havanatopia

6 minutes ago, EstoniaTallinnRed said:

Ribero,  I think,  if I've spelt it right,  played for City some 8 years ago

Indeed he did. Ribeiro i think.

Thanks. He is doing a good job...

Wow... Wall 2 Derby 0... Baptism of fire for Lampards.

Who is the co commentator? Chris someone?

35 minutes ago, HitchinRed said:

Looks ‘all white’ from that angle.

Maybe because it is?

Siquijor ... Stunning island btw. Oh there goes the sig

Folks, i did request a stand in today, namely Pegs and then Wendy, both having stepped in before as we know. Not a dickie bird of a reply. I suppose its lie in day after another hard slog beating off the other traffic, fighting for a multi storey car parking slot and dealing with the utter male moron at work or over the phone.

I am incapacitated out in the boondocks unfortunately and my pen and paper did not make it into the rather slimsified shoulder or sling over bag; not even Lee would fit inside.

Incapacitated only in as much as the signal, here in Siquijor, is sporadic ooh there back again. So I give the floor to everyone which makes it far more entertaining than my often diatribical windass effort. That sort of goal would do me today with Flint ever so slightly moving his sedere to allow the ball through unsighted.. A thing of beauty.

Good day all.

8 hours ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Did you watch? Guessing not if you rubbished my post as we actually played some very good football.

Always makes me wonder how people form such strong opinions based on radio and text. 

Bizarre indeed; I listened to the match and the summary I would take away is this:-

1. Overall City dominated and tried to play decent football which many times they succeeded in doing.

2. They switched off for 2 quick fire goals; cannot remember who we can point the finger at but perhaps just two moments of brilliance from an otherwise dour Bolton.

3. Pato had one flash of brilliance and for the rest of the 90 minutes did not contribute enough to warrant a starting place.

4. We missed a strong presence in the box for set pieces; Flint.

5. We missed additional strength up front; Fammy.

6. Did we miss Bobby or Bryan - hard to tell over the radio. I suspect having Bobby would have been a bonus but seems like Kelly did enough to neutralise any loss of Bryan as a lot of us suspected.

4. Baker was hot and cold, as usual...

8 hours ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Baker really confuses me. At times he looks quality and other times it’s like he genuinely can’t even be bothered to try. 

Sounded like that to me too.

8 hours ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

Baker always gives me the impression he’s not over bothered whether he’s out there or not

He came with a lot of fanfare did he not; major coup from Villa and all that. Why has he flattered to deceive? 

4 minutes ago, wendyredredrobin said:

Need to take patto off.

No no leave him on...yeahhhhhhh get in me babbers.

Thats 1 back

Oh dear.

2 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

My theory is @havanatopia is so knackered from the repeated exertions following his recent marriage that his new has wife stepped in and done the match preview while he has a well earned solitary lie in.    

Not quite but you got me thinking Noggers.

2 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

His wife is not English and I'm not sure young Filipino women have the same obsession in tiring out their new husbands in that way.

If my theory is correct then imo. the chances are high that Hav. is slumbering very contentedly indeed, with not a paintbrush in sight. 

Quite right sir... just done the dinner and movie routine.. MEG ? ... not very good and the popcorn was about the size of a sack.

52 minutes ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

It's a toughie, this one.

On the one hand I want Bobby to do brilliantly and on the other I'd love to see cardiff start their journey back to Championship.

Bournemouth 7 Cardiff 2 with both from Bobby would probably be tolerable.

Bobby to be top scorer and Cardiff to be relegated; the dream scenario.

Gas losing already... what is it with those early conceding's.. so bizarre!

1 hour ago, robin_unreliant said:

So - Bolton just won at WBA and the consensus is we should have enough to win?

We haven't won a league game away this year. We have a terrible record up there too. I will be pleased with a point personally.

I do not see any consensus unless you mean a consensus of 1. And i did say on paper we should win... Why we rarely seem to at Bolton remains a mystery.

20 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

Nice intro @havanatopia. Do I detect a change of style for this season? You seem to have moved away from the Michael (Denzil Xavier) Portillo travelogue theme and onto a more football focused style. 

Style is currently in formulation liquidizer!

4 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

Good day H so here we are a week later and still there is nothing which elaborates upon ‘reflections of other interesting subject matters’......the anticipation mounts.

Well remembered squire... Per above its still in the melting pot!

9 minutes ago, italian dave said:

2 hour delay on the M6 at Stoke. Hope DH is right and it will be worth it!!

Its nearly always around Stoke; suppose everyone needs to get out of the Potteries at the weekend for their sanity.

Over recent seasons there have been very barren pickings indeed for City from the newly named University of Bolton Stadium. Dean Holden interestingly and forthrightly saying he felt they had every chance of winning the match. Bolton Wanderers were actually Holden's very first club. The left or centre back journeyman had no fewer than 10 clubs including a short loan stint at Valur of Iceland while still at Bolton; I did not see him participating in the Icelandic clap while Magnússon was at the club; clearly such 'trends' came much later.

Dean Holden's time at Bolton was relatively short and he left 16 years ago to join Oldham Athletic. Nevertheless he may have a tinge of nostalgia when going back.

I have said it before and no doubt I will say it again that Bolton are the second most recognisable example, for me, of a club that 'hit a ceiling' in the Premier League then bottled it. The now infamous discussions Sam Allardyce had with the then Chairman Phil Gartside. Of course Sam was perhaps not party to the building debts underwritten by then owner Eddie Davies so it was a scenario destined to force Gartside's hand in not agreeing to the purchase of players Sam wanted to guide the club into a regular top 6 team. He left and within a season they were down and, so far, have not returned. The club were £172 million in debt at one time. Hard to fathom but true.

