Have you been entertained?

[JBFC II]

22 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

How many teams, outside the top 2 or 3,  in this (or any division) regularly put on 90 minutes of dominating, free flowing, attacking yet defensively sound football..? 

I think some people on this thread might be confusing turning up at Ashton Gate, with turning up at the Ethihad or the Nou camp..! 

I don't expect us to put in a 90 minute performance either, it's just that none of those were really close to being 90 minute performances in the first place. 

The closest we've come is Swansea at home in my opinion. We looked good offensively and they didn't have a sniff all game

[Bar BS3]

1 minute ago, JBFC II said:

I don't expect us to put in a 90 minute performance either, it's just that none of those were really close to being 90 minute performances in the first place. 

The closest we've come is Swansea at home in my opinion. We looked good offensively and they didn't have a sniff all game

And Swansea away. I’d say that was. 

I don’t think it matters though. Overall, yes, I have been entertained. We’ve been in or around the top 6 for nearly 4/5 months. If you can’t find the drama of that entertaining, then this probably isn’t the club/sport for you. (I’m talking generally, not aimed at YOU specifically) 

[KeepUpLino]

3 hours ago, where's the joy said:

now that the season is set to fall away from us, i am struggling to remember a game where we have played 2 halves of good, attractive football.

i am not bashing the manager just saddened that there have been so few shots on goal, goals, incidents and attractive patterns of play.

how much better did our centre forward look with Reid up top with him before the big exit of our 3 best players and how much crisper was our passing last year?

i've renewed my season ticket praying that we start playing football on the floor next year and unearth a striker from our midfield.

praying that at least Vyner is ready to step up and that COD stays, plays in the middle and starts scoring goals. 

praying not expecting

how do you see it?

I’ve found this season pretty dire and for the first time in 10 years have not renewed, I have to say I actually feel quite relieved... Being in 2 incredible positions 2 years running and not pushing on was the final straw for me, finally the penny’s dropped, we’re just not willing to go that extra mile... I will hopefully enjoy from afar next season  with a few enjoyable away days thrown in.. 

The sad truth it just isn’t much fun anymore!!!

[Bar BS3]

12 minutes ago, KeepUpLino said:

I’ve found this season pretty dire and for the first time in 10 years have not renewed, I have to say I actually feel quite relieved... Being in 2 incredible positions 2 years running and not pushing on was the final straw for me, finally the penny’s dropped, we’re just not willing to go that extra mile... I will hopefully enjoy from afar next season  with a few enjoyable away days thrown in.. 

The sad truth it just isn’t much fun anymore!!!

Who’s going to tell him that this season doesn’t finish until May and that we are 2 points off the play offs, with games in hand...! 

[Nogbad the Bad]

1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

There maybe an amount of truth in your first sentence. There have been many worse times during my City career. 7-1 away to Northampton, an Easter Saturday in 1960 when we conceded two goals in 90th minute to give the relegation nail a solid hammering with a 2-3 defeat. There are dozens of other times not worth remembering. Many caused by lack of investment in the playing staff, injuries to key players, poor managers, poor players.

I think what hurts me so much now, is that we have 90% of a super modern stadium, a perfect pitch that does not appear lacking in grass at any stage of the season, a quality of squad and those coming through the Academy that is possibly the best we've ever had, except maybe on very few occasions (1909, 1955, 1976-79).

Yet we are having to watch such turgid home games with only one or two attempts on target. Dismal first halves, usually with a soft goal conceded, followed by a gung ho last twenty minutes desperately trying to get an equaliser or winner. If a goal happens, then most seem happy, and conveniently ignore / forget the dross that preceded it.

Perhaps I am getting old but I go to football and rugby for entertainment, excitement and quality of performance. I can put up with losing so long as we give it a go.

And Mr Johnson's football is not giving me what I want.

This.

Exactly this Cidered.

I really want to enjoy my main lifelong hobby of watching/supporting Bristol City F.C, but these days I'm not.

The quality is not there, the entertainment is not there, the goalmouth action is not there, and the excitement is not there.

