BrizzleRed

Exactly and as we were in the lower leagues, it was totally appropriate for our position. After seeing that Terry Cooper interview with him in tears of pride after us beating Bolton, I'll never doubt the value of that competition to him, especially when you look at the honours he enjoyed with Leeds. That was us rising from the ashes of 1982 and there was nothing embarrassing about seeing the club beginning to find its way back to a respectable place again. Whilst I'd never want to see us in that competition again, it was just what we needed at that time to give the club a huge lift and some self-belief. Everyone to their own though.

There certainly are BT and I guess all us City fans come into that category too. How else can we keep coming back every year with renewed hope that this year could be the one when deep down, we all know what the reality with this club will be

For teams in the lower leagues, it was great if you got to the later rounds. Although crowds in the early rounds were crap, it got a lot more serious when a trip to the twin towers started to loom ever bigger. Let's be honest, that was the only way lower league clubs were going to get to Wembley in those days and I view those times with real fondness. Ok, there was that element of standing on the Wembley terraces and looking out onto the pitch, and wishing you were actually at the FA or League Cup Final, rather than the Freight Rover Trophy, but I certainly wouldn't have missed it, or the Hereford semi's .......... that said, there's nothing that would have persuaded me to stump up £454 quid to by a ringer shirt purportedly associated with it either!

Interesting. Looks like that winning bidder waited until the last minute of the auction and slammed a massive bid in. All the bids after that were automatically getting blown out the water by that huge winning bid. Makes you wonder what their top limit was?!

Obviously some people put a lot more value on the 'Mickey Mouse Cup' than you do RR

Yes, completely makes sense what you say. I notice the seller amended their listing just after the discussion on here. They changed the description to say it was a match worn shirt, but wasn’t actually worn in the Final. I can’t imagine anybody bidding anything like that price for any old shirt of that era though, so either someone put on an early auto bid before the listing was amended, or they haven’t read the description well enough. Agreed!

I was watching it at the end and it certainly looked like a bit of bidding fever going on. There had to be at least two people who were desperate to get it, to be able to push the price that high. Wonder if there’s someone thinking ‘what the hell have I done’, when they woke up this morning. Being super-competitive, or prone to getting bidding fever are the two most dangerous things in an auction.

You’ve got a nice little mini nest egg there if you manage to find it then Phants!!!

Well, we could easily name a few on here that did.

Well, that certainly caused some interest and a bit of a feeding frenzy. Final price of £454.00!!!

That single match sale of vacant ST seats is the perfect solution. That would involve some extra effort from the club to make that possible though. At present, they seem to prefer putting their effort into pointing a finger at non-attendees, even though the club have already been paid for that seat. The only time these vacant seats really become a problem is on the rare occasions of a sell-out match. Seems like a lot of noise from the club about nothing.

As you say, it is a lottery and for all the guidelines, the officials often interpret stuff so differently. The offside situation is getting silly now though, with the matter of millimetres being measured. It's like those songs about 'Aguerro, your teeth are offside', or 'Ozil, your eyes are offside'! Joking aside, nobody gains an advantage with a couple of mm, so should it really come down to such small fractions? One of the better suggestions I've heard is to say there needs to be clear daylight between the last defender and the attacker, maybe measured at the waist, being the centre of the body. Ok, that certainly gives the advantage to the attacking team, but the defending team may be less likely to be constantly playing the offside trap, because if they judge it wrong, that really hands a significant advantage to the attacking team. We already see advantages given to keepers in any body contact at present, so giving advantages in the game aren't unprecedented. Don't know how difficult that type of offside decision would be for a lino to judge, but it must already be difficult enough to judge these fractions at present. The problem with VAR is, it seems to be the first point of reference, rather than leaving it to the officials to make a judgement first and leave it to them to ask for VAR if they aren't certain. It just feels like VAR is becoming a massive hindrance to football at present and arguably, causes more controversy than before it existed.

Couldn’t agree more Max. In theory, if VAR was employed properly, it could possibly be a valuable tool, just like goal-line technology undoubtedly is. Sadly, the combination of crap offside rules and the completely flawed employment of VAR above the match officials, has actually made it a blight on the game, rather than a benefit. Higher end football needs to sort itself out, before it actually destroys itself.

Good ol Jon! I know it’s a delicate balancing act with supply and demand and income for the club, but the amount of gaps in the Lansdown particularly, tells me they’re priced too high. Could find even more gaps appearing there once potd people start moving to the SS..

We’ll have to see how it pans out. The prices for all stands are obviously set by the club, so they certainly aren’t forced to price the Lansdown and Dolman so high. Would be interesting to compare our current income to the sell ‘em cheap and stack ‘em high pricing structure at clubs like Bradford City, who apparently manage to average around 18,000.

Good heads-up and wonder how many are thinking it’s midnight tonight. I did mine a bit after midnigt this morning, as I don’t trust them to not have a website crash today.

Happy St George’s day folks! Proud to be English and Bristolian

Let’s hope so NU, as I’m running out of years left for it to happen!!!

Apparently not. The mere mention of Nigel Pearson in a positive tone seems to be a massive trigger!

3 points for a win and the play off’s were a couple of other notables that boosted entertainment and increased attendances. At the moment, there’s loads of TV money sloshing around and clubs seem focussed on that and don’t appear to worry about providing entertainment. If that TV money dries up, you can bet your bottom dollar that clubs’ attention will turn back to pleasing their fans and getting them through the turnstiles again.

Definitely green shoots. I wasn’t at all impressed when he first came in and immediately imposed a different playing style we didn’t have the players for. At that point, he looked like a one trick pony. He’s now shown he’s pragmatic and has adapted the tactics to something more suited to our current squad. Although we still get the occasional stinker thrown in, he’s starting to play to our strengths and getting more consistency in our performances and results. Although we’re all well aware of some deficiencies in our squad, if we can strengthen over the summer, I’m certainly more optimistic that he can improve us than I was when he arrived. Credit to him for showing some resiliance and self-belief and hope it continues.

I recently tried to have a sensible convo with you on here, in the hope that you actually possessed an element of common sense. Won’t happen again after seeing this moronic, attention-seeking post.

I’ve got no love for Man City, but after seeing that today, I hope they totally humiliate United in the final. Absolutely gutted for Coventry. They can hold their heads high, but to go out like that is so cruel and another example of technology killing the spirit of football.

Sounds very plausible. You just get the feeling that he could be the last person left on the bench and we’d choose to play with 10 men, rather than bring him on!

Makes you think a bit more scouting was needed with this one, as it didn’t seem to take very long to make a decision on him once he arrived. Must have had something about him to interest Rangers and Man City, but it’s looking like he could be one of those really promising kids, who doesn’t carry on progressing in the adult game. Hope for his sake he gets back on track, but can’t imagine it being with us.