Red-Robbo

2 minutes ago, BrizzleRed said:

Very true.  

It certainly had that end-of-season atmosphere about it and as you say, you can bet it would have been very different with something riding on it.

I still think the club have a hell of a lot of work to do to try and get more of the fans back on board for the new season though.

I just think "I've seen a hell of a lot worse in the past"!  Not thrilled with Manning, but his reign has so far given us a few highpoints, so it's not all been tedium. There are glimpses that a joined-up successful Bristol City could be created although far too much is slow-paced cobblers like Saturday. I'll press on as a fan and hope that consistency might come. We've not had a really exciting season for some time. Even under NP it was all "a period of transition".

Although Huddy fans are big soppy Yorkshire puddings - they must all have eagle eyes in order to have instantly seen from the other side of the ground that there was "no penalty" (and as for the extra time added, they clearly don't know the rules) - however their side gave a good account of itself, as will most teams playing out of their skin at this stage of the season to try to avoid the drop. I think that intensity made us look poor, especially in the first half. 

Just now, BrizzleRed said:

I think you’ll find this is what you get when you disconnect with a large number of your fanbase.  

They don’t feel invested any more, so find it far easier to walk away if they’re watching dross.  I reckon you can put a large amount of blame down t when we turned from fans into customers.

If the product is shit, you can then walk away without conscience.

There is also the fact that it was a dead rubber game. The end result wasn't really that important. It was boring and a bit cold so people left.

If we'd been desperate for a point to stay out the drop zone or make the play-offs, then you'd find people staying until the final whistle regardless of those two factors. 

3 hours ago, IAmNick said:

I get what you're going for, but I think we need to be a bit careful here - has he really never blooded youth in his career? Do you mean a team's own academy specifically, as that's a very different claim. What is "youth", what is "blooding" them?

 

A quick look, at MK Dons:

Brooklyn Ilunga: Gave him his debut from the academy at 17

Callum Tripp: Gave him his debut from the academy at 16

Signed and played:

Patrick O'Hora: 21

Matthew Dennis: 19

 

At Oxford:

Gatlin O'Donkor: Regular starter at 18 from the academy

Tyler Goodman: Played at 19 from the academy

Stephan Negru: Debut at 20

 

 

I'm not trying to go out of my way to defend Manning, but I'm just interested where this "He hates youth" thing comes from. His signings have been pretty young, he's playing some pretty young players... what do we mean specifically here?

The above is from a quick look so might be a bit wrong. It feels a bit like it's been said a few times recently though and is now accepted as truth.

Gatlin O'Donkor has to be a made-up name, surely?  

Huddersfield got entirely what they deseved after all the ludicrous play acting and unsporting behaviour in the last 15 minutes. It's interesting that during the attack which led to the ball being up there for the penalty, yet another one of their players went down "with cramp" and once his appeal to stop the game was ignored by the ref, instantly sprang back up and sprinted to the box, cramp now all better. 

I hate the play acting in modern football. It's one of the things rugby fans always ridicule about the game - and they have a point.

Up to now I have had no real feelings about Huddersfield Town. Now, I want them to go down. **** them. 

17 hours ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

Decent away win for Taunton at Farnborough today, given themselves half a chance of staying up now. Looking a bit nervy for Torquay though sadly - if they go down it`s curtains for the club I fear.

At minimum, they will not have any full-time pros on the books. They get decent support for that level and now Osborne isn't involved the ground should be safe.

Rumour is that the bloke who runs Brewdog is interested in taking it over. 

I just love it when timewasting comes back to bite a team on the arse.   I was bored to ****, but now feel rather cheery. 

I usually stay to the end but the game was so horrible I"d have probably left had it not been drizzling. 

I waited for the rain to pass whereas my matchday companions caught the rain but missed the goal. You gotta larf! 

4 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I kind of know what you’re saying but for me a high press, say from a goal kick being played out from back, which results in a turnover from a good press is different to a ball into the channel IMO which isn’t a press.

The intensity and intent however is the same granted, willingness to run those channels and force mistakes with your pace and positioning yes, but that’s not a press. A straight out foot race between defender and attacker is not the same as the modern press. Regardless of if the attackers intent can force a mistake, like a poor touch or back pass.

Fair enough. and having rewatched Conway's goal, I think you're right: the ball isn't trapped by Hyam but bounces off him and TC pounces.  Still needs good composure from Conway to seize the chance. Another 20 seconds and it's safe for Blackburn.

