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I covered this on the podcast @Davefevs When NP came in Feb 2020, it was clear that the summer of 2023, would be the opportunity to clear the decks; and effect real change within the playing squad. FFP, and the collapse of the transfer market/covid has affected us, potentially more than any other club in the division. NP has had to bring in players from L1 & L2, as well as a load of OOCs, and old free agents. We are inconsistent, and prone to the odd error (or two), but in the main a better side than Feb 20; when we were in free fall. For me, the last 3 seasons have all been about treading water, and staying the championship in advance of the 15 or so OOCs going. It would only be then that real change would be able to be made on the playing side. I think in that respect, and bearing in mind the injuries, enforced retirements, the lack of finance at times for the required standard of loanees; as well as having to utilise youngsters; NP has not done too bad a job. Yes, we are a frustrating side. But until we drop into the relegation zone, and show no ability/application to get out of it; I'm not unduly worried. Following City is nothing if not a struggle for at least 75% of the time. Just enjoy the good times when they happen.

Not worried, just a bit disappointed at the moment. I think we are a better team than we were 20 months ago when NP took over. The inevitable clearout of summer 23, will finally free the club of the huge burden of fees(via amortisation) and salaries that are majorly holding the club back. The imperative was, and still is; to stay in the championship. When we went on the our run earlier in the season, i think we showed we had enough about us to be a mid table side at least this season. Sone injuries, and poor form of a number of players have had a marked impact over the last month, as well as the individual errors reappearing (the curse of the last two seasons). We will come again, and in all honesty yesterday should have been a draw (bar the calamitous 2nd goal). The championship is a bizarre league. We jumped 7 places after the Presron win. Apart from the Birmingham game, we have only lost by 1 goal in each ofnthe defeats this season, there are fine margins there. We need to regroup, find some confidence and belief; and go again. There are no "free hits" like WBA, we need to start believing that we can go there and get a result, and i'm sure we can if we play well. I think there will be clubs relegated on 50 points this year, as no-one is truly rubbish, and there will be no points deductions either. Before yesterday we were played 6,at home, won 4, drawn 1, lost 1 with only 3 goals conceded. Let's keep the faith a bit. If we drop into the relegation zone, and struggle to get out of it; then i'll get a bit worried. Until then i'm buckling myself in for the difficult ride ahead. ?

I think his post match comments were designed to protect Max @GrahamC. it's obvious Bents is on the naughty step, with Max having the shirt (barring more calamity) for the next few games. If he had slated him, he could easily ruin his confidence, so he went through the "i admire, and applaud his endeavours, but.... wished he would have punched it" nonsense. I think his comments would have sent a message to Bents, that he's not going back anytime soon. I expect to see Bajic against Lincoln though. A good opportunity to see him in the first team.

For me, you've got 3 players there who probably haven't found themselves in that situation alongside each other before. Hence the lack of communication and understanding. No keeper though comes to the edge of the box in that situation. Whatever happens, you will either find yourself hopelessly out of position, or catch the ball; and drop outside of the box. It's a low percentage, high risk strategy; that he just didn't need to make. All the players were equally shocked. There is no way, anybody expected the keeper to come out so far. Totally unnecessary in the context of the game.

I think one of the big plusses for Naismith is his crossing, and overall set piece play. I think he is a player that you would want on the pitch for those benefits. The questions have come really from the defensive lapses, that in my opinion have come around from him sometimes switching off, in a way demonstrating the fact that he is not a "natural" defender, more of a converted one (albeit in the Championship team of the season last year for precisely that position).

He did a game at the gate earlier on this season (forget which one) which he actually wasn't too bad in. However when he loses it on the pitch, it all starts to unravel fairly quickly. You can see why he has applied, and been turned down 5 times now for promotion to being a PL referee. He has the potential to be a competent referee, but his erratic performances at times have meant that he is well known in refereeing circles as someone who is unlikely to proceed up the career ladder.

