firstdivision

1 hour ago, harrys said:

We we’ve been tedious for years, envious of big-hitters like Luton, Cov’ QPR, when did they by-pass us in playing such open, expansive and entertaining football?

Good question. 

4 hours ago, Olé said:

For most of his 20 months at Bristol City, Nahki Wells has been a bit part figure, not even making the starting line ups for the early part of this season. But after running the channels like a man possessed in the win at QPR away and then in a draw with division favourites Fulham on Saturday, his last minute withdrawal at Millwall seemed to badly disrupt City’s forward play, exposing a depressing lack of cutting edge for all their possession at the Den.

City were expected to build on a five match unbeaten run, and yet despite weathering a purposeful Lions opening, and then controlling the game led by Joe Williams in midfield, including an utterly dominant 15 minutes after half time, the visitors offered little actual attacking threat - and then threw away everything in a single moment as a sloppy Tyreeq Bakinson was caught out in midfield, and Benik Afobe raced clear to win the decisive penalty.

Despite reinforcements from the bench, City faded badly and never looked like levelling - a depressing reminder that for all the talk of transformation since last season, lacking both Wells and Semenyo’s pace, Massengo’s bite, and then suffering Baker’s exit in just the first half - once again the side is a hostage to player fitness, exposing a painful lack of pace and quality in attack, even after O’Dowda’s typically forgettable second half wing return.

With Nigel Pearson isolating and led by Curtis Fleming on the touchline, City switched to three at the back after the pre-game loss of Wells - and the disruption was obvious as Millwall dominated the opening exchanges at a sparsely filled and unseasonally cold New Den, Scott Malone, Matt Smith and George Evans efforts all forcing the visitors to defend in numbers, before City finally settled  and wrested control of the game after 10 minutes.

First Jay DaSilva capitalised on a poor throw in and swept the ball upfield for Bakinson to get clear down the left, cutting inside and racing into the box, but robbed of possession, the half clearance reached Matty James outside the area who unleashed a rising shot just over the angle of post and bar. On the quarter hour Bakinson’s looped ball forward and a defensive slip let Andi Weimann turn and race clear, but the keeper closed him down quickly.

By now City were starting to craft well worked football in the middle third, and good interplay led to James lifting another through ball which Bakinson stole onto inside the box only to miscontrol and be flagged for offside. Then at the midway point of the half Bakinson threaded DaSilva down the left and clear to the byline, his cross eluding several City options and finding fellow wingback George Tanner beyond the far post to nod down tamely wide.

Just before the half hour the visitors were rocked by the sadly familiar sight of Baker going down off the ball and requiring attention before being withdrawn, Cam Pring on in his place. Unsurprisingly Millwall capitalised with the first big chance of the game as Evans headed down behind City’s backline and Afobe skipped clear inside the box with just the keeper to beat, Bentley doing brilliantly to beat away the shot at close range in front of away fans.

Much of City’s best football was coming through DaSilva down the left and before the break two crosses in quick succession threatened an opening - first on the break his ball into the middle was bundled clear of the ineffectual Chris Martin, and then from the resulting corner, recycling the ball at the second attempt, the wing back centred and found Weimann whose flashing header went just wide of the far post as the visitors again failed to capitalise.

On the stroke of half time it should have been the hosts who went in front, rallying with a series of chances before the break, they worked the same proven combination as Evans again found Afobe behind City’s defence, the one time Ashton Gate striker heading down into the bottom corner at close range, Bentley tipping past the post. It was a stark reminder of the value of pace and purpose up front, compared to City’s largely anonymous front two.

As it happens Curtis Fleming’s men took the game to Millwall from the restart, attacking towards their travelling fans. Williams and James were dominating midfield, with time to pick their passes and find dangerous channel balls. But lacking both pace and cutting edge - Martin in particular turning in the box to find an angle only to lose out -  it didn’t take long for O’Dowda to be thrown on at the expense of DaSilva, as City tried to turn the screw.

