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Was SOD about to turn it around?


Davefevs

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I found that he did "suffer fools" - umpteen of us - if not gladly, then at least patiently, upstairs at Bar BS3's Rising Sun, fielding an array of questions, from the quite considered to the quite gormless.

When the Radio Local bod asked him if he was "up for the fight," perhaps he might just have replied: "Yes." That would've been better. He might then have added how that meant he would "fight" in the way we prepared for the next game and bang on about processes v outcomes etc if he wanted to.

In other words, he could've used a bit of media training. "Sean, are you up for a bit of media training?   ...... no, sorry. Stupid question."

As others have mentioned, his programme notes were a good read, and you had the impression of someone fascinated by the theory, of a teacher, or a lecturer, on football coaching and sports psychology. A theorist as much as, or more, than a practitioner. He didn't appear to enjoy match day, or matches themselves, when all control over events was relinquished, and us gormless hordes, with our restless desire for immediate positive outcomes were let in. Sean was surely happier up Failand, working on the squad's decision making.

He was a teacher and a thinker.

Which was nice, but we just wanted to win the next game. And the one after that. And Cotts' was up for that.

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7 minutes ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

I found that he did "suffer fools" - umpteen of us - if not gladly, then at least patiently, upstairs at Bar BS3's Rising Sun, fielding an array of questions, from the quite considered to the quite gormless.

When the Radio Local bod asked him if he was "up for the fight," perhaps he might just have replied: "Yes." That would've been better. He might then have added how that meant he would "fight" in the way we prepared for the next game and bang on about processes v outcomes etc if he wanted to.

In other words, he could've used a bit of media training. "Sean, are you up for a bit of media training?   ...... no, sorry. Stupid question."

As others have mentioned, his programme notes were a good read, and you had the impression of someone fascinated by the theory, of a teacher, or a lecturer, on football coaching and sports psychology. A theorist as much as, or more, than a practitioner. He didn't appear to enjoy match day, or matches themselves, when all control over events was relinquished, and us gormless hordes, with our restless desire for immediate positive outcomes were let in. Sean was surely happier up Failand, working on the squad's decision making.

He was a teacher and a thinker.

Which was nice, but we just wanted to win the next game. And the one after that. And Cotts' was up for that.

Nailed it there.  Think I may have been sat next to you at Bar BS3.  I was particularly impressed with his oversized blue sweater that made him look like someone who spent time in the refence section of the Central Library rather than a well paid football manager.

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18 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 Bournemouth were in a different position before SOD became manager.

SOD had been at the club for 16 years and had been on the coaching staff before he was given the boss's chair. He knew the players inside out and Mel Machin had assembled a decent team.

What's more interesting is what he did after City. A 16-game spell at Walsall where he took over a club flying high, but after starting well reverted to tappa-tappa-losethe ball stuff as seen at City and only won 2 of his last 11 games.  The new manager John Whitney restored winning ways, but SOD's spell left the Saddlers one point from automatic promotion at the end of the season and losing the pray-offs to Barnsley. 

SOD would never manage a club again. 

His work at Doncaster was in general excellent..his work at Nottingham Forest was good- an unwarranted sacking there. Others have cited Bournemouth- he even had (at home) a strong start here. AG was a bit of a fortress in his first couple of months.

Think he helped to lay certain foundations but probably the wrong man to get us firing properly at that time. A short term jolt probably needed.

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1 minute ago, Northern Red said:

To be fair to him, he always said that the work he was doing behind the scenes would take time to come to fruition and that he might not be around to see the results.

........and he probably had a quiet smile to himself when he saw the next regime rip the lot up.

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20 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

His work at Doncaster was in general excellent..his work at Nottingham Forest was good- an unwarranted sacking there. Others have cited Bournemouth- he even had (at home) a strong start here. AG was a bit of a fortress in his first couple of months.

Think he helped to lay certain foundations but probably the wrong man to get us firing properly at that time. A short term jolt probably needed.

 

This was it. He seemed a good appointment at the time.