It was also a reareanged game from last month, and a lot of people wouldn't have factored that into their busy lives. As other have said, it was also in the red button, so a lot of STs would think it was one to miss, and they can still watch fro m home for free. Rescheduled ties generally always have lower attendances. I know a lot of people were off yesterday with various illnessess and other ailments.,,,

I agree @Davefevs a performance from Williams of the ilk i've been expecting from him over the last few years. In the first half in particular he certainly had the bit between his teeth. I thought the timing of the subs was a bit poor last night personally. Conway was dead on his feet from about 75 mins, and i thought that was the time to bring Martin on. Martin could have added another defensive element to crosses, and i thought that potentially cost us in the 82 min when then equalised. With a short turnaround for the Sat game, there's going to be a lot ofntired legs this month, and in the case of Scott (who got kicked throughout the night) battered ones.

You're completely right Graham. The most impressive point for me, was when we scored the 2nd goal, and there was still 7 mins of injury time to go. Klose got all the players together personally, and you could see he was drilling them on the importance of game management for those minutes. He is a true leader on the pitch, who leads by example. Cue a perfect running down of the clock by the team. It's a bit if a mystery to me why he's not the captain out there. With the greatest respect, he's got to be a best choice than Weimann last night. As for Naisimith coming back now. I would consider putting him CM alongside Scott (who was also excellent last night). He's too left footed to cover Vyner (who was good as well), that'll have to wait for Kalas i think. You could move Klose to RCB, but i think his best position is down the middle as the pivot point of the back 3. In that position he's able support both Vyner, and Atkinson.

Nice post Mark, and talk to you later at the game. Stuck in a trial at BCC at the moment, but it looks like I missed an "Interesting" discussion on the finer merits of NP, and the squad. I'm at the game tonight, but won't be on the pod again until after the Sat glamour tie at home to Millwall. Hopefully some of that positivity from previous weeks will return. For me it just demonstrates the risk of having a small squad, and a plan b; when Championship teams have analysed what you do well (and what you don't). It's a really tight league this year, and we will have ups and downs. 2 wins, and we're back in the top half of the table. As I say to both my kids, supporting City is never easy; and generally, there are more downs than ups in the last few years in particular. Game on for tonight anyhow

I can only remember JD's cross to Wells for the Luton game being the one real one of quality so far this season. The whole of last season JD only had 4 assists from LWB. With precious few coming from the 10 other players to play RWB. I think we all hoped Wilson would make a difference, but he looks a bit short on quality at the moment in both defensive, and offensive positions. It's a big leap from L2, so we may be looking at him in 6-12 months being a bit more accustomed to the pace and physicality of the Championship. I can see JD going at the end of the season now. We need an upgrade at LWB, and I don't see us progressing there with giving him a new 2-3 year deal unfortunately.

Completely agree @Davefevs. Every team this season will look to target and isolate Zak based on his percieved lack of physicality. With Baker gone, Kalas still injured after 7 months, and Klose still unavailable for cough.."personal reasons". We are a soft touch on the right and centre of the defence. Says a lot about NP's views on the subs tonight, that none of the defensive players on it made it onto the pitch. NP would rather take a CM there, than a Pring or Tanner into the back 3. Tough game at the weekend at Brum now. A staging post where we got bullied, and dominated last season in arguably one of our worst performances (after West Brom).

Yep, she hit them for about half their current transfer fee record.? https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/treasurer-stole-176000-bristol-rovers-192623

He's turning into the shaggy of the court system.

Barton searching for his Messi or Jordan as he alters expectations for Rovers https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/messi-joey-barton-bristol-rovers-7592377#ICID=Android_BristolPostApp_AppShare Well what a surprise, Barton forced to rethink his expectations for the season. Yep, they are still coming for us.?

Good article, and the type of reasoned reporting that Sam Frost is afraid of doing in my eyes. Just amazing in a way, that it's the City reporter that has to write this sort of piece about Rovers. Frost really is weary of upsetting Barton et al.

Tweet now deleted. What did it say?

Joey Barton's Rovers in familar territory with similarities to last season https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-rovers-verdict-joey-barton-7544002#ICID=Android_BristolPostApp_AppShare Good old Sam Frost reporting again. Whereas Rovers apparently have made a confident start to L1 with 8 points from 7 games. Their opponents on Sat (MK Dons) have made an "underwhelming" start with 7 points from their 7 games (only 1 point difference). Nothing about half of the Rovers points came against teams without a win all season, and one of those teams had a man sent off in the first minute. Another team in the bottom 4 (FGR's) only win this season has been away at the Gas as well. Hmm... wait until they play Ipswich, Sheff Wed, Charlton, Plymouth, Bolton, Derby and the like. C'mon Sam a bit more realism please. This season is going to be a struggle for the Rovers. Let's have some honesty.

