maxjak

14 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

 

I just can’t help but think being a man up and one up is a recipe for disaster. 

It is hardly surprising that pessimism is the default setting......given our previous performances.........but maybe today is when it all  goes right for us?   Though I am not confident   ha!!

17 minutes ago, Ryan_BCFC said:

Not even in the game are we 

Thankyou Yoda

6 minutes ago, Redpool said:

Robins TV

”City fans like having COD in the team”

 

…. Do they? 

I remember the Cod Wars...............

We will do well to limit the sky blues to 2 goals today..........and as we rarely score more than 1, its a 2-0 or 2-1 defeat today.  That is optimistic .  Ha!

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Another team playing 3 at the back.

Maatsen at LWB is very promising, and Gyokeres is having a fine scoring season. Godden has shown you can step up to this level late in your career and I think he’s quite a clever forward (don’t dangle a leg in).  McFadzean continues to prove me wrong at this level, please let today be the day he gets found out. On accumulation he is due a red card today versus us, he’s got away with murder against us over the years. A chance to wind Hamer up too?

They play good football though, O’Hare difficult to pick up, and he may hold the key in terms of stop him and we stop a lot of their creativity.  Perhaps stopping Hamer’s clever balls into him.

I’m not not thinking negatively today, think we can get something.  But let’s let them know we are gonna make it hard for them too.

i absolutely admire your optimism.......but I would be amazed if we got anything from today's game.....i see a 2-0 defeat.    (Let's hope i'm wrong?)     

2 hours ago, Redtrojan said:

Crikey we are 5-1 for the win.

You’d think we were playing Chelsea or are we really that bad at the moment.

Got to stick a tenner on,probably won’t see it again though.

Please don't waste your tenner.....give it to a charity or a homeless person......rather than a bookie?  Ha! 

4/5 is very generous odds?..........for a nailed on home win.  ( I hope i eat my words!)

 Lots of research going into plastic pitches and how that they are bad for the environment and potentially bad for the players.....micro plastics are crap

I see Bent's   has stated that Nige's criticism after the Brum game, that City are a soft touch, has, and is about to, provoke a reaction from the squad............as they feel slighted and concerned that their  boss   has that opinion about the team's attitude.                   I just hope Dan is right?  ... as i can recall on many occasions, the bravado and promises that have been made pre match by certain player's in the past, about how they are going to put things right, and how they are going to respond big time to show us all what a good side they are? 

I think I will reserve judgement about some of our captain's soundbites, until after we have played a very good Coventry side in front of the 2.800 travelling fans?   I don't expect a miracle, just a wholehearted effort, and an honest competitive display, instead of the embarrassment that  was Tuesday night.............I guess we will just have to see if it is just words?, or if it will be followed by actions? 

All the best Nige, I hope you feel better soon, and I wish you a speedy recovery..........if it's any consolation, your not  the only one to start feeling nauseous, after watching some of City's performances recently? .................      

1 hour ago, Marcus Aurelius said:

Hey Look Guy's.......is it a bird, is it a plane?   No its just another one of Bent's forward passes.

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It’s funny, bar trying to watch Liverpool is they are on live and I’m free, I haven’t watched hardly any PL stuff for best part of 2 seasons.  I did watch MOTD last week, because I was poorly and quarantined (by Mrs Fevs) to the upstairs of the house.  I just want to see us build, and hope that includes youth.

Kadji looks decent.  Resembles Bakinson on the ball a bit, but looks to have the makings of a good all-round CM game.

Don't worry the bristol city coaches will soon knock that out of him?  Ha!!

2 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

They paid us £15m for one of those, Solanke was £20m, so perhaps it shows it’s about cash?

Yep........age is no barrier if you have the ability to perform consistently at a high level.........which is why i said expensive ?      What ever happened to that 15 Mill..Ha!

I believe Bournemouth have had the youngest regular line up in the Championship this season...........they are obviously expensive high quality footballers, but shows it's about ability rather than age?

6 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

The bench at Brum looked like a kindergarten class, dressed in hi-vis jackets, on a trip out from primary school.

Fair enough....he did say squad.......however the starting line up, had an average age of approximately 26.5

7 hours ago, Robbored said:

Nothing is achieved or lost in November.

That's Deep.