The football is all too often lifeless, and the occasion boring, and I never thought I'd say that about watching BCFC. 

 

[Victory Park Reds]

Some really good points made on this thread.  As I saw the mad dash from the first to the fourth division that wasn’t much entertainment either but my old man took me every week.

So renewing this Friday for me and my boys.

ctid.

[BS4 on Tour...]

4 hours ago, Unan said:

Norwich, Blackburn, Stoke, Swanse, Brentford, West Brom, Sheffield United.

Off the top of my head, I’m sure there’s more.

 

3 hours ago, Super said:

Certainly been a lot more shocking games at home.

 

3 hours ago, JBFC II said:

I don't think you could argue we put in a '90 minute performance' for any of those to be honest

Yeh....but is Unan talking about games at home or away against those teams? It’s only Sheff U and WBA that we haven't played twice from that list....

[mozo]

3 hours ago, Unan said:

Blackburn was 2 good halves, minus a 15 minute purple patch, & we didn’t dominate Stoke first half but we were, IMO, entertained.

I don't think many teams will have games were they totally dominate for 90 minutes in the Championship, if that’s what the question meant. 

I just dug out my text to my Blackburn mate at half time:

What a mental, stressful, entertaining half of football! First ten we were nicely on top, then that goal from a corner just ruined our confidence and we couldn't play a simple pass until the free kick. 2-2 might still be a shout. You needed to capitalise when we were all over the shop

[Hampshire Red]

Keepuplino and Andy 08 won't be missed on here but could be a nightmare if they continue to be so dire in what are two unequivocally good seasons. If it's not your bag, fine, everyone can get thrills and entertainment at panto or on the Web but please dont come back on a City forum and knock two of the best seasons in the clubs history.  There another alternative just a few miles away

[KeepUpLino]

1 hour ago, Bar BS3 said:

Who’s going to tell him that this season doesn’t finish until May and that we are 2 points off the play offs, with games in hand...! 

I'll have a little bet with you BS3 that we won't finish in the pray offs....? Just stating I'm not enjoying the experience at all watching City at home these days... Quite frankly its shite!!

[KeepUpLino]

8 minutes ago, Hampshire Red said:

Keepuplino and Andy 08 won't be missed on here but could be a nightmare if they continue to be so dire in what are two unequivocally good seasons. If it's not your bag, fine, everyone can get thrills and entertainment at panto or on the Web but please dont come back on a City forum and knock two of the best seasons in the clubs history.  There another alternative just a few miles away

**** off u moron... I was just stating I'm not enjoying the home experience anymore and you give me that ^^^^ ******* shit...... ***!!!

[Dredd]

Least enjoyable playoff push ever. 

In all seriousness there have a been a few enjoyable games. Most recently QPR but we haven’t hit the heights of attractive football we did last season

[BS4 on Tour...]

3 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

There maybe an amount of truth in your first sentence. There have been many worse times during my City career. 7-1 away to Northampton, an Easter Saturday in 1960 when we conceded two goals in 90th minute to give the relegation nail a solid hammering with a 2-3 defeat. There are dozens of other times not worth remembering. Many caused by lack of investment in the playing staff, injuries to key players, poor managers, poor players.

I think what hurts me so much now, is that we have 90% of a super modern stadium, a perfect pitch that does not appear lacking in grass at any stage of the season, a quality of squad and those coming through the Academy that is possibly the best we've ever had, except maybe on very few occasions (1909, 1955, 1976-79).

Yet we are having to watch such turgid home games with only one or two attempts on target. Dismal first halves, usually with a soft goal conceded, followed by a gung ho last twenty minutes desperately trying to get an equaliser or winner. If a goal happens, then most seem happy, and conveniently ignore / forget the dross that preceded it.

Perhaps I am getting old but I go to football and rugby for entertainment, excitement and quality of performance. I can put up with losing so long as we give it a go.

And Mr Johnson's football is not giving me what I want.

A superb post Sir.....sums up what a lot of people are thinking....those who talk about ‘entertainment’ seem scared about admitting they aren’t being entertained anymore....