As others have said, he may well have begun some long-term good work behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, on the pitch, it was not only a bloody disaster but shite to watch. Worse than it is now, if truth be told.

It's a results business and I have no doubt we'd have gone down for the second consecutive season had he stayed. Bournemouth were relegated in his first full season there, though he did redeem himself by getting them back up and laying the foundation for Eddie Howe's future success.

I got the impression though that his ego had grown so much due to people talking about him as some sort of tactical genius that he couldn't bear to tweak the formula to suit the realities of Ashton Gate. 

As Cotts later showed, the basis of a good team was there. 

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19 hours ago, Harry said:

I actually think the Rovers game was the beginning of the end for Sean. 
It was a mistake for him to berate the fans after this game and many would never forgive him for that.
This was his biggest mistake in his time here. 
We’d had a very difficult start to the season, but the games were actually quite entertaining. Bradford, Cov, Wolves, MK, were all good games against strong sides that year, in which we were a tad unfortunate not to get much from. 
Sean’s last 6 games were won 2, drawn 3, lost 1 and, whilst that period had lacked in entertainment it was beginning to turn. 
I honestly think that he’d have been afforded a bit more time and patience by the fans had he not alienated himself with the comments after the Rovers game. He was never going to win back a lot of the fanbase after that and even if we’d won the next 5 he still wouldn’t have been forgiven. 
 

It’s actually something I spoke to Sean about and I think it’s one thing he didn’t really grasp the seriousness of. I think he figured it was just a few angry fans (like you’d get at any club), but I said that the context and given the opponent, wouldn’t sit well with a large proportion of fans, not just a few. 
It really was the one moment I’d look upon and say that was when the writing was on the wall for him. 

He was being interviewed on Sky, I'm not sure how he could condone what happened after the final whistle though. 

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No, SOD was not about to turn it round.

You have to look at the context in which he was appointed. He had been moderately successful with Bournemouth and Doncaster, but had always wanted a big job. He had applied for the City job twice and been turned down. Then he got a job as assistant manager to Cotterill at Forest. Cotterill was sacked, and SOD got the Forest job. Perfect for him. A big job, and he already knows the players. His first league game for Forest, on the opening day of the 2012/3 season, was a 1-0 win at Ashton Gate against us. On Boxing Day 2012 Forest beat Leeds 4-2 away. They were 7th. Hours later, SOD was sacked. At that point, SOD effectively fell out of love with football, became disillusioned, and has done nothing in management since.

Meanwhile, at BCFC, Lansdown had watched with horror as he splashed 40 million of his own cash up the wall to get promoted in the post 2008 play-off era. For a cautious financial investor, that must have been a nightmare. Even to this day, Lansdown talks about how he will just never do that again. Lansdown said in 2002 "I would never invest in a business without hope of a reward". He wants to make money out of BCFC, as well as watching them become successful. And he had allowed his head to rule his heart, to splash out on Peter Styvar, Evadner Sno, and Alvario Saborio, and all for nothing. If you are spending your life trying to make money, and you effectively gamble away 40 million, that is one serious cold glass of water in the face. 

So Lansdown started his nonsense about 5 pillars (can you name the 5 pillars?), and sustainability, and buying young and selling on. Essentially he was now trying to make money (or stem the losses) not by pushing for the Premier League but by becoming a selling club, like Crewe under Dario Gradi.

BCFC had to appoint SOD because there was no-one else. And SOD spun Lansdown a yarn that Lansdown fell for.  Lansdown has always been susceptible to corporate bu11sh1t. Why else did he trust Lee Johnson for four years? And give Mark Ashton the keys to the football club? Because he likes hearing his David Brent buzzwords repeated back to him.

The yarn that a disillusioned SOD spun him was that endlessly being caught up in short term relegation/signing players/promotion issues is like a Buddhist trapped on the endless wheel of birth and rebirth, and that he was some sort of visionary who could elevate Bristol City to a higher plane, where we would get all the youth teams playing a certain way, like 1970s Ajax, and so whenever we needed a player we wouldn't have to risk Lansdown's money by signing him, but would just promote the next youngster. 

