Red-Robbo

Before the sending off they had about two minutes when it looked like they were in the driving seat: 46-48" Our ability to absorb that initial burst of energy and then flatten it as we played the ball around Luton seemingly effortlessly was a joy to watch.

The city is Red, mate. ?

As others have said, you could put a decent case for everyone being MOTM and a strong case for at least 6 players. As an ex-member of the defenders' union, I'm going to go for Atkinson. Dogged in defence and won so much ground when he took the ball forward.

The only way they could stop them was foul them. Sometimes the myopic ref let them get away with that, sometimes he didn't.

Yep. Can't see how you can shoulder charge someone off-the-ball - and after the ref had already blown for a foul - and stay on. Violent conduct, surely?

Was going to say this. Obviously, an early goal and excellent performance buoyed us, but I think the fans were excellent - noisy even in "quiet" sections of the ground - and still singing and urging us on nearer the end when we were under the cosh. It was lovely to hear.

Wells, Weimann, Conway gave us a speed that Luton's gigantic but ponderous defence just couldn't cope with. When Martin's up front, he slows things down and even flat-footed defenders often have time to get back. Chris did a good job when he came on, but loved the speed with which we got into dangerous positions tonight.

A midfield so lightweight that a gentle breeze will deposit it in Winterstoke Road.

I used to rarely make puns, but they've groan on me...

I saw one dweeb in his clown outfit shirt tonight in Wells. Cheering on Liverpool, because as he admitted to me, he'd not watched the Gas live for 15 years. He had however gone to Anfield three times since. Sums 'em up.

I actually think tactically he isn't a bad manager, just a vile human being. And of course, that temper of his is always threatening to boil over and knacker everything up.

Precisely, and getting out of the L1 mire isn't guaranteed. Unless you have a vast fanbase a la Sunderland and Wednesday, you end up with vastly declining income as you watch the likes of Morecambe, Fleetwood and Shrewsbury. Not to mention having to host the fleabags from across the river.

Have to agree. It's true that in the Championship, the quality gap between the top and bottom sides is far smaller than in the PL. Anyone can more or less beat anyone - it makes for games decided on "fine lines". BUT, our deficiencies shouldn't be disguised by these "should've/could've" arguments. The fact is, we had to wait until the last home game of the season to watch a totally dominant City performance and the three league games this season have, like the vast majority of games last season, been ones where we've been on the back-foot for the majority of minutes. Moments of pure class, longer ones of pure panic.

The trite answer in my view is "a midfield". Scott is clearly a very good player, and Massengo, while not quite in his league IMO also gives us something, while Williams has, in the past, looked solid. But this is not the combination we need and King looks past-it and James hasn't got 90 minutes in him and is injury prone. The way the ball comes back so often on our defence to my mind is a reflection of how easily our MF is bypassed and how we don't retain possession in the middle half of the pitch much. It makes the defence look the problem, but if you bombard anyone's backline with continuous probing attacks, you'll eventually strike lucky. To my mind, we are just a Marlon Pack type player away from having a solid base that will shield the back line and bring the ball forward to the more flair players like Scott and Massengo who can feed our forwards. I'm not sure a wing-back system works either, and Sykes and Dasilva don't look the men to provide the forward oomph to get the ball somewhere Weimann and Martin can work with. I think a flat back four, a - potentially loan - robust, defensive midfielder and we await the return of the injured men and hope Joe Williams plays his way back to full-fitness and confidence to become the player we saw last season. If I were "City's GP" that would be my prescription.

Industry term, innit, but I take your point. Going back to the OP, what you so rarely read on here, but always restores your faith in human intelligence when you do, is when someone starts the thread arguing one point of view, but then has his or her mind changed by what others have posted and acknowledges it. It seems to me, there's something about social media and making posts to strangers that stops many people being able to compromise and back down from set positions. Chatting with your mates in the pub, you are much more likely to change your mind or concede that the opposing view has something going for it.

I think anyone with an ounce of grey matter will acknowledge that Pearson has had a difficult job. Trim the wage bill, not much wriggle room in bringing in players he wants. I am concerned about how very basic mistakes seem to be happening over-and-over and our shape isn't great and to a degree (with a notable Austrian exception) we don't even seem as fit over 90+ minutes as other sides. I confess I do worry about the coaching. I had gone with the received wisdom that Pearson could coach a decent player and make him special, but we seem to not really be developing but accepting that we are one of the weakest sides in the division. Maybe it'll all click into place with Semenyo and Kalas's return, but fans seem to be very accepting of mediocre results against not-that-special sides. If the end of last season gave me hope, the beginning of this one is filling me with a vague sense of foreboding. I don't even want to ponder where we'd be this season if Weimann gets injured.

Certainly wasn't impressive against Sunderland. Looked a shadow of the player he'd been before his injury.

Players develop as they get experience and you could see Ayling improving as his time here went on. Early on his occasional charges upfield would sometimes see him lose the ball just into the opposition half, allowing them to instantly start a counter. This gung-ho tendency was beginning to be tempered and he both retained the ball better and also was surer his attacking forays were covered. I'm certainly not trying to suggest the only reason Luke departed was because he got a telling off over the Cheltenham thing, but whatever the full reasons were, it was, I think, a big mistake by us.

I think Luke was rather unfairly singled out as a result of one picture showing him putting an arm around Carruthers (sp?) and laughing. It's not clear if this was about the peeing or, indeed, whether he was even aware of it. The players were relatively guarded about it, had they not been caught by a pap with a long-lens, no one would have been the wiser. I'd hope the incident didn't hasten Ayling's departure and the club treated him tolerantly, given he was not the miscreant there. We could all see his quality when he was here, plus he was a developing player, he was destined to become something pretty special.

Not sure that's the case. More the fact, he wasn't good enough. The fact he wasn't, is the fault of the 'recruitment team' that signed him, and potentially, his agent. What footballer is going to turn down the chance of a crack at the English second tier? Let's face it, if City wanted to pay me several grand a week to try to get good enough to feature, I'd sign on the dotted. The fact I would make Bas Savage look like Mo Salah would be the fault of whoever was mad enough to recruit me!

I think the club rather made a mountain of it because of the publicity, when in fact it should've pointed out he had done nothing wrong.

To be fair, it was the MK Dons and Northampton players who were the pissers. Ayling's crime seems to simply have been stood with them.

So, if you can't be at a game like that, or follow it on the radio, I reckon the next best thing is - as I was - to be in the pub occasionally checking the score in the presence of a "prowed" Gashead, who follows his side so closely he was unaware of their own League Club "difficulties". You Redzzz!

You're a poet and you don't know it.