Red Exile

Adam Baker making reassuring noises about further signings.

Early days this season.

Wonderful stuff!

Agree - you should have had a penalty too. He didn't have a great day. He has a reputation for dishing out cards (read somewhere he has the highest rate of dishing out cards as a Prem official) so perhaps he was trying to resist giving in to the occasion.

 

Anyway, I've enjoyed my brief time here. Good luck for the rest of the season, to be honest you won't need it think you've got this near enough nailed on....us, Swindon and Preston just aren't as consistent. 

I certainly hope that's true! It's going to be an exciting few months, enjoy the ride.

Very well done!

These minutes are passing very slowly!

Great stuff! Excellent performance.

I was looking forward to a contest between two of the better teams in the division. Perfectly happy to say that the table doesn't lie. Swindon must be one of the better teams. 

Sadly the sending off prevented that contest from taking place. From that moment the balance of the game was altered in favour of Swindon. Anyone wanting bragging rights about the best footballing side on the day was deprived them today.

Any suggestion that the sending off didn't alter the match is nonsense, and wishful thinking. 

Now I was very confident that City would win a match of 11 v 11. I can assure anyone not there today, or not sat in the home end, that none of the Swindon fans around me had much confidence that their side would win until the whistle went. The reaction at the end struck me as one of delighted disbelief. On that show I'd be amazed if Swindon finish above City this season.

Yes he did but he also seemed pretty unhappy when we drew against Bradford which would lead me to believe he was not happy with that result and being as yesterday we gave up the lead to go behind I doubt very much that was in his plans either.

 

Yes at the moment we are drawing rather than losing but teams who get automatic promotion win games more than anything, I fail to see how we're going to keep winning games when we're conceding so much. As I said before you can go all season long without losing and get relegated, winning games is more important than not losing and there will come a point where we lose.

Looking at the winners and automatic promotion spots of previous seasons they've all had 24-31 wins, I fail to see how we'll reach that number if we can't secure up the defence as Bradford should have been a win but we dropped the ball there and yesterday we did not look like a team who could win that match either.

You can argue that right now "we have the best points per game ratio per game in the entire football league" but that is because we're on the best run in our history since 1909 according to what was said yesterday, do you really think that is going to continue all season long?

 

The simple fact is that we're not going to maintain this run all season long, not with the defence we have right now. I also know Cotterill will be wanting to stop us conceding so much, I'm sure he's already looking into it but I'm also sure Arsne Wenger is trying to get Arsenal to win the league and has been doing so for the past 11 years, doesn't mean they have the answers. Cotterill has shown us he can put confidence into the lads and motivate them but I'm still waiting to see us look capable and confident at defending.

 

With regards as to why I'm worried about Cotterill retaining players, I'm not, I'm worried he may not have a choice. This club has a history of shutting the purse when we're doing well and then overspending when things look like they need to be perked up, I'm worried that Cotterill may be told he has a squad capable of winning the league or gaining automatic promotion and being as we're undefeated this season he may have a hard time persuading the board/club otherwise. I'm not criticising Cotterill like you think I am, I'm more worried about how our board will work with him, he may be restricted from adding to the squad. My concern is how the club as a whole will react to the situation we have of our defence not being up to scratch as a whole, training, transfers, motivation etc

It's great to be where we are now but until the defence looks better I'm always going to want us to improve, I honestly don't remember the last time we had a solid defence that I was confident of, well unless I go back to the defence with Shaun Taylor which is what I think we're missing, a big strong, confident leader of the back line.

We could have won that match up to the last minute. It's not a fair reflection of the match to say that we didn't look like we could win it. Barnsley played well, and of course they could have won it too, but we were going for the win up until the end of added time and might have got it on another day.

Of course we are letting in goals and it would be great if we weren't, but isn't being open at the back a function of playing defensive players who are looking to go forward? It looks that way to me. So on the one hand we create lots of opportunities to attack, on the other we allow other teams to attack us. In an ideal world they would lack the ability to do that, but there are two teams in the game and we're not that much better than the teams around us.

I think this maybe is a glass-half-full/empty thing. I've every confidence that the players we have will gel better as time goes by, and I'm delighted to be watching a side that seeks to attack.

Just back. Is this season a dream?

You can bet, whoever the next manager is will be a lap dog to the board and Lansdown.

 

It's no secret that SL doesn't get on with SoD... this is his doing imho.

 

I have no faith in this board or SL anymore... in fact I've always doubted their footballing knowledge...not their money.

 

I feel sorry for the next manager having to work with this lot...

 

I hope the fans realise it's the board killing this Club and not the managers.

Spot on Spudski. And I recall you and I agreeing with more or less all these thoughts a couple of managers ago.

Quite how the Lansdowns escape near universal criticism is beyond me. We only owe them money as a club because they've run up the debts. They have an atrocious record of managerial appointments barring GJ. When JL talks of progress made in recent months in his youtube piece I scratch my head to think of anything that will truly improve the experience of Bristol City followers...unless we're in the realms of promises of jam tomorrow.

And in those realms the Lansdowns have form. SL has been long on big talk and short on delivery. 

I have no hope or expectation that they'll find a better manager this time. Or indeed that they are following a strategy. The five pillars thing is infant class management consultant speak. With no independent voice on the Board it's all about the whims of one man, whose track record suggests he's not very good at running football clubs. I feel sorry for his son who looks completely out of his depth.

I feel more sorry for those supporters who bought the Lansdown promises yet again and invested in STs up front. 

The club is very lucky to have fans like some of you guys. In what other branch of the entertainment industry would the departure of the star turn be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders? 

The only thing that might attract fans to the Gate at the moment is JET. After several seasons of dross City finally have a player with some semblance of star quality. If the approach of the club really is to sell off all the crowd pleasing assets to repay Lansdown's self-inflicted debt then it will be a very long time before the crowds start to build again.

Having personally blown the best chance in decades this club has had to establish itself at a decent standard in English football I'm amazed that SL gets as much support as he does.

To the day I die, I will never know why we appointed Millen with such panic. One game into the season and still a great club for a big name to come in and manage and we panicked.

+1

and in that decision lies the root of our failure to compete in the Championship since Johnson left.

If SL decided he was willing to open his cheque book big time, I'd like him to try to persuade Martin O'Neill.

In reality I know this is pie in the sky so would be happy with Dave Jones.

my thoughts exactly. I think Jones has the experience and character.

But if I was Lansdown I'd have been watching Paul Tisdale's progress down the years...

oh how i love these youtube vids, i know the fat one hasent sang yet, but shes limbering up, u reds.

that's class...made us laugh!

Much as one wants to laugh...and why not...

...I can't help having some sympathy for the Rovers fans I know who surely deserve better than this...2010/11 hasn't been a great year for Bristol football. Saturday's performance encourages some thoughts that City can salvage something from it...Rovers need all the help they can get...