It seemed to fit with the 5 pillars. There was no-one else. So SOD got the job. Except he was still disillusioned. He must have wanted to be still in the Forest job at the top of the table, not in a relegation scrap. He had wanted the City job twice before, and not got it. Was his heart really in it? When he was appointed he said "The club have come round to my way of thinking". I suppose he meant that they agreed with him about developing youth, but it all seemed a bit like a guy saying yes to a girl who had binned him twice before for want of anything better.

But City were in a relegation scrap. Initially signs were good. 17 points from the first 11 games. So in answer to the original question "Was the SOD bounce about to happen?" the answer is No. It had happened when he came in, and it was downhill all the way to the bottom of the third tier. 

Despite the early points bounce, City fans were getting concerned about what SOD was saying in interviews. Before the game at home to Forest, he was asked the obvious question "Are you more motivated to win since they sacked you?" He nearly lost it.

"Why would I want to win one game more than another? If there was something I knew how to do specially to win this game, why would I not do it for all games?" 

Fair response, but the way he reacts with anger and hostility at the idea that he should be pushing for Bristol City to win games was alarming. His general demeanour in interviews was sullen, dour, and petulant. Typically, the interviewer would start with a standard question. SOD would sigh, look weary and pained, and then give a five minute monologue about how the assumptions behind the question were flawed and did not fit with his superior vision of how to be a football manager. His interviews were unlistenable. But there was one exception. After the Forest game, which in fairness to him he won, at the end of the interview the interviewer just threw in a last question "And how do you look back at your time at Forest?" SOD brightened, relaxed, smiled, and using a positive tone of voice for the first time said "LOVED IT!!!". Clearly he had not got over losing his job there in unfair circumstances.

But the worst thing about his interviews was this perpetual claim of his that he never looked at the league table. He kept bringing it up, over and over again. It was like some proof of his superiority over everyone else in football. Now of course we all know that you have to concentrate on winning and then the league table looks after itself, and we all know you have to judge things over three or four games or so, but wait a minute.

City were in the relegation zone. He had to get us out of it. Relegation is failure. One place out of it is success. How can you discount the league table completely? Maybe pay not too much attention to it in the first 8 games of the season, but this was March, we were in the relegation zone, and all our rivals were winning. Anyway, the whole thing is nonsense. The league table is in all the papers. It is on websites. It is next to fixture lists. It is on Sky Sports News and Final Score. Journalists bring it up before and after every match. You can't avoid knowing where you are in the league. It was a strange form of macho-boasting. And it wasn't true. SOD gave himself away because after one game he let slip that he knew where we were in the league as a result. Do you want a chef who refuses on principle to look at the food he cooks? An HGV driver who won't look at the road? A Financial Director who won't look at the accounts? 

After the 17 points from 11 games, City fell fast. 2 points out of 9 and down we went. Finished bottom. Maybe if we all don't look at the league table we can pretend it hasn't happened. But it wasn't just that. The only thing SOD brought to the table was that he made the players run behind the ball after we had lost possession. If you are losing games 4-3 that might be the right tactic, but usually you get out of the bottom three by throwing the kitchen sink at the opposition and having a right go. But we rarely seemed to attack.  Lansdown was unimpressed. At the end of the season he said in an interview "We are still getting used to Sean." In other words, his obnoxious miserably sullen demeanour is not much fun to work with.

The downward spiral continued in the next season. Traditionally City dominate the third tier. We have won its cup an equal record number of times (3), and been promoted from it an equal record number of times (8). From 2000-2008 in the third tier, we always finished in the top half. SOD had good backing in the summer, but after 18 games it was P18 W2 D9 L7 and we were 22nd/24, staring down at the fourth tier. Add in the end of last season and you have   P27 W2 D11 L14. We were on a hideous downward spiral.

