Steve Watts

I can only imagine we ended up with a better deal financially with O'Neills. We are their most high profile offering in the game and are possibly seeing it as a foot in the door/audition to other clubs as to what they can offer.

Well according to some it's a shower off s...omething anyway!

Also like the colours. Much better than the eye searingly bright late 90's offering for me. The badge is odd though That was with special dispensation for the 125th. Not sure a 130th has the same aura of celebration! I do wonder, on the basis that they won't go on sale until the summer, whether or not this is a case of testing the waters for fan backlash etc. Much easier to swap those badges around in a month of the general feedback is negative than once they've already gone on sale.

You're right that we haven't loaned anyone in for a while now..... But Alex Scott isn't "anyone". To refuse the chance to take him on would be madness and I can't see the club wanting to refuse unless it affects the financial recompense of the sale. There are exceptions to every rule and I've no doubt he would be the exception to that one. That said, according to Nige, nothing has been offered so far and so it's all conjecture and what if's in any case.

I thought at the time it should've been a red. The red mist had descended and there was no intention in him at all to win the ball it seemed - he lost control of his temper and he seemed to just want to hit someone - anyone - hard. It was reckless and it was retaliation. I expected better of an experienced international player.

"I have much more going on in my life than football RLL" - Robbored - 40,000 posts on an internet forum.....

So which is it? Is he on here or not? If not then how does he know some people talk bollocks on here? Or does he use you as a yardstick.....? Very little adds up really... You try to defend it by referring to kids in the singing section, (before subsequently saying you don't sit there), but state that he was arrested for swearing outside the stadium in front of kids. So basically you have no idea whether the majority of kids who go to games swear. I guess he's right about one thing.... Some people really do talk bollocks on here!

I realise this makes me sound like a real apologist for them, but early days of the Prem the average attendances full stop were so much lower (stats below). Several reasons for this of course. We were coming out of Thatcherist rule, unemployment levels high, mortgage interest rates high, and also the forced move to all seater stadium chopped loads off capacity and forced stands to eventually be replaced, which is why it's seen figures increase year on year. Having said that, they picked up more than 52,000 extra fans last season after the previous one saw them with a pitiful average of 526. Disgraceful! ? 1993 21,125 1994 23,040 1995 24,271 1996 27,550 1997 28,434 1998 29,190 1999 30,581 2000 30,757 2001 32,906 2002 34,470

To be fair to them in League 1 they were still averaging 28k....though that may have been swelled by the 150000 that the Slags took up there....

I meant they didn't seem to have that issue on our pitch on Saturday. Not that I recall anyway.

They were very decent for sure....though I was shocked to see the abortion that was half and half scarves, lanyards, mugs, badges etc on sale in the Club Shop. I thought those were only sold by plums outside the stadium!

Though I don't recall Hull having the same problems, so who knows. Maybe like you say I'm seeing it through rose tinted specs though, I completely accept that may be the case.

I have to be honest - Mouldy Battenberg Shite made me laugh out loud! I do like that one!

I think that's harsh. You look at what the Mammary Gland was like when Bristol was still over there and then look at what we are playing on - that's chalk and cheese. Ok, I accept "perfect" might be over egging it slightly, but farmers field? Come off it! To be fair, the slipping and sliding, particularly on Saturday, just looked like they got their boot choice wrong for the match.

Yeah, Sykes was found wanting, defensively, in that first half, giving George far too much to do. I felt for him, however watching that second goal back he should never be letting Foden get a free run on that cross. He takes a look just before it came in, so he knew he was lurking, but instead he moved into an area that was already being marshalled by Zak.

Was having a browse last night and quite a few were moaning about the - and I quote - "farmers field of a pitch"!!! Am I missing something or were they watching the wrong match by mistake? That pitch is perfect! Which is quite an achievement considering the hammering it takes!

Red cards are the only suspensions that cross competition. Yellow cards are fine. That's why Pring missed the WBA match - he got booked in both the Swansea matches. Fair play to Silva though. I expected him to throw himself to the floor clutching his face when Williams pushed him in the chest. As he didn't it just ended in handbags really. Thought both managers were right to take them both out of the game at that point though. Would've been a real blow to have seen a red card in the match, although arguably Foden could easily have seen red. He only set out to scythe Sykes(?) down - there was no intention to win the ball, he was just angry and the red mist descended.

Kalas and Cam Pring both excellent tonight I thought. Both had by far and away their best performances ever imho. But like others have said you could pick many names out and make a good arguement for them. Scott I think confirmed what most of us already suspected and can easily slot in against world class players and not look out of place.

He did make a few errors, but I felt for him at times. Some of the possession he lost was down to absolutely no outlet for him at all. The run into midfield immediately comes to mind. He only go so far because no-one peeled into space to receive a pass. That tonight goes down as his poorest display of the season is a testament to just how well he's done.

This is city... You just know it will be! ? Well the foil flags which looked naff in the stadium on their own but pretty special on the TV worked well but from what's been said it'll be red and white scarves intended to be whirled around our heads for the visuals.

Free scarves tomorrow as well apparently... Apologies if I've missed this being mentioned. Though that does come from CTID on Facebook, so massive pinch of salt!

Have you actually watched us over those 469 days? I think the start at one point was that we'd had most touches inside the opponents area outside the top three?

My bad, sorry Dave. And yes, I completely agree about that Swansea match. @sinenomine have often labelled that match as his Louis Carey moment where he stopped needing the safety net of experience next to him when Shaun Taylor got injured.

I would also include Tommy and, to a lesser extent, Sammy in the surprise packages as well. Tommy in particular has looked like he's been playing first team football for years as opposed to just being a hot prospect.

Oh, don't get me wrong I don't think Bajic will be ready to compete properly yet, but unless we decide against Haikin I'm not sure that GK is the most pressing area to strengthen. I certainly don't see us bringing in a first team standard keeper who is going to be happy to sit on the bench hoping Max's form nose-dives.