What a non-event of a Press  Conference ? ........Nige says we should be shouting from the rooftops about Matty James, as he is the best midfield coach at the club?   And Dan Bentley says we are a young squad (Really?) on a learning curve...Ha!     What a waste of time ,effort, and breath.  Why do they even bother?

1 hour ago, Never to the dark side said:

Don't think Bournemouth will be happy to see Quest highlights show at their ground this season after wednesdays home defeat

 ........Why so coy?...Are you gonna tell us?

3 hours ago, where's the joy said:

Where would this team be now

Bentley

Ayling, Webster, Kelly, Bryan

Brownhill, Smith, Patterson, Pack, Eliason 

Reid 

Cloud Cuckoo Land...........sorry to be glib, but it IS pointless?          

2 hours ago, weepywall said:

Dasilva been a very disappointing signing in my opinion.

How can a footballer brought through the Chelsea Academy and who represented England at U-16 to U-19's be so poor?   It's like he's been taken over by an extra from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".......WTF has happened to Jay?  He is beyond awful at present IMHO

3 hours ago, phantom said:

How bad is it that we are relying on others having points deducted now !!

Though it will be interesting to see how accurate this story turns out to be

It's just a matter of pragmitism........we are a pretty dire football team at the moment....... who have to take any crumb of help we can get....Ha!

A quality coach who can organise, structure a viable formation and motivate wouldn''t go amiss?

I actually have a great deal of sympathy for Mr Lansdown, he runs an enormously successful business, which has made him a very rich man.  Unfortunately he is/was under the impression that if you excel in one aspect of your life, it naturally follows that that success can be replicated in another sphere.  But, and it is a Big but, he has knowledge and ability aplenty in his chosen field of finance, but is naive and misguided in the world of professional sport.

His ego has intervened, and his mistaken assumption that success in business naturally equates to success in a completely different field, has led to numerous mistakes over quite a number of years.  If only he had taken advice from experts who excelled in THEIR chosen profession, namely the big bad world of professional football, and had left his ego aside?   Then perhaps the current mess we find ourselves in could so easily have been avoided?

All that money and all that time, and for what? An ailing, under achieving   football team, that if given the right direction and recruitment, could so easily be riding high in the upper echelons of the sport, given the huge funds that have been pumped into the club  ............if only, if only...............                

Mark Ashton, really?  Do you recruit in an equivalent manner in your financial business? I don't think so?   So yes i do feel sorry for SL, because he meant well, and has given us a wonderful infrastructure, it's just a shame about the team?

 It is the Headline on the main BCFC website that gets me.    "Pearson frustrated by inconsistency"     We have been nothing, if not consistently awful for most of the season.  Please try to Find a New mantra Nige?........As Inconsistent we most decidedly ARE NOT?

9 hours ago, Olé said:

Any remaining doubt that City are on course for another relegation battle was eradicated at St. Andrews as Nigel Pearson's struggling side lost a fourth in five games and second successive 3-0 away defeat in the Midlands - this by far the more abject against a long ball Birmingham side which itself only hit the target those three times, still more than City who didn't force a save until the very last kick. 

The warning signs were there on Saturday when even the long awaited win at home to Barnsley saw Pearson's men largely second best and today they contrived the opposite ineptness - marginally neater with the ball than their hosts, but only in so far as both teams are among the worst at this level and it was City that produced nothing in the final third and surrendered three awful goals.

It's hard to believe Nigel Pearson is getting to grips with his City side - any changes he makes seem to have little impact on what is now a consistent lack of ideas and cutting edge, and in Chris Martin he is dependent on surely one of the most limited targets in the division. So it's no surprise that a wildly deflected shot and a route one smash and grab left City imploding in the final twenty.

In a match slow to open up it was City that showed first, Weimann threaded in from the right by James but his lob at close range was over the keeper but onto the roof of the net. In response Birmingham broke almost immediately, beat DaSilva and crossed from the right, flashing the ball past Bentley to the back post where Gardner should have headed home, instead back across goal.

It should have been a warning as with their second of so few Blues attempts the ball fell outside the box to McGree who unlike City was never afraid to shoot, and it got him the luck that deserves, a wicked deflection off Kalas diverting the ball beyond Bentley and into the bottom corner. A fortuitous lead and in response Martin glanced a long range header wide from a deep James free kick.