All throughout SOD seemed to imply that he was above the common preoccupation with actually winning. That he was operating on a transcendent plane, changing the club's infrastructure and youth development until....one day............as if by magic......DA DA!!! we never have to sign a player again and just glide up the league table as if on a magic carpet. And how distasteful of journalists to ask him about such lowly matters like the fact we have not won in the league yet after 12 games, or can't defend. They don't understand football. He does. 

The final insult came when he was sacked. His only comment? "Football is a merry-go-round." He makes it sound as if Lansdown had just happened to pull out the RELEGATION Tarot Card that morning, as if it had nothing to do with his dreadful performances and dreadful results. Before arriving at City he had lost interest in being a football manager. And since leaving City he has never gone back into management (apart from 3 months at Walsall, when he was sacked)  He was only a good manager at the best of times, but brought to City little other than miserable public statements, relegation, poor performances, and poor results. He had had his bounce at the start. There was not going to be another one. 

 

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9 minutes ago, Boston Red said:

You have to look at the context in which he was appointed. He had been moderately successful with Bournemouth and Doncaster.

He did a phenomenal job with Donny, everyone agreed that 

He had applied for the City job twice and been turned down.

No, he was recommended when we appointed McInnes but SL went against the panel

Hours later, SOD was sacked. At that point, SOD effectively fell out of love with football, became disillusioned, and has done nothing in management since.

Except be a coach at Liverpool

BCFC had to appoint SOD because there was no-one else. 

You have evidence of that?

His general demeanour in interviews was sullen, dour, and petulant. 

But the worst thing about his interviews...

 "We are still getting used to Sean." In other words, his obnoxious miserably sullen demeanour is not much fun to work with.

So, you prefer nice people, like, say, Dean Holden?

 

See above. Seems more concerned with slagging off someone he's never met for their personality, rather than what they achieved.

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12 hours ago, SecretSam said:

Cotterill basically inherited the squad that SOD built, added a few faces, off we went.

All the Cotts lovers on here, remember - he was NOT a popular appointment at the time. What short memories you all have.

Oh, and as for terrible football - the end of St Gary's reign wasn't pretty.

I wasn’t on OTIB back then but I was more than happy with Cotts.  I’d been up to Cheltenham a few times when he was there and liked how his sides tried to play, albeit with some players of limited ability.

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23 hours ago, pongo88 said:

Going back even further, I thought John Ward was starting to turn it around just before Benny was brought in without his knowledge. 

Didn't Benny promise to throw his cap in to the crowd after every home win?  I was hoping the club shop would run out of caps within 6 months..... sadly that didn't materialise!!!

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2 hours ago, Boston Red said:

No, SOD was not about to turn it round.

You have to look at the context in which he was appointed. He had been moderately successful with Bournemouth and Doncaster, but had always wanted a big job. He had applied for the City job twice and been turned down. Then he got a job as assistant manager to Cotterill at Forest. Cotterill was sacked, and SOD got the Forest job. Perfect for him. A big job, and he already knows the players. His first league game for Forest, on the opening day of the 2012/3 season, was a 1-0 win at Ashton Gate against us. On Boxing Day 2012 Forest beat Leeds 4-2 away. They were 7th. Hours later, SOD was sacked. At that point, SOD effectively fell out of love with football, became disillusioned, and has done nothing in management since.

Meanwhile, at BCFC, Lansdown had watched with horror as he splashed 40 million of his own cash up the wall to get promoted in the post 2008 play-off era. For a cautious financial investor, that must have been a nightmare. Even to this day, Lansdown talks about how he will just never do that again. Lansdown said in 2002 "I would never invest in a business without hope of a reward". He wants to make money out of BCFC, as well as watching them become successful. And he had allowed his head to rule his heart, to splash out on Peter Styvar, Evadner Sno, and Alvario Saborio, and all for nothing. If you are spending your life trying to make money, and you effectively gamble away 40 million, that is one serious cold glass of water in the face. 

So Lansdown started his nonsense about 5 pillars (can you name the 5 pillars?), and sustainability, and buying young and selling on. Essentially he was now trying to make money (or stem the losses) not by pushing for the Premier League but by becoming a selling club, like Crewe under Dario Gradi.

