You do realise where we were in the table when we sacked him right???

And had been all season too.

The season after he took us down without a whimper .

His record no matter how you paint it, was frankly appalling.

[BCFC Jordan]

Put it this way, as someone who usually visits the forum(s) of opposition teams after we've played them, I often saw fans of the opposition praising us when we were managed by O'Driscoll, with people regularly stating how shocked they are that we're near the bottom of the division and that it'd only be a matter of time before we turned things around (1 loss in 7 certainly indicates that was set to be the case). Whereas since SC has come in, I think it's three times now (Brentford, Wolves and Sheff Utd) where opposition fans have commented on how hopeless we look and that, unless something radically changes, we're certainties for the drop. We've lost our style of play, the five pillars have practically fallen, and we've now got a man who is disliked by the fans of most of the teams he has managed, instead of a man who has proven he benefits the club in a long-term and is liked by fans of teams' he's managed. The consensus of football fans is rarely wrong when it comes to a player or manager.

 

Let's just hope Cotterill is a man of his word and he really is a 'winner'.

[Oxford Red]

This will be the same O'Driscoll that took us down without so much of a whimper and I myself read posts from opposition fans stating we were clearly the worst team in the division - which we were.

 

Then he took us down to the bottom of league 1.

 

Sorry I don't care what other fans say - I can think of games at AG where we were utter sh*t under O'Driscoll and the result was no better.

[samo II]

Not sure I worded the original post that clearly, but to clarify.

 

Looking at our home fixtures, most are against lower placed teams so yes I can see us only losing one or two and not impossible we could go unbeaten.

 

Away, as I said, and like you I agree, Peterboro will stuff us unless they've regressed a lot since the home game and/or we've improved massively, but other than that we play a lot of teams who are not much different to us, from what I saw of them in the home games.

 

So it would only take a small improvement in form and confidence to potentially see quite a big improvement in results.

 

Yet this forum is full of threads that give the impression our fans don't want that to happen because its much more fun slagging off the manager and players.

Don't get me wrong; I hope and I pray that the team prove me utterly incorrect, and we are able to rise out of the relegation zone and stabilise in terms of performances and results.  I've no interest in looking prophetic on the internet at the expense the team I've supported my whole life suffering a second relegation in two years.

 

I was basing my comments on our form and performances, compared to that of those we soon face, and I simply don't think we can maintain the sort of level of performance that might see us hold most of the teams we've yet to face at arms length, let alone beat them.  

 

Sheffield United was always a game we should not have been seen as favourites for but, for my money, the fact we inextricably struggled against Tranmere after seemingly soundly beating the team who currently sit at the pinnacle of the division is as bad as possible sign as we could get that we'll be scrapping till the end of the season to try and save ourselves.  Home form must at least match away form if we're not to get cut adrift.

 

I've said repeatedly and consistently that this block of four games we now sit slap bang in the middle of was crucial, and if we can pull out two wins from the next two, we have as good a chance of any.  If not, I think we will struggle to extract ourselves.  That is an opinion I'm happy to be wrong about, but I don't think I will be, unfortunately.

[Harry]

Now that is a statement where thousands of people would disagree.

And those thousands would be quite wrong.

[NickJ]

Put it this way, as someone who usually visits the forum(s) of opposition teams after we've played them, I often saw fans of the opposition praising us when we were managed by O'Driscoll, with people regularly stating how shocked they are that we're near the bottom of the division and that it'd only be a matter of time before we turned things around (1 loss in 7 certainly indicates that was set to be the case).

 

This 1 loss in 7 that you like to speak of included 3 draws, a home FA Cup game against Dagenham & Redbridge, and was preceded by 14 league games without a single victory. And that was just this season.

 

I could put up a very strong mathematical case to demonstrate that things were not, in fact, being turned around but then, so could anybody that isn't selective with the facts.

 

Plus, I have never been so bored watching football than under the SOD era.

[NickJ]

 

I've said repeatedly and consistently that this block of four games we now sit slap bang in the middle of was crucial, and if we can pull out two wins from the next two, we have as good a chance of any.  If not, I think we will struggle to extract ourselves.  That is an opinion I'm happy to be wrong about, but I don't think I will be, unfortunately.