At the midway point in the half Weimann set off on a high speed left to right sprint along the edge of the box before playing in Tanner whose low return cross found no one able to turn home despite defenders all at sea. City were combining well looking for space and got Bakinson into a channel run through the middle - only for the midfielder to squander his left foot shot from the edge of the box.

As it happens the largely out of favour City youngster had been the pick of the visitors with and without the ball - chasing back to block and playing intelligent balls forward - and just before the half hour his killler ball through the middle played Wells in only for the striker to be muscled out on the edge of the box, Weimann seizing the loose ball but ushered left and shooting wide on the run.

Before the break a largely anonymous hosts saw Bela cut in from the left to curl just over, while Zak Vyner, impressive in the middle of a back three, found DaSilva at the left byline with a smart long pass, his cross not turned in by Bakinson or Martin, nor from the long throw in that followed. City lacked a cutting edge and after Bakinson fed Weimann in the right channel, no one converted his centre. 

After the break City seemed the more likely to equalise given their upper hand but for all their possession again there was no cutting edge and it wasn't until the 55th minute - following the loss of an exhausted James for Massengo - that Deeney's quick ball over the top put Hogan clear in the left channel against the run of play, the striker drilling a fierce low shot past Bentley but across goal.

On the hour City again contrived to miss an opportunity with numbers in the box as first Weimann lifted into the area to where Wells and then Bakinson both failed to produce a finish under pressure, the ball half cleared to Tanner who slashed a rising shot over the bar. And that was more or less it. City tried for a further 5 minutes but by now Bakinson and Massengo had surrendered midfield. 

So for fans of City's propensity to surrender football matches no surprises that against the run of play the Blues doubled their lead in smash and grab style - a long goal kick headed down by Deeney right into Hogan's path in the area, the striker drilling low and hard past Bentley into the bottom corner. An improbable two goal lead for a poor home side and yet what followed was unforgivable. 

Pearson's men imploded rapidly from there on out - torn to pieces by wave upon wave of attack by a Birmingham side that even now had the rare luxury of passing the ball such was City's collapse. It drew derision in the away end where travelling fans reprised their sarcasm and ridicule in song form as they had also at West Brom - we're ******* shit among the songs roared by the visitors.

With 15 remaining crosses from both wings should have been converted and a minute later the hosts played straight through the middle thanks to Bakinson's tame challenge before spreading left to Graham who had all the time in the world to pick out Gardner in the box to nod past Bentley far post for 3-0. The Blues would pepper the City goal in the final minutes and could have had five or six.

Met by derision from their 1000 supporters - including some targeting of squad members Semenyo, Palmer and Conway in the away end - it was an abject, leaderless surrender and against a low quality team that offered nothing until 2-0 up. To compound the away side's embarrassment sub Pring registered the first shot on target in the 92nd minute, a respite that prompted more sarcastic songs.

City are now clearly hurtling towards a dog fight at the bottom and boss Pearson looks idealess and powerless to create better out of what increasingly looks like a poor squad which lacks quality, leadership, star players or even just goals. The sight of Chris Martin as our only target man struggling to keep up and unable to control or pass a ball is stark reminder how ill equipped this side really is.

 

Bentley 5 Flapped at an awful lot

Kalas 6 Gives his all but let down by those around him

Atkinson 5 One bright counter, but strikers got the run on him from crosses

Vyner 5 Some good forward balls but did not react quick enough in the box

Tanner 4 Wasn't enough of an outlet, too close to centre backs and forced backwards

DaSilva 2 Absolutely awful, bypassed too easily, over complicated and gave it away

James 5 Better when he was on but looks burnt out and shadow of player he could be

Bakinson 4 Gave his all first half and was everywhere, tracking back to block, picking passes - easily our best player. Completely exposed second half and fell to pieces.  

Weimann 6 More energy than anyone else but that wasn't hard. Wasted on rest of the team.

Wells 4 Never really got into space or looked composed around the box - better in the channels

Martin 1 The likes of Torpey and Diedhiou did not get ridiculed so that this joker can lead the line for a club in the Championship that spent £50m+ in recent seasons. Miles off the required standard and anyone at City who decided he would be enough for us to compete this season should be sacked.

 

Massengo 5 crowd sung his name until he came on, midfield fell apart after he did

Pring 5 watched Blues abuse us last ten

Scott 5 watched Blues abuse us last ten

I Really do not understand your concern?...............  you seem to have forgotten that we have a High Performance Centre?    Ha!