BCFC had to appoint SOD because there was no-one else. And SOD spun Lansdown a yarn that Lansdown fell for.  Lansdown has always been susceptible to corporate bu11sh1t. Why else did he trust Lee Johnson for four years? And give Mark Ashton the keys to the football club? Because he likes hearing his David Brent buzzwords repeated back to him.

The yarn that a disillusioned SOD spun him was that endlessly being caught up in short term relegation/signing players/promotion issues is like a Buddhist trapped on the endless wheel of birth and rebirth, and that he was some sort of visionary who could elevate Bristol City to a higher plane, where we would get all the youth teams playing a certain way, like 1970s Ajax, and so whenever we needed a player we wouldn't have to risk Lansdown's money by signing him, but would just promote the next youngster. 

It seemed to fit with the 5 pillars. There was no-one else. So SOD got the job. Except he was still disillusioned. He must have wanted to be still in the Forest job at the top of the table, not in a relegation scrap. He had wanted the City job twice before, and not got it. Was his heart really in it? When he was appointed he said "The club have come round to my way of thinking". I suppose he meant that they agreed with him about developing youth, but it all seemed a bit like a guy saying yes to a girl who had binned him twice before for want of anything better.

But City were in a relegation scrap. Initially signs were good. 17 points from the first 11 games. So in answer to the original question "Was the SOD bounce about to happen?" the answer is No. It had happened when he came in, and it was downhill all the way to the bottom of the third tier. 

Despite the early points bounce, City fans were getting concerned about what SOD was saying in interviews. Before the game at home to Forest, he was asked the obvious question "Are you more motivated to win since they sacked you?" He nearly lost it.

"Why would I want to win one game more than another? If there was something I knew how to do specially to win this game, why would I not do it for all games?" 

Fair response, but the way he reacts with anger and hostility at the idea that he should be pushing for Bristol City to win games was alarming. His general demeanour in interviews was sullen, dour, and petulant. Typically, the interviewer would start with a standard question. SOD would sigh, look weary and pained, and then give a five minute monologue about how the assumptions behind the question were flawed and did not fit with his superior vision of how to be a football manager. His interviews were unlistenable. But there was one exception. After the Forest game, which in fairness to him he won, at the end of the interview the interviewer just threw in a last question "And how do you look back at your time at Forest?" SOD brightened, relaxed, smiled, and using a positive tone of voice for the first time said "LOVED IT!!!". Clearly he had not got over losing his job there in unfair circumstances.

But the worst thing about his interviews was this perpetual claim of his that he never looked at the league table. He kept bringing it up, over and over again. It was like some proof of his superiority over everyone else in football. Now of course we all know that you have to concentrate on winning and then the league table looks after itself, and we all know you have to judge things over three or four games or so, but wait a minute.

City were in the relegation zone. He had to get us out of it. Relegation is failure. One place out of it is success. How can you discount the league table completely? Maybe pay not too much attention to it in the first 8 games of the season, but this was March, we were in the relegation zone, and all our rivals were winning. Anyway, the whole thing is nonsense. The league table is in all the papers. It is on websites. It is next to fixture lists. It is on Sky Sports News and Final Score. Journalists bring it up before and after every match. You can't avoid knowing where you are in the league. It was a strange form of macho-boasting. And it wasn't true. SOD gave himself away because after one game he let slip that he knew where we were in the league as a result. Do you want a chef who refuses on principle to look at the food he cooks? An HGV driver who won't look at the road? A Financial Director who won't look at the accounts? 

After the 17 points from 11 games, City fell fast. 2 points out of 9 and down we went. Finished bottom. Maybe if we all don't look at the league table we can pretend it hasn't happened. But it wasn't just that. The only thing SOD brought to the table was that he made the players run behind the ball after we had lost possession. If you are losing games 4-3 that might be the right tactic, but usually you get out of the bottom three by throwing the kitchen sink at the opposition and having a right go. But we rarely seemed to attack.  Lansdown was unimpressed. At the end of the season he said in an interview "We are still getting used to Sean." In other words, his obnoxious miserably sullen demeanour is not much fun to work with.