[New Dazzler]

Winning, or to be more precise, accumulating as many points as possible in whatever way it can be achieved is, for me, the reason why I am a fan.  Of course there are many other factors that come into it, meeting up with and chatting with people around who I have known for years, but don't know their names and the general "matchday experience", debating it all on here or in the pub or wherever, trying to pay for something in a shop, or in my case recently at the opticians, only to pull your season ticket out of your pocket and the cashier recognising your allegiance to your club, and having an immediate bond and chatting intently about City for 3 or 4 minutes to someone you will probably never meet again etc, etc.  It is a very social thing.

But I don't really care about playing pretty flowing football to achieve a win.  This season's home game against Stoke was one of a very few league homes ever where I felt I had to applaud the team off following a losing performance, as we had performed very well second half and came up against a current England squad keeper who played out of his skin.  We lost, but had put up a good fight.  We weren't in the promotion picture and we were on a bad Johnson streak, but there was a bit of promise that if we played that at home for the rest of the season we wouldn't be involved in a relegation battle.  Roll on from the end of October to the end of December, and we come up against Rotherham and find ourselves on a bit of an unbeaten run mainly due to picking up some unexpected away wins.  But we were still struggling to win home games and we had only drawn against the likes of Millwall and Brentford.  Rotherham seemed to be heading the same way, 0-0 and not pretty to watch and then they get a player sent off.  We still can't score.  Thanks ref, Rotherham now down to 9 men with 10 minutes to go and we still can't score.  Into injury time and Adam Webster nods in a corner that the keeper almost gets a hand on, but we've won the game! Absolutely brilliant.  As was the moment Fammy blasted in that penalty in injury time to beat QPR after we had been 0-1 down after not playing particularly well for most of the match.  Add in the Marley Watkins winner against Sheffield United and Fammy's late, late winner against Hull and these have been great matches that have provided many valuable points to put us in a great position with 2 games in hand on most of our rivals.

Have we had any great moments when a player has scored a superlative goal that has had all the Sky pundits banging on about a Messi-type goal.  Yes, COD's great goal at Carrow Road, how many points did that earn us, none!

We are in with a great chance of the play-offs and, if we were to achieve that it would be amongst the top 2 seasons since we got relegated from the top flight in 1980 the other one being 2007/8, as good as Cott's promotion season was, we were playing in the 3rd tier.

I really get the fact that many are writing us off because we are on another frustrating Johnson bad run, and they well may be right, but we have 2 huge away games coming up that we would probably have been confident of getting at least 4 points from a few weeks ago.  We have 10 games left and we could slump to below mid-table, or we might end up in the Premier League, but that is why football is such a great game.

But for me, this has, so far, been a great season.  We all know it could all go tits up, or we could get into the play offs following a scrappy game at Hull when we get a late winner that goes in off of Marley Watkin's elbow, and then sail though the play offs as the likes of Leeds etc implode as they are gutted at not getting auto promotion.  More  likely is that we will finish 7th-9th.  But it is all about results, I personally don't give a flying one about how we get them!

 

[Robbored]

32 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

A superb post Sir.....sums up what a lot of people are thinking....those who talk about ‘entertainment’ seem scared about admitting they aren’t being entertained anymore....

If City were playing drab football but still winning the entertainment value wouldn’t  matter one iota.

[BS4 on Tour...]

2 minutes ago, Robbored said:

If City were playing drab football but still winning the entertainment value wouldn’t  matter one iota.

...but people were moaning on here about lack of entertainment when we were in the middle of our fine unbeaten run earlier this season....so it DID matter to some back then....

[Robbored]

47 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

...but people were moaning on here about lack of entertainment when we were in the middle of our fine unbeaten run earlier this season....so it DID matter to some back then....

LJs critics...........to them it wouldn’t matter if City were playing scintillating stuff, they’d still moan..........

[Bar BS3]

2 hours ago, KeepUpLino said:

I'll have a little bet with you BS3 that we won't finish in the pray offs....? Just stating I'm not enjoying the experience at all watching City at home these days... Quite frankly its shite!!