That Bolton remained in the top flight for 11 seasons is remarkable testament to both chairman and manager although they may have got their sums disastrously wrong along the way and Davies seemed asleep at the wheel and unable to prevent it.

Today City should, at least on paper, have enough but we often lose matches when we underestimate the opposing team; that happened in the same venue last season as I recall. It will, therefore, be very satisfying to win today.

Good day all.

Oooohhh. Shocking back pass from Flint and Wall go 2 up.

13 minutes ago, downendcity said:

Ah, the acid test of a new wife.

Can she do it on a wet Tuesday night in Stoke?

I am sure she will.

Is that Pato amd Weimann up front? Otherwise its a crowded midfield.. 4-5-1 or maybe 4-4-1-1

53 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

@havanatopia - you said it’s a tough opener. Are you referring to the match or your marriage? Just remember, it’s just the first 50 years of marriage that are difficult. After that it gets easier. 

Actually both I suppose you could say!! I am told Filipinas make decent wives; she is at least a City fan, good start, and brother who flew out brought her a shirt, albeit the collared one from 3 years ago but she was grateful none the less.. showing class already.

46 minutes ago, Juan Kerr said:

You mad fool....but congrats anyway!

narhhhh.. had a few near misses so it was definitely time.

34 minutes ago, Neo said:

Can you get married every week? - I actually read that. I don’t come on a football forum for the works of Shakespeare after all.

P.S. - congrats and long happy life to you both 

I'll try to keep it up.. on second thoughts..! Cheers tho, much obliged.

6 minutes ago, mikep said:

That must be the shortest match thread going and hopefully BigTone can give a good condensed version!  Congrats on the marriage Hav and best wishes for the future. I hope Mrs H actually appreciates that you are really married to BCFC and she will for various periods of 90 minutes each week just be expected to pick you up off the floor or listen to you screaming with joy. Hope it is the latter this season.

COYR.

She has obliged this evening by departing for her family home overnight so i can have an unadulterated football night win or lose. She actually cannot wait to attend her first match hopefully Stoke away... best get her wrapped up for that one. 

Thanks a lot and equally to everyone else for their wishes. Funny, met her days after Dad died in Oct 2016; romantically she says he sent her to keep me from being downhearted.  I am buying that one on this occasion.

90 minutes to kick off... life is good again!!

All aboard for another rollercoaster marathon season. Since I have just attended my own marriage, my first I hasten to add, i am excusing myself a long winded thread opening; many historical facts have been written of todays opponents and pretty much all other teams in this league so it is time to reflect on other equally interesting subject matters that should become apparent soon, perhaps by match day 2.

A tough opener but as my new wife says, its 'all about the ball' which i guess means the same as 'its 11 v 11'. So come on City, a home win if you please.

On 20/07/2018 at 04:17, JBFC II said:

It's actually 5 quid more expensive. 

Yes that's right, you could pay £350 to watch rovers play the likes of Fleetwood and Luton in a tent or you could pay £345 to watch us play the likes of Leeds or Aston villa in a state of the art 5000 seater stand... 

Tough choice to be honest

That is madness to be sure.

On 18/05/2018 at 17:10, CotswoldRed said:

Marvin would saddle the city with debt for 50 years for his pie-in-the-sky scheme. 

Haven't the city been talking about such schemes for just as long?!!

Thanks Lympsham Red. Now, need to find quality time to read it all, which I will.

1 hour ago, Lympsham Red said:

deleted

No sooner did that crystal ball appear it was snatched from under us.

28 minutes ago, bearded_red said:

Always enjoy reading your posts @BobBobSuperBob but as someone who plays Football Manager on PC I’m offended by any comparison with Lee Johnson!

Hey, since you do and if the game allows, would you mind running a simulated season using half of City's development squad as regular first teamers? Major (I think it was Major anyway) was suggesting this was likely to happen next season.. we all would like to look in to the crystal ball and see if we are headed for the drop. Might help a few people decide if a season ticket is for them or not!

8 minutes ago, BobBobSuperBob said:

He also said , with a giggle, how ‘exciting’ it was going to be ‘keeping the best of what we have and adding to it’

 

‘keeping the best of what we have’

How that equates to potentially losing Reid / Flint / Bryan etc is quite beyond me btw

Maybe He means keeping Engvall Eliasson and Walsh 

More and more he reminds me of someone playing Football Manager on a PC 

Well, there is a growing argument around his overuse of theory, stats and grass lengths. Perhaps he does need to go and see Warnock who will promptly tell him to tell his players to get the f--k stuck in and take no prisoners and put players where they do best. I guess that is way too simple for LJ.

I did hear the giggle bit !!

3 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

He mentioned ' trimming ' the squad.

So we are going to run with less first teamers and have more Development players coming in to cover perhaps .

 

I must have missed that bit; did he for real? Wow. So he brings in 30+ players and now he is ready to trim his own fat. I have heard it all now.

Your second point sounds ominously like a plan for League 1.

23 minutes ago, DaveInSA said:

Exactly this.

Runs from the top. Lansdown wants a yes man in the job. It therefore follows that your coach also wants yes men in the team.

Although he says in that interview he wants leaders; he is all the over place frankly and to coin a phrase from Monty Python 'he makes it up as he goes along'.