24k wasn't it? First time on RB yesterday that he started talking about "managing expection", and that "they only need 4 teams to be worse than them in the division, and staying up was the main priority". Certainly feels a long time ago now, since his "We're coming to get you City" speech, allied to their fans saying only 4/5 places between us (albeit completely different leagues). Reality has struck for JB a bit now. He could learn a bit from NP about not getting too carried away after wins against teams like Burton & Oxford. That would balance it out more around the difficult home draws. A more measured approach would mean his bipolar management style (Trevor Clarke anyone) is taken a bit more seriously.

Yep, from a L2 loan, straight into a PL team for a cup game, then coming off the bench for their last two PL games. A clear indication that he was far far too good to be in L2 last year in the first place.

I can only presume that it was because it was so "insignificant", ie £3.47. Bizarre that everyone including the player needed to waive their fees to make the transfer go through though. Strange misleading times at Rovers. Still don't have an answer really as to why they can't just develop MG themselves, and then use the money to build their own ground? They would rather hand over everything to someone else to do it (at a massive potential loss to themselves); and then rent their own stadium from another developer? Akin to, giving a 500k fully paid off house; free of charge to a developer. Then that developer builds another house for you for 250k, that you then rent from them. It makes absolutely no financial sense??????? Look at what SL was trying to do at Ashton Vale as an example of how it should be done from a funding perspective. Unless of course your fabulously wealthy chairman doesn't have the financial means to redevelop MG himself; and needs a partner to do everything for him?

McCormick's desire, Al-Qadi's intervention and the story of Bristol Rovers' transfer window - Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk) It's articles like this that really wind me up. Sam Perry, the Gas lead writer at Bristol Live is so far up the arse of the club that any objectivity is out the window. Rather than saying, the club doesn't have any decent amount of money for permanent signings/a new ground (not built by anyone else)/an Academy with Category status/or a training ground that doesn't resemble a building site. He keeps propagating this "Everything is awesome, with our fabulously wealthy owner" mantra. Cue comments like " Wael used his contacts at Stamford Bridge to waive the sell on fees". What? Does anyone believe for one moment that Wael has "Contacts" at Chelsea. Then there was the earlier article that I posted the other day about Barton reining in Wael from over spending on transfers. If that was the case, why did he need Chelsea to waive the "Insignificant sum" of a sell on for it to allow it to go through? What would Chelsea have sell on wise 15% on profit of a fee of around 200k. I have no idea what Wimbledon paid for him. But the sell on, must only be say 20k. If Rovers needed Chelsea to waive that in order for the transfer to go through, it goes completely against the message previously spouted by Barton. Whereas under RG, and NP there seems to be a truthfulness about our current financial situation, however difficult it is to deal with sometimes. Rovers just keep going on and on about their potential, and financial backing. It's complete nonsense of course, but aided by the pravdaesque writing from Bristol Live.

Didn't we turn down a significant bid (£9M?) in the summer. Not the Forest one from Jan either. It may well be that this Ghanian Journalist is quoting that one. When the other "in the know" Ghanian journo wrote in the summer that Semenyeo was returning home from AFCON to sign for another club (aka he came back injured), i guess i came to the conclusion that all of these Twitter accounts can be a bit Roy De Alien like. Bristol City reject £9m bid for Antoine Semenyo - The72

Hotch Potch of options at CM isn't it? Williams still not able to play 2 games in a week. NP annoyed, and frustrated with HNM's refusal to sign a new contract. Leaves Scott, and James (King for cup games) as the only other CM's really. 1 or 2 injuries, and we are struggling. Such is the nature of running on a threadbare squad. All change next season with the amount of players probably leaving us next summer. A chance to further rebuild and move forward.

Why would you bring a player in on loan that is going to be injured until the end of September? Smacks of a bit of desperation, just to show the "6 signings" wasn't just pie in the sky.