The downward spiral continued in the next season. Traditionally City dominate the third tier. We have won its cup an equal record number of times (3), and been promoted from it an equal record number of times (8). From 2000-2008 in the third tier, we always finished in the top half. SOD had good backing in the summer, but after 18 games it was P18 W2 D9 L7 and we were 22nd/24, staring down at the fourth tier. Add in the end of last season and you have   P27 W2 D11 L14. We were on a hideous downward spiral.

All throughout SOD seemed to imply that he was above the common preoccupation with actually winning. That he was operating on a transcendent plane, changing the club's infrastructure and youth development until....one day............as if by magic......DA DA!!! we never have to sign a player again and just glide up the league table as if on a magic carpet. And how distasteful of journalists to ask him about such lowly matters like the fact we have not won in the league yet after 12 games, or can't defend. They don't understand football. He does. 

The final insult came when he was sacked. His only comment? "Football is a merry-go-round." He makes it sound as if Lansdown had just happened to pull out the RELEGATION Tarot Card that morning, as if it had nothing to do with his dreadful performances and dreadful results. Before arriving at City he had lost interest in being a football manager. And since leaving City he has never gone back into management (apart from 3 months at Walsall, when he was sacked)  He was only a good manager at the best of times, but brought to City little other than miserable public statements, relegation, poor performances, and poor results. He had had his bounce at the start. There was not going to be another one. 

 

Fair play, that must be one of the longest posts I’ve seen for a while. And a good read too, wether I agree with all of it I’m not sure, but it does paint a picture of the club more so than maybe it does SOD. 

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2 hours ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

He was being interviewed on Sky, I'm not sure how he could condone what happened after the final whistle though. 

No one would expect him to condone it but he made a point of mentioning it, unprompted, several times before saying something w@nky like “you’d think we’ve been promoted to the Prem not qualified for the 2nd round of the JPT”.

God forbid our fans should have something to cheer about after 12 months of watching complete dross, much of it under him.

 

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19 hours ago, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

No one would expect him to condone it but he made a point of mentioning it, unprompted, several times before saying something w@nky like “you’d think we’ve been promoted to the Prem not qualified for the 2nd round of the JPT”.

God forbid our fans should have something to cheer about after 12 months of watching complete dross, much of it under him.

 

It wasn't unprompted, the interviewer asked him about the celebrations. And the highlighted part? He wasn't wrong.

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2 hours ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

It wasn't unprompted, the interviewer asked him about the celebrations. And the highlighted part? He wasn't wrong.

Really? Not in the interview I found yesterday on YouTube.

He was asked what he thought of his first Bristol Derby and what he considered the key to our win and at the end he was asked if he thought we could potentially go all the way? 
The first time he even praised Rovers supporters who, in my opinion, had started the problems 15 minutes in when around 100 of them arrived with their Police protection they’d arranged for themselves and tried to start trouble with supporters in the Williams.

Neither occasion was he asked about the crowd, but then maybe there’s another interview floating around that I’ve not seen?

 

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I've listened to SOD's interview from BCFC on youtube. He said scenes after game were disgraceful - can't really say anything is wrong about that. He did also say he wasn't very happy with the supporters which he doesn't expand on but I assume he meant the idiots rather than all but clearly that can be interpreted negatively by some fans. I guess for him he really doesn't care if its a Bristol derby or not. In all honesty a lot of managers won't care but some pretend to in order to look better to the fans - SOD just didn't care about that which a lot of fans didn't take to. Clearly this was a major difference between him and Cotterill who I think was genuinely passionate about the games against Swindon and wore his heart on his sleeve etc. Just totally different characters basically.

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On 28/04/2021 at 14:26, Davefevs said:

I was a bit of a part-timer through the GJ years to McIness and only started taking Joe during 13/14 (Peterborough 0-3 at home 1st game).