It was one-sided football against a poor looking Millwall side and despite a succession of corners and getting both O’Dowda and Tanner racing clear down both flanks, City were utterly bereft of quality in the final third. Both wide men were guilty of squandering crosses - cut out or, in the case of O’Dowda, overhit with Weimann well placed to finish -  but in truth the failures owed much also to the absence of Wells and with it any real threat in the middle.

So the sucker punch came as no surprise after the hour mark. Bakinson, an increasingly uncertain figure alongside impressive central midfield colleagues, hesitated on the ball in the centre circle and was robbed of possession, a quick through ball highlighting the advantage of pace in attack as Afobe raced clear on goal and drew a foul from Rob Atkinson, substitute Jed Wallace smashing the resultant penalty into the top corner with unerring confidence.

And that was it. City had shown little quality in attack despite controlling the game from the tenth to the sixtieth minute, and by now their tiring midfielders had run out of options and let the game slip away from them, although there was briefly time for Bakinson to slash wide after Martin and Weimann combined in space on City’s right. Withdrawing the tiring Williams for the wrong sort of Kasey Palmer cameo compounded the complete surrender.

City, far from finishing the game strongly in search of an equaliser, were aiming quick balls forward at O’Dowda and Palmer, which sounds exactly as horrific as it actually was, the total lack of composure or fluidity that marked our earlier purpose, saving us only from the predictable sight of Chris Martin lumbering about in attack being outrun by anything that moved. This was a throwback to last season. An awful performance against a poor side.

 

Bentley 7 Two important saves from Afobe with the best chances of the game

Baker 5 Another early exit for his record of early exits - was it the knock from Saturday?

Kalas 7 Plays like he takes it all personally and worked hard throughout

Atkinson 6 Unfortunate with the penalty but some good marauding runs forward

Tanner 5 Tireless performance but can see the step up in quality needed going forward

DaSilva 6 One of our more effective performers, we were much worse after he went off

Williams 7 Our most purposeful of midfielders and drove the team forward until he ran out of steam

James 6 There is a good partnership with Williams to be had but they need players to aim for

Bakinson 4 Influential early on but became increasingly ponderous and careless - lacking confidence

Weimann 5 Given no service and played so far off Martin maybe maybe he thought Wells was playing

Martin 4 Please god not a season of this - a few knock downs and otherwise looked like he was queuing for petrol

 

Pring 5 Had one header over and at fault at least once when Millwall got in behind us

O’Dowda 4 Ran down the wing a few times, overhit a cross, fell over, then disappeared, standard stuff

Palmer 4 Tried one cute through ball straight to an opponent, rarely controlled any passes to him

‘An awful performance against a poor side.’ Spot on. Some of our supporters are kidding themselves a bit at the supposed scale of the NP revival. We’ve been very lucky in recent weeks. And boring as hell to watch.

The last 20 minutes were truly embarrassing; the first 70 an exercise in tedium. 
And good use of the word ‘lumber’. 

15 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Thought it was two teams of predominantly 6/10s, with the odd 7/10 and a few 5/10s.

We had a good spell in the second half, but I think the loss of Dasilva and Williams (two of our better players) lost us momentum.

An utterly tedious game, Dave, settled by two mistakes in one passage of play. 
I was so bored watching us - same as Luton.

At least with the likes of Semenyo and Massengo on the field, you feel something out of the ordinary might happen. Otherwise it’s just banging away and playing the percentages - the odd passage of neat play but largely harmless in the final third. 

21 minutes ago, RedM said:

We are now stuck in traffic, we have done 10 miles in nearly an hour and a half since leaving the ground. Got caught twice in traffic nr Hammersmith queueing for petrol and blocking the road and now motorway is down to one lane because of roadworks.

After sitting through the match tonight this is not what we need. 

 

I live in London so was back by 1030 but I feel so sorry for all the fans who travelled to watch that tonight. Utterly tedious. Our football after the goal was dire. We looked patternless and punchless. 
But I’ve been saying it for weeks - we are so dull to watch. 

11 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Fleming said on Monday Semenyo had a knock and was no point risking him.

