Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan

It was. FA Cup semi final day was also big with 2 live matches at neutral grounds on TV on the same Sunday. I don’t think I’ve watched an actual FA Cup final since Liverpool vs West Ham in 200? and I can’t even tell you who the current holders are?

Not sure about that? Our League form and performances leading up to Christmas was superb, helped I think by the run in the League Cup and the Man Utd game. The only game that may have been a distraction could have been the Man City semi final but even then we had big games against Wolves, Norwich and Villa around the same time. January that season was absolutely packed with games and I think a sudden run of defeats in the League, FA Cup and The League Cup semi just destroyed our confidence and our performances went downhill from that point on. Funny how it also coincided with LJ suddenly having more choice in the starting line up and the ability to tinker rather than make do with the options available as we had to before Christmas.

Yeah 2-0 up with 20 to go you’d usually be confident of at least a point but during that run of defeats it just felt like we were going to lose every game. Around the 70th minute I put money on Reading to win as insurance, I thought that if these useless bastards are going to throw it away my kids might as well have a nice holiday somewhere sunny.

7?

So much anticipation that season, signed the England keeper, Coppell in charge…seemed a formality that we’d be challenging for promotion but Millwall brought us right back down to Earth. Think Sam Vokes got taken off injured and never saw him again (scored against the slags today I notice). There was a rumour posted on here after the game that a Millwall fan had been killed and it turned out in the end that all that happened was fighting near the Pump House in Hotwells.

Millwall. Coppells first league game in charge.

I don’t think I remember Tomlins early chance but I do remember squirming whenever Glenn Murray and whoever else was up front with him was attacking our end. Ran us ragged in that first half. I think we were above them in the league going into that game but we were only a few weeks away from that 10 game (?) run of defeats that firmly dropped us in the shit.

Yeah 2-0 Crawley was Bonfire Night 2013. That result was a bit of an upset as well, only our second win of the season. **** me 2013 was shit.

The game that O Donnell got chipped from the half way line Brighton were by far the better side in the first half, looked dangerous every time they attacked. 2nd half they just sat back and just mopped up every attack we made. I wasn’t shocked to see them go up that season.

I can’t even remember what I was doing last night let alone how many we took to Millwall 3 years ago I think the original comparison on last years game was fine, I’m reasonably sure we had a train to get us back to Bristol, I was just pointing out it wasn’t before Christmas.

Agree.

Between Christmas and New Year, think it was a Thursday night? Probably not, especially on New Years Day with 9k going back up to London next weekend. Correct, Chipping Sodbury tunnel is flooded. BTM services unaffected.

Best thread of the year and it’s arrived on 30th December.

Lost against Forest 1st game, beat Palace 4-2 midweek when Baldock signed, beat Cardiff the following Saturday lunchtime to take us top of the table for about an hour. Lost to Barnsley the following match. The rest of the season was just dogshit and yes, did include Blackburn beating us at home.

I do like Vicarage Road, smart looking stadium.

On the night of their hilarious attempt to sign Clarke-Harris, wasn’t he the guy who laughed at a fake account in his name that had posted that the deal had fallen through….10 minutes before realising the fake account knew more than he did?

I thought that, but they’ve obviously got their info from the Premier League website that says he started at Swindon and moved to us.

Thought I recognised him from somewhere. “Has anyone ever told you that you are a disgusting, pus filled buboe who has all the wit, charm and self possession of an Alsatian dog after a head swap operation”

But only managed 400 to Fleetwood on a Bank Holiday Monday earlier this year. Presumably the other 10k were down the road riding donkeys on the beach.

Wouldn’t be the last time we ruined their Christmas. I arrived, pissed, just in time to see the net bulge in front of the Atyeo when one of their donkeys scored, 3 goals in the second half put it to bed and even though one of them hoofed the ball into the net we never really looked in danger. Their fans were silent as per usual. Went back into town afterwards to get even more leathered.

Yes, Lukaku came on as well.

You could point out that in the grand scheme of things, taking a few more to a closer away game on a Tuesday doesn’t trump the fact that we’re averaging 1800 away this season whilst they are on around 1100.

I know

Totally agree. Like most I’m grateful to Nigel and appreciate the hard work he did here under difficult circumstances but it’s really important to support the team during a game. NP won’t hear any songs about him but Manning will and I don’t see how that will help us get the results we all want.