Midlands Robin

We've now got a stable line up and a formation that suits it. The tide has clearly turned and this week has been great. We still need a bit more quality in the squad and hopefully we'll find someone before the window closes but things look a lot brighter than they did before Xmas.

Wow. That's a long time.

This is the last time I was in the stands for a home league match against the SAGs. It made my Christmas so much better. Especially when Beadle scored. It took away the memories of that awful game in Jan 96 when we lost 2-0 at home and it all kicked off at the end. Anyway, my actual point is, if our new poster Ashton Hero is under 22 years old, he wouldn't have been alive for a league match between us at Ashton Gate. The last time we played each other in the league was a 1-1 draw at the campsite on the 3rd April 2001. I can't think of two teams from any other City who have failed to play each other for that long. (Port Vale last played Stoke in the league on the 10th Feb 2002 for example). In theory, we've now got fans who were born, finished school, got married and had their first child and never watched a league match between us and the blue few. Taking the piss is the only thing that keeps the relationship on life support. Enjoy the memory:

On the 1st of Dec we we're third on goal difference from Bournemouth with them on 27 (plus 9) and us on 27 (plus 4). That's as high as we would get for the remainder of Hodlen's time at the club. We were top after 3 games of that season with us winning 3 from 3 and did sit up and around the play off's for most of the time between then and early December but as the record shows below: We went from 27 points on the 1st of Dec to 30 points 3 1/2 weeks later. Championship table on the 25th Dec 2020. 1 Norwich City 20 13 4 3 29 18 11 43 2 AFC Bournemouth 20 10 8 2 35 16 19 38 3 Swansea City 20 10 6 4 23 12 11 36 4 Brentford 20 9 8 3 31 18 13 35 5 Watford 20 9 7 4 23 15 8 34 6 Middlesbrough 20 9 6 5 24 15 9 33 7 Stoke City 20 9 6 5 25 20 5 33 8 Reading 20 10 3 7 30 26 4 33 9 Bristol City 20 9 3 8 20 21 -1 30 10 Cardiff City 20 8 5 7 26 20 6 29

The Saddlers had a mixed start to the season but have found some good form recently. They've only lost 1 out of the last 11. They're a decent side so hopefully Joe will get a good run out in the team.

looks like we've slipped a little. Need to get back to where we were at the end of the first half.

Made an entry in my diary, it simply reads "bugger"

Doesn't work. Says secure connection failed.

I hope we can build on the steady performance on Thursday. Keeping a clean sheet and looking a lot more settled should really give the team a bit more encouragement. With the sheep shaggers across the ditch having lost to Blackburn, 3 points for us would provide another leg up and away from the bottom three. A Wells brace for a 2-1 win. COYR.

Glad you're cancer free. That's great news.

I'd call that a ship steadying performance. We looked tough to break down in a physical game and were only threatened on a couple of occasions. At the other end, Andi had a decent game but Semenyo needs to find his sharpness in front of goal. Definitely not going to complain about a point and think it was probably the right result.

Andi looks so much better playing through the middle. He's had a good game so far.

City slightly the better of the sides in the first half. Millwall seem to have turned up for an all in wrestling match instead of a football one. When we zip the ball around on the deck Millwall have had to resort to fouling to break our play up. Semenyo clearly lacks a bit of sharpness but we aren't too far away from scoring.

Scrappy first 10 minutes.