I don’t think we’ll finish top 6 either, but I’m enjoying being serious challengers. 

I’m sure, like myself, you’ve supported City through times where we’ve regularly had 7k crowds, maybe 12k at this level. Been sat (or stood) hoping that you might get a soggy poached burger, before you piss against a brick wall, with no roof over it. 

Watching a bunch of hard working donkeys, with little actual talent, whilst never having any real hope of playing against top teams, even though we were in the 2nd tier.

Some look back on those times as “romantic” “proper football” etc. 

I’ll tell you what... I’ll take today’s position and situation all day. Thank you..! 

If we were in Rovers position, or even Stoke’s for that matter, I might agree with you. 

Right now, in our position, I can’t agree with your doom & gloom summary of where/what we are. 

[Robbored]

2 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

I don’t think we’ll finish top 6 either, but I’m enjoying being serious challengers. 

I’m sure, like myself, you’ve supported City through times where we’ve regularly had 7k crowds, maybe 12k at this level. Been sat (or stood) hoping that you might get a soggy poached burger, before you piss against a brick wall, with no roof over it. 

Watching a bunch of hard working donkeys, with little actual talent, whilst never having any real hope of playing against top teams, even though we were in the 2nd tier.

Some look back on those times as “romantic” “proper football” etc. 

I’ll tell you what... I’ll take today’s position and situation all day. Thank you..! 

If we were in Rovers position, or even Stoke’s for that matter, I might agree with you. 

Right now, in our position, I can’t agree with your doom & gloom summary of where/what we are. 

Well said BS3. Top post mirroring my sentiments exactly.

[Mr Popodopolous]

14 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Not always.

Off the top of my head...

• Middlesbrough 2 woodwork- yes agreed, we were pushing hard and it was late- though we deserved the loss, 2-1 would have been fairer.
• Sheffield Wednesday- Kelly woodwork first half.
• Hull woodwork- 2nd half but not too late in game.
• Stoke at home- Diedhiou hit it twice, fairly sure one was in first half. First half v them wasn't so terrible anyway.
• Didn't we hit it 1st half at home to Millwall.
• Unsure on timings v Rotherham or Bolton but get the feeling they were 2nd half, if not quite late.
• Ipswich was first half wasn't it?

I'll double check these though- memory maybe hazy.

Disallowed goals? Pisano was definitely 2nd half v QPR, Weimann was first half v Swansea when it was all kicking off.

Mixed bag tbh, bit more of an emphasis on first half but by no means most.

@Robin Wood

Well, check these I have:

• Middlesbrough- 2nd half late on, as remembered.
• Sheffield Wednesday- Correct
• Hull- First half but we were actually pretty dominant in the 2nd.
• Stoke- 1 in each, correct.
• Millwall- Correct, first half.
• Rotherham 2nd half in that game when down to 10 and latterly 9. Bolton? Once in each half.
• Ipswich first half.

Disallowed goals, 1 in each half.

I actually overstated the case it'd seem- we've not started badly a lot of the time at home this season. 6 first half woodwork, 5 2nd half when chasing. Disallowed goals 1 in each. Actually basically 50/50 in this respect, with a little edge to first half. Now these stats obviously can't be taken in isolation and context of performance is everything too but it's a little dent in that narrative.

[Mr Popodopolous]

13 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

This.

Exactly this Cidered.

I really want to enjoy my main lifelong hobby of watching/supporting Bristol City F.C, but these days I'm not.

The quality is not there, the entertainment is not there, the goalmouth action is not there, and the excitement is not there.

The football is all too often lifeless, and the occasion boring, and I never thought I'd say that about watching BCFC. 

 

I think you'll find the goalmouth action is there or at least more than you would care to state- we're pretty wasteful with it though, we're mid table for shots on  target at home and while it isn't a clear indicator in itself,  throw in 11 woodwork and 2 wrongly disallowed goals- which don't class as shots on target- and matters improve.