I was looking at results, both end of 12/13, when he started off well, then big losing run at end of season (relegated) that he carried into the League One campaign.  Having gone weeks and weeks without a win, he picked up a couple of wins (and 9pts in 5 games) before a terrible 0-1 at home to Sheffield Utd.

The rest is history.

I know a lot of us agree that he laid some foundations both in terms of infrastructure and players (and Keith Burt), that Cotts, and then LJ benefitted from.

For those of you regulars in 13/14, do any of you think the tide was turning?

GJ also started with a shocking start.

Cotts was far from stellar either, although nowhere near the extremes of GJ.

Is Pearson’s start in any way similar?  Just wondering if a poor start helps see the true issues that need resolving?

I don't think a poor start illuminates the mind of a decent coach any more so than a host of draws or wins. You see what you see and take action, or not, accordingly.

SOD came, supposedly, with a good reputation. Yet failed miserably at City. You don't become a bad coach overnight but sometimes a coach simply does not fit a club. This was exacerbated by a demeanour that did not sit well with the powers that be nor the local journalists. Perhaps a dour personality works well in a dour place like Doncaster but clearly not in gorgeous Brizzle where we ask a lot of stupid questions but which we all love and laugh at cos we are laid back West country bumpkins.

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13-14 was a strange season. Its very hard to reverse a slide that began on a certain May day in 2008 at Wembley and culminated with 9(?) months without a win in the league. The club was really behind, zero youth development, the stadium was outdated, the training ground was average and the staff and players were bloated.

All that being said the team SoD took into L1 was not as bad as it looked after the first 15 results. People forget but Baldock and JET were on fire, a very over powered strike partnership for that division. I think Baldock ended on 25 goals, he was a quality player who never got enough respect on here. Our weakness was conceding goals, often late on. In part I suppose that reflected the poor mentality of the football club at the time. Flint and Bryan being new at the back can't have helped either, Cunningham was always suspect in a flat 4 as well. Cotts tried to fix this with El-Bad but by March the backline had gelled and that transfer fiasco was forgotten.

I don't think he was about to turn us around but given his signings and his clear belief that Bryan and Reid had serious potential (it was a bit criminal that Cotts pretty quickly discarded Bobby but Freeman was outstanding in the following year) I don't look back at his time with total disdain. Probably the wrong guy, but certainly the wrong time.

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On 29/04/2021 at 07:43, Andy082005 said:

Neither was the beginning 

People have foggy memories about the playoff season. The football wasn't very good let's be honest 

I seem to remember many last gasp goals, hanging on to leads and of course the 6-0 smashing at Ipswich.

It was entertaining because of where we ended up but it was often awful to watch and don’t forget we were top and threw it away with a dire run of games at the end of the season 

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On 29/04/2021 at 21:30, Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan said:

No one would expect him to condone it but he made a point of mentioning it, unprompted, several times before saying something w@nky like “you’d think we’ve been promoted to the Prem not qualified for the 2nd round of the JPT”.

God forbid our fans should have something to cheer about after 12 months of watching complete dross, much of it under him.

 

He was right though, that pitch invasion was the epitome of tin pot and no other clubs fans could understand why we did it, big rivalry or not

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55 minutes ago, MarcusX said:

He was right though, that pitch invasion was the epitome of tin pot and no other clubs fans could understand why we did it, big rivalry or not

Probably the first time most of those on the pitch had experienced a derby win. ‘Other clubs fans’ are always great at taking the high horse until it’s their own team involved so I don’t really give a shit what they think.

Im not condoning what happened. But let’s be honest, neither our fans on the pitch or the Sags in the Eastend looked like they could hit water if they fell out of a boat and the stewards present didn’t really have much to do apart from admire some top notch posturing from both sides. 

No need for SO’D to get his blonde syrup off.

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1 hour ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

Is Nige about to turn it around? Good question? Stupid question? 

Yes, when the retained list comes out we will see that “Evergiven” (City) is slowly turning in the Suez Canal (Championship).

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