The challenge that Pearson faced on arrival and continues to face is obviously a big one. He's been tasked with transforming a low value, high wage squad into a high value, low wage squad while improving the performance of the team on the pitch. You can't say he wasn't aware of the size of the task on arrival especially as he had a short-term contract to begin with that either side could have ended. I think one of my biggest problems with Pearson's approach is his absolute stubborn refusal to use the loan market. We've seen loans improve squads on many occasions. We ourselves only have to think back to Tammy and Lee Tomlin. It's all very noble to say that it's about building the club up from within and that loan players don't always come with the right attitudes, and they aren't long term options etc, etc but the right loan will improve on field performances and buy time to help develop other players around them. I honestly can't see the difference in bringing in an out of contract player such as Klose and a similar player on a loan. Klose used his short-term contract to put himself back in the shop window and, when offered a new City deal, spent part of the summer seeing if he could get better terms anywhere else before eventually signing the one we offered him. That hardly shouts, "commitment to the cause". There are some similarities with the situation that Terry Cooper was handed in 1982 all be it nowhere near as severe. Though I wasn't around at the time, I wouldn't see my first match at the Gate for another 10 years, it seems that the way Cooper built a team spirit in that side from scratch, was key to the gradual turn around in performances. Nige seems like quite an abrasive character around the dressing room. He definitely needs to praise in public and bollock in private. Teams with deep squads can afford to unsettle a few players, stick them in the under 23's and let them run out their contracts, again, we don't have that luxury. Players work alongside each other and talk to each other outside of work. Who's to say that someone like HNM isn't a popular lad in the squad and his current situation is causing a few players to question the managers approach? I agree with the sentiment raised in other threads, if not Pearson then who? Talk of the Coventry or Plymouth managers is hilarious and if coming from the other side of Bristol would rightly be condemned as fantasy. Currently successful managers in other teams are in no way going to be tempted out of those roles and into the basket case that is ourselves at the moment. If the on field and football related areas (coaching, physio, recruitment etc) have had to be overhauled mostly under the guidance of Pearson, the flip side of this coin is the absolute omnishambles that is the leadership structure at the top of the club. While Richard Gould was day and night better than Swiss Tony, the reason we have a CEO in charge is because the owner has taken a huge step back and the so-called Chairman seems to have absolutely no interest in the day to day grind of being the boss of a football club. The direction and vision of club should stem from the very top and be felt all the way down to the lowest grade member of staff. This has been mentioned in a number of threads, but we have no off-field leadership structure at all. We have an owner, a chairman, a group financial officer and a CEO. I've had a look at Norwich's board, they have a boardroom of about 11 directors, a main board of directors who are joined by a sporting director, financial director, programmes director etc. There isn't a one person trying to do everything role and certainly not one vaguely interested chairman not doing a lot role. We've got one transfer window and 5 months to turn this current shambles around and maintain our position as a championship club. We all know the definition of madness is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. During the remainder of the season, we need to do as Fev's suggests and park the long-term strategy. Things aren't going to improve on that front until the summer for all the reasons shown in the original post. We need to start playing players in their normal positions, dip in to the loan market as well as seeing what funds can be scraped together for signing or two and hope we can hold on until May. We also need our owner to become self-aware, while it's fantastic how he continues to back this club with his hand in his pocket, creating the type of facilities we could only dream of 30 years ago and writing off debts by converting debt to shares and so on, he needs to realise the current club structure is not working. As an example, a strong and well-staffed board of directors would have hopefully questioned Swiss Tony a long time before the finances became so critical. There is no off field accountability. This must end. I know it’s a case of be careful what you wish for but outside investment with a co-owner would provide a foil for Lansdown and hopefully create a greater sense of direction and improved decision making. Having a single owner means it’s his money and his train set. When someone else’s cash is involved, both have to think a lot more clearly about the decisions they make.

Watching that felt like trying to run through a pool of golden syrup while wearing concrete boots. Dull, sluggish, uninspiring. In short, bollocks

Which Middle Eastern state has yet to buy a Premier League club?

Only one team in this so far.

Is it wrong of me to want Wales to lose because of how much Michael Sheen has been a total ?? about the Prince of Wales end England in general?

They said it was something to do with the concussion injury for their keeper. They were able to have an extra sub.

We were night and day from recent Nations League performances. Yes, we can talk about a less than brilliant Iran side but we carved them up. The Iran goal (not the penalty) was brilliant and showed we still need to be on our toes defensively but overall, you couldn't fault our intent. Southgate making 5 subs was also brilliant to see. The squad now have more confidence and a lot of players have now had game time. Clever game management. I don't think many people predicted this sort of start.

Gorringe wrote in his programme notes: "I am aware that, in the past, the club has had attendances at the Mem in excess of 12,000" Memorial Stadium - Bristol Rovers Record Attendance 12,011. Vs West Brom FA Cup 6th Round 2008. Well I guess 11 is in excess of 12000.

Yeah, you're absolutely correct in that respect. It's long been suggested that the vote to award the Cup to Qatar was massively affected by bribery but I don't think anything was directly proven. Also, there was the 1999 book that Blatter tried to have banned in several countries (succeeding to do so in Switzerland) that claimed that Qatar paid 50,000 dollars to 20 Fifa delegates (totalling 1 million) to swing their votes to Blatter at the 51st Fifa Congress in 1998. This story was also backed up by several other journalists in the following years. The Qatar World Cup has widely been seen as payback for their efforts to get and keep Blatter in office. I suppose with none of this officially proven it would have made changing the host extremely difficult and cause significant contractual issues. You do have to wonder though, with all of the other cases of corruption being investigated at the time, Qatar was under one stone too many so they got away with it. I can't think of a world cup since the very first one I remember watching in 1982 that I have less looked forward to and that includes the ones we didn't qualify for.

The time for action should have been immediately after Blatter and the corrupt shower of fellow travellers alongside him were charged in the US courts. I accept that it was almost certainly too late to prevent the 2018 world cup from going ahead in Russia but they had more than enough time to stop Qatar from going ahead. I hope those fans who take part in the sportwashing of this farce get their just karma.

soaked up a fair bit of pressure over the last 10 minutes or so. I'd like to see us push up a bit more and not sit back as much. We look so much better tonight though. Bloody shame I've not got the commentary on the red button.