Entertainment is subjective. Tell us your metrics- is it dominance of the ball? Is it goals, is it near misses but at least high octane football? There are people who scoff at Barcelona's entertainment value or there were at least during peak Guardiola because they weren't getting it forward quickly enough, because they were so dominant of the ball...because it was very often attack v defence or patient building v defence but the reason for that was because they were that good that teams had to drop deep in the main. Had to.

The game at decent levels has changed, it's a lot more tactical- watch Championship football more widely if you don't already and you will see what I mean in most instances. Leeds v Sheffield United- while doubtless there was a good quality of general play- had one shot on target in 90 mins. Not per side- from both sides.

Not only has the game changed, but we have changed- you would get a lot of goalmouth action at home in League One because we were the dominant side, or one of the dominant forces at least in the League. Now we are not- nobody has been in such a competitive division like this season (Wolves last year and Fulham post Christmas, granted).

[mozo]

I must be some sort of freak because I like City to play nice football regardless of results!

What happened to the Bristol City tradition of playing football the right way that used to be talked about?

If every team only cared about results we would be trapped in some sort of Klinsmann/Warnock dystopia!

[Riaz]

It's always entertaining and this team tries to play decent football.

If people think this is bad jeeeeez. They cant have been supporting this club very long!

[Red Rag]

I was being to feel it was only my son and myself being completely bored with the fare on offer this season. Cant remember really enjoying one game this season to such an extent that i asked him does he want to renew for next year. It was only him saying yes that i bought the season cards. If he had said no i would not have had an issue just giving it all up. It does make you think twice when forking out over £800. Just hope i have made a wise choice.

    

[Abraham Romanovich]

14 hours ago, KeepUpLino said:

I’ve found this season pretty dire and for the first time in 10 years have not renewed, I have to say I actually feel quite relieved... Being in 2 incredible positions 2 years running and not pushing on was the final straw for me, finally the penny’s dropped, we’re just not willing to go that extra mile... I will hopefully enjoy from afar next season  with a few enjoyable away days thrown in.. 

The sad truth it just isn’t much fun anymore!!!

This is exactly how I feel and after15 years have decided not to renew, the football is dull and the whole experience of attending has become a chore. 

My solution is to become a member and pick and chose the games I wish to attend 

[Berkshire Red]

I think while we are currently in a similar league position to last season the entertainment value has not been there this year.

Last season city scored 3+ goals on 8 separate occasions (including a 5-5 thriller)

The season before we scored 3+ goals on 4 separate occasions

And the season before that 3 times

This season city have scored 3+ goals once and while getting a win is important as a fan, I would prefer to watch high scoring football, even if we occasionally do fall short

 

[Sturny]

18 minutes ago, City18 said:

I think while we are currently in a similar league position to last season the entertainment value has not been there this year.

Last season city scored 3+ goals on 8 separate occasions (including a 5-5 thriller)

The season before we scored 3+ goals on 4 separate occasions

And the season before that 3 times

This season city have scored 3+ goals once and while getting a win is important as a fan, I would prefer to watch high scoring football, even if we occasionally do fall short

 

I'd also like to see how many times we've been losing to come back and win it. Happened a few times last season! 

[Natchfever]

It's quite odd how many folks say they haven't renewed, yet the club is showing increased sales and exactly the same thing happened last season.

There's presumably no way the club would claim sales that didn't happen so new SC holders are being attracted somehow.

 

[Sturny]

4 minutes ago, Loon plage said:

It's quite odd how many folks say they haven't renewed, yet the club is showing increased sales and exactly the same thing happened last season.

There's presumably no way the club would claim sales that didn't happen so new SC holders are being attracted somehow.

 

Don't believe everything you read on OTIB, it's not the defined opinion of the fans 

[Mr Popodopolous]

11 minutes ago, Sturny said:

I'd also like to see how many times we've been losing to come back and win it. Happened a few times last season! 

From memory.

Depends if you're talking home, away or both but I remember at least 2 at home- Bolton and QPR. Coming from behind to draw with Norwich (and one point may have been 3 if Tettey had been red carded as he should have been) was also quite good.

Oh yeah, Blackburn was a 2nd half show too.