2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

To quote John Maynard Keynes - “When the facts change, I change my mind”.

 

Correctly quoting a personal hero.

I think we played very well as a unit - you don't really criticise anyone much after a result like that. Vyner made a couple of howlers in the game, but Blackburn couldn't make much of them. But, like Syksey, he played his part in the win and overall, he's a positive, as ever. 

3 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

As I said on another thread, you lose 5 nil if you collapse or meet a far superior team.
Blackburn have the 2nd worse defence in the league and we’ve got the 8th worst goals scored in the league, so, it clicked for us last night, but they were awful. For our level of football those are gift wrapped chances.

Credit for our running and energy in the channels, but the first two goals didn’t come from a press but from balls over the top. From a defensive perspective, they both should have been cleared easily. First goal, awful first touch actually (it was a mis control, not back pass IMO) to let Tommy in. Second, mis-kick then reckless diving challenge when the angle was tight for Sykes anyway.

Third was good pressing, but Mehmeti isn’t outmuscling Hyam, he’s misjudged it and played for a foul and gone down like a child. Very poor. Then his team mates seem to wait for the whistle and just watch - lovely skill and finish from Anis to capitalise though. 

4th - I mean, come on.

5th - lovely goal, but they'd collapsed. 

To my mind, a "press" includes strategic balls over the top. It wasn't as if we were lumping it up from our half a la Pulis. We played on the front foot more or less from the off. Totally agree that they gave away stupid penalties. But then, most are...  Silvio is right to give credit to a ref who called them correctly particularly when others might've ignored the handball "because I've already given them one".  

3 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Not knocking Tommy at all but it was as simple a finish as you will ever get in a 1 v 1. Because of the mistake by Hyam the keeper was in a poor position and literally gave Tommy the whole side of the goal to aim at. A player of his ability literally could not miss........in fact I would have been disappointed to miss that myself (accepting it would be a possibility)!! 

I felt sorry for Pears to be honest. Any keeper playing behind that back-four deserves some sort of bonus to make up for the short term harm it will do for his career. Even on back passes he had balls played back to him and then the player would "hide" behind the line of a City player so he couldn't receive it back. He would have walked off last night absolutely raging and probably had a right rant in the dressing room afterwards. There was so much "wrong" about Blackburn last night it was untrue. If they were trying to get Eustace sacked they might have made it less obvious......................

Agree on Mehmeti that whatever the rights and wrongs of the defending it was a very good bit of play that opened up a second half that had been a bit drab to that point.

It was a simple finish, but it was possible because we were repeatedly up there and Tom was quick to pounce on the mistake. Nakhi managed to give the keeper an option when he was clear through in a one-on-one in the same position in the second half. 

Quite why Blackburn were so bad is interesting. They aren't a great side, but haven't been that bad all season. It might just be a case of everything going wrong for them and us doing everything right. "The perfect storm". I remember seeing us get demoralised when we've conceded from an obvious defensive balls-up and after penalties too, so I think the first half double whammy knocked their individual confidence to play. Amazing how professionals can begin to doubt themselves, but it happens.

All that said, there was a period of about 15 minutes after half-time when they more than matched us - their subs had strengthened their midfield and the #2 in particular was giving us problems that the man he'd replaced never had.  It's the story of the night that we easily absorbed the pressure and when we replaced our own tiring players, the results were spectacular. 

On 08/04/2024 at 13:12, kmpowell said:

 

Del Boy's dad watches us take on Bradford Park Avenue. 

1 hour ago, Alessandro said:

There’s a few on here using that win last night as justification to say they’re vindicated for their strong support of Manning - and sticking the knife those who’ve, rightly ImO, been critical of an otherwise underwhelming, and at times little streaky, reign under Manning so far. 

As I said in another thread, the last 4 ‘results’ have been very good - but in those 4 games we’ve been the beneficiary of some poor finishing (Vardy) and top keeping from Max (v Sunderland in an otherwise pretty poor showing) and we were literally gift wrapped 4 goals last night.

So all I’m saying is, within that nice run, it’s not all been perfect sailing - we’ve ridden our luck at times and despite the clean sheets we’ve continued to give away big chances, statistically that will catch us up.

That’s not taking away however from a big improvement from Manning, playing a footballing style that is better suited to the squad finally and more akin to what was suggested the club wanted when they appointed him. Hopefully that means he has adapted (voluntarily or otherwise) which would be very good news. 

Big improvement but as I say, I’m not celebrating anything yet….long way to go. 
 