Ah, i missed that. I thought my hunch was right about him being injured on Saturday.

And where’s Semenyo? 

4 hours ago, Steve Watts said:

Russell Osman presided over an away win against Liverpool - should we reappoint him....? As much as I liked LJ (but agreed it was past time for him to go), one swallow does not make a summer.

 

a) I’m not saying we should reappoint LJ - obvs. I’m saying there should be a bit more respect for him from some of our supporters. Life is not binary - one thing/person is not all bad or all good. There were plenty of swallows under LJ.

b) LJ’s record is better than Russell’s.

36 minutes ago, Robbored said:

We’ve also had plenty of bad luck. Had the whistle gone 15secs earlier we’d have beaten Blackpool and had Bentley not messed up to allow Luton a late equaliser……………

Luck tends to equal out over a season.

I’d love to see the science behind the theory that luck tend to equal itself out over a season. 
Blackpool scoring in the last minute of stoppage time wasn’t luck - it was a skilfully constructed goal. And Bentley’s mistake wasn’t luck - it was an error induced by apprehension and pressure.

30 minutes ago, downendcity said:

Janet & John explain Lee Johnson’s tactics for home games

In the next instalment Janet & John outline Mark Ashton’s recruitment policy.

 

 

Interesting choice of example. Do you mean the LJ who presided over a home win against Manchester United? As opposed to a manager who’s presided over no home wins in his time at the club. Just saying like…

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I think he must’ve picked up a knock / niggle.  Nige says he made a good impact last week off the bench when he needed pace.  Can’t recall seeing him in the Robins Uncut video this week, but wasn’t particularly looking out for him either.

That's my hunch as well. He definitely gets in our 18 if he's fit.

4 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

To be fair I think a lot of these stats even including possession are complete bollocks . 

Yes. We’ve discussed the clunkiness of Xg before on here. Possession stats are the same as the ‘weather was fine’ or ‘it was raining’. Just facts - don’t tell you too much.

Has anyone heard why he wasn’t on the bench yesterday? No comment anywhere but, for me, his absence was puzzling - unless he’s injured. (Good cameo at QPR, created winner at Cardiff. Only forward with pace.) Also think NP likes him

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Fulham are a bloody good side, and first half I thought we caused them a few problems when we went direct, especially in the triumvirate of Wells, Martin and Weimann on the right side of the pitch.  But football wise there was no match.  Their well-worked patterns were a joy to watch, and I was hoping we’d get the first goal and it would change things.

Silva made the first changes, mainly to avoid Chalobah running the risk of a red card.  But having gone a goal ahead, I sensed a long second half of chasing possession and getting it back, only to give it away again.  Fulham’s well-rehearsed 4231 (I thought Mitrovic was brilliant yesterday, bar his shooting) was too good for our 442, especially Bakinson, so something had to change.  Tyreeq’s time will come again, but he showed his current level yesterday.  That’s not to be disrespectful, just is what it is….he needs to be on the ball, and yesterday he couldn’t get on it enough, and when he did, he was closed quickly, and a bit out of puff to use it well.

So, Nige changed it.  He could’ve hoped to sneak the odd chance continuing as we were, but chances are Fulham would’ve absorbed it, probably gone on and got another for a comfy win in the end.

Nige gambled big time….went 5212/3412.

Bentley

Kalas / Atkinson / Baker 64

Tanner 76 (Weimann) / James / Williams 64 / Dasilva

Weimann 76 (Palmer)

Martin / Wells

He pushed Tanner (then Weimann) onto Robinson and Dasilva onto Odoi and went man-for-man.  Ream and Tosin no longer able to pass the ball in their patterns, no ball into midfield, so all of a sudden Gazzaniga has to kick long.  We went 3 on 3 with our CBs against their front 3, and took the risk.

We needed the game to be open to create, and we did that well.  We conceded chances, but no point succumbing to a turgid 1-0 defeat.  Mitrovic’s 3 headers were gonna have to be worldy’s to beat Bentley….the two chances with his feet were of course glorious chances.  But we had Wells near post volley, his header (what a cross from TK), Baker’s header, Martin’s turn and hit that led to the goal.  Some of these chances were better than theirs.

