Midlands Robin

From the sound of it the 26 Milwall fans in the stadium have suddenly woken up it seems.

A bloody soft one though.

They don't show replays on the Red Button but that was soft.

Few, that was close. Good save Bents

Baker made of glass again.

Poor header from Tanner but he at least got himself into a good position.

We started quite untidy but we are finding a few gaps in their backline now. Not putting them under enough pressure yet but getting better.

Looking forward to this. COYR

Oh Christ, I hope not. I'd be slaughtered after 10 minutes. ?

In his post match interview Nige commented on the improving "togetherness" of the squad. I think he was trying to avoid pointing the finger at anyone in particular when he said it was a lot better than he'd seen previously when he'd come here as a manager and as a player. It's clear that if the team isn't motivated to work individually and then motivated to work for the team then it doesn't matter how much talent we have, we'll not get to see it. The best managers can make something more than the sum of its parts. I think Nige is getting an ever improving performance out of what he has and, I look forward to the January transfer window with some confidence that we will add 1 or 2 significant signings to take us forward again. The ship is now in good shape, time to make her Bristol fashion.

Content with that. Even though our record home run continues it seems like we had some decent spells in this one. Another point on the board and the progress under Nige continues.

Good job I called in the Vicar ?? All eyes on a win now. COYR

Do we still have a club vicar? We need some sort of exorcism on the Gate. What the hell is it about playing at home?

Good point well raised. ?

Walsall struggled to get going in League 2 and took 5 league games to find a win. They then seemed to settle down a bit, drawing with Bradford away and then beating Mansfield at home. Their last game was a 2-0 away defeat to Newport. They look like a difficult team to break down but have conceded late goals on couple of occasions. There biggest problem is creating chances. They simply don't. Even against Mansfield where they scored 3 they only had 5 on target the whole match. With the sags unable to hit a cows arse with a banjo this match could end up being the unstoppable shite meets the immovable shite. If Walsall win by anything more than 1 goal then the sags really are epically crap under Biffer Barton. It should have 0-0 written all over it

I see the traveling wagon of methane snorting goons rolls up in my neck of the woods this weekend. Sadly family commitments prevent me from visiting the Bescot to take the piss out of