EDIT - I dare say the results uptick have also been helped in part by the return of a player we don’t have next season too…

I don't think we were "gift wrapped" goals. Hyams may have been poor but both pens and his under-pressure back pass came because we were pressing high and continuously. For his first,  Conway still needed to be alert to the possibility and bury it. I've seen us miss plenty of possible interceptions. As for Mehmeti's goal, there was nothing gift wrapped about it in my opinion. After robbing the defender he had to hold him off, take it into the box, wrong-foot another defender and shoot from an angle to avoid a third. It was pure skill. 

You don't fluke a 5-0. It comes because you were playing well - as well as them playing poorly. 

1 hour ago, Silvio Dante said:

Tbf it’s not a bad idea, but I’d go further. I realise the club aren’t looking to make money on the £1 tickets - moreso on the adult tickets - but the thing here has to be bums on seats, and try and hook kids for the future. Go out to all the local clubs in the Hanham Minor League and offer them, say, 25 free tickets. Put them in half the Atyeo. Get the bums on seats, get the merchandise sold, get the money from the concessions. Be imaginative. Rotherham aren’t selling it out so you can use the space at limited costs and maybe snare a load of future fans and income.

My nephew was brought up by his plastic Leeds fan dad to be the same. But he had a schoolmate whose dad was a City fan.  So one Saturday, years back, I gave those two and another of their friends a lift up for a game.

They were in the old open safe-standing area, got soaked, watched us win 3-0 and sang throughout the game. They loved it.

That day made three new fans and although my nephew now lives in Hampshire he comes to AG whenever he can. 

As you say, get 'em in! It's how you grow the fanbase. 

2 hours ago, Iron Acton Red said:

Blackburn we’re shocking mind you

For a 5-0 you need both them to be poor (which they aren't always. Remember they scored 5 goals in one of their March games) and us to be on the top of our game.

Last night, things clicked into place. We played a logical formation and went front foot from the start in the way Manning's been talking about . Once we got the pen, Blackburn heads went down - as often happens - and we took our revenge for losing at their place. Revenge in style!

They were toothless, but there were moments at 2-0 when it looked like they might get a goal and give us a game. Fortunately Szmodics didn’t have his shooting boots on, so even when he was through on goal, he went mysteriously wide. It was as if everything that could go wrong for them, did.

Our subs were timely and transformed what had been a decent win into a rout. I liked that we continued to go for more goals even into the 96th minute. Mehmeti and Wells wanted to make a point to the manager which they certainly did. 

2 hours ago, archie andrews said:

Player of the match for me... 

I thought the same. Just very assured and recycled the ball into attacking positions so well. Some pretty nifty footwork on display at times as well. 

Matt Smith, Lee Mack, Billy Beaumont, loads of dour old blokes in flat caps! Your boys took one hell of a beating! Sir Jack Walker. Can you hear me Sir Jack Walker?! Your boys took one hell of a beating. 

5 hours ago, Lewisdabaron said:

Make sure its not via email. He may take a while to reply. 

At Yeovil now. As he's worked in the game most of his life, he may well object to failed manager's Joseph Barton's public assessment of his abilities. 

36 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

How the hell do you make Henry Winter redundant? Possibly the best journo out there as his awards display. Yes, liked Lee Johnson a bit much but on the whole he’s a great read. Is it that the Times aren’t going to cover football any more as who do they genuinely get that’s better?

Murdoch's quietly running The Times into the ground.  Telegraph-ising it. Out go experienced journalists with contacts, in come the Jocastas and Piers who don't need a big salary as daddy's trust fund pays for most things. 

2 hours ago, BS3City said:

Good shout Robbo, but don't email him.

He's unlikely to read it...

My understanding is that they were perpetually strapped for cash and staff were instructed to strategically ignore invoices and the like.. 

7 minutes ago, TV Tom said:

He must be beered up when making these sort of comments 

You'd think the four-eyed shortarse might be kinder about making comments based on others appearance.

Tammy, but Semenyo would be another great choice to give us what we're missing up front. 

22 hours ago, RedEd73 said:

Posted here as it's relevant to the Gas rather than in the Barton thread. 

He's so endearing! 

As I know Martin Starnes personally, I shall be bringing this post to his attention in the hope he joins the list of people suing Bartscum. His Gofundme donuts won't be able to spend their pensions fast enough to keep him solvent!

Before my time but spoken of fondly by the old 'uns.  RIP Dickie.