So, big credit to Pearson (and the coaching staff) for making the changes.

We won’t come up against a team like Fulham every week either.

Baker’s header was just about the miss of the match for me. Perfect height. Back across goal and the keeper has no chance. I feel the XG of City 2.59 Fulham 2.27 is extremely clunky and not very helpful/accurate - as discussed before.

Does the 2.59 include our goal, which was clearly offside?

I feel we should have lost our last three games in some sort of equitable football world (which largely doesn’t exist, I know) but somehow we’ve managed five points. 

42 minutes ago, Super said:

Was he not offside?

Way offside. Terrible decision to allow it. Would be pretty unhappy if that had happened at the other end.

Great finish but should not have counted.

A point was a great result. They sliced us open so often in the second half. Thank god they couldn’t finish. 
I’d love us to play football like that but I think it’ll be the percentages for quite a while yet. 
Should have had no points from the last three games really but somehow we’ve got five. Teams love rattling the frame of our goal.
 

Wow - not quite sure how we survived that. Fulham seem to create more chances in the second half than we’ve created at home all season. Also, was Kasey offside for the equaliser? No home win but an excellent result.

3 hours ago, Northern Red said:

 

I can only imagine that he’s signed a contract that stipulates his testicles (or some such) will be sliced off if Ipswich don’t get promotion. That would cause a man to act like that.

We couldn’t complain if we’d lost that match 3 or 4-1 (well, we would have complained but for a different reason). But it was just one of those games. We created three chances (Atkinson’s header was the other) and we were outplayed in parts by a tidy side.

But winning when you shouldn’t is a massive bonus and lifts the gloom surrounding last Wednesday. We are quite dull to watch but there have been a few joyous moments this season to keep up the spirits…and few more joyous than the few seconds after Wells arrowed that chance into the corner of the net today.

I was sitting there tonight in the Dolman, looking on, looking around, and one thought kept on going through my mind: we are so boring - is this what the winter looks like…

20 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Langford is so easily conned

My impression is that most Championship refs want an easy life. They take the easy option. Player falls over - free kick. And they're hopeless at cutting out time wasting and players kicking the ball away, delaying etc. It's a blight.

I think they're trying to get away from easy free kicks/pens this in the PL this season. I noticed Kevin Friend played on a lot more in the pre-season friendly, albeit his performance was far from perfect. 

7 minutes ago, Super said:

This guy is a joke.

I agree. The evidence against him is beginning to grow after two wins since February. Perhaps he’ll start to turn it around today with a victory at Boro…

Blackpool looked a very ordinary side. Teams with pace and a little more quality will beat them comfortably. We looked solid enough to win but, of course, not creative or composed enough to finish the job. Tough season ahead. Let’s hope there are three more limited teams than us.

I’m inclined to agree with those who say he’ll be worth a lot more in a year. He’s one of the few players I actually look forward to watching. He’s developed a lot this season. Good youngsters can make leaps forward.

Also, if we’re just going to use the money to bring in players like Angela or Danny Simpson, then definitely keep him.

There needs to be a clear plan of bringing in strong, athletic, fit players around the age of 23-26. The transfer money would have to be used judiciously.
 

Amazing what a season can do to a team.

The starting eleven today: four who weren’t in the first-team squad at the start of the season. Two who’ve missed nearly the whole season. One who was out on loan in the first part of the season. One who hardly played in the first part of the season. Three regulars (Bentley, Bakinson, Wells). 
 

And only three players who started the first match, start the final match (Bentley, Massengo and Wells).
 

8 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

He was potentially taking us straight back down in Jan 2016- did you miss that key point?

Yes, it’s amazing how people forget. 
Also, Lee Johnson helped us to some reasonable finishing positions in the Championship. It’s amazing how people forget that. But I suppose he didn’t win the Champions League so best to rubbish him as much as possible.