 

Luckily for us all, I am never wrong.

 

I said from day one SOD would be a disaster and so it proved - even though like you I constantly said I hoped he'd prove me wrong, not that that was ever going to happen. Its a simple equation, workers look to leaders for leadership and inspiration. That doesn't mean being loud, some of the best leaders do so in a quietly effective way. But SOD is simply not a leader.

 

I don't know what happened at Sheffield as I wasn't there however Sheffield were always going to improve after appointing Clough and I have seen enough to know that results will be better under this manager than the previous one. But then that's also not a very difficult prediction.

[Rich_s]

Another thread about SC where SOD name is mentioned more times than the original target. The presumption that any negative comment about SC must mean the poster is a SOD fan is mad. The difference between SC and SOD is that most of us knew SC was a crap manager before he arrived.

[bucksred]

We were playing well under SOD up until Flint threw away the three points away against Port Vale. We then had a three game blip (Wycombe, Crewe and Brentford) where the team looked at a lower point than ever before due to a lack of confidence. After that incredibly short blip (performance wise) we proceeded to go on the run of 1 loss in 7 games, and again I'll point out, that loss was caused by an individual error from Flint, hardly down to Sean's tactics. No matter how bad the performance was against Sheff Utd, it was far better than the performance against them the other day. We lost one game under SOD by more than a single goal, whereas it's already occurred four times under SC.

 

In fact, if you look at every loss under SOD this season, I'd say there was only two games where we were convincingly defeated (Posh & Brentford), individual mistakes cost us time and time again (as has been the case so often in recent years). I'd rather lose from individual mistakes than lose by looking a complete disorganised mess as we have done under Cotterill at times.

 

SOD's record was far from great, but it was clear there was progress being made, and in the long-term the club would have benefited for it. Instead the board panicked and let us all down. But hey, at least the anti-SOD brigade are happy that Cotterill doesn't have a 'boring' voice for his press conferences, all is well after all.

 

 

O Drosscoll was the most negative manager/head coach Ive ever seen at City. Quite frankly Penis & Benny were light years ahead FFS!How the **** does a misery loves company**** like him even vaguely inspire the team??? Ive watched both teams this season, and both are ****** awful. Cotterill who is proving every bit as poor as his unlamented predecessor BUT! does have the slight virtue of not being a ****** manic depressive in interviews...Small result in the growing sea of mediocrity brought in by O Drosscoll and willingly added to by Cotterill...

 

I struggle to see much progress other than the three youngsters playing more regularly. And Baldock does finally know where the goal is at last,

[Davros]

He never seriously said that did he?.

 

WTF has he actually won above conference level?.

 

****ing clueless.

 

Erm League 2 title, promotion to league 1 twice saved Forest from relegation's from Championship along with Pompey **** all really. 

[Alex_BCFC]

In the Sheff U home game, they didn't have a shot of note - only Flint scoring an OG gave them the win and I bet they couldn't believe their luck. Wasn't a great performance by us but we should have got a draw at least. It wasn't like the recent Coventry or Tranmere games where we were outplayed.

 

Flip to the away match - we weren't even in the game and they dominated long periods. 

 

If O'Driscoll was so negative like many have said, why did we score a boat load of goals (26 goals in the league alone this season before he left). If anything we were too positive and needed to work on sorting the defence. He did that and was then sacked - in his last 6 games in charge only Orient scored more than 1 against us and they were top at the time. He was beginning to find the balance - OK it was slow progress and I was frustrated like many that we had not made a good start. It did take him too long to sort out the mess. But all the groundwork that was done, all the talk from the board about the long term etc it was all a waste of time.

 

I probably could have understood moving SOD on if we had a replacement who was more upbeat but fitted in with the strategy etc that the club were trying to implement. With the signing of El Abd came the end of any of that. Strategy forgotten, defence tampered with and JET's form nowhere to be seen. We had a nice honeymoon period when SC arrived but the first half at Orient apart, things have generally been worse for me. 10 points from last 10 games is a big concern too. 

 

I hope that SC can turn it around starting with the Gillingham game. He may do when he stops playing 4 CB's in defence and gets the best out of JET. He needs to do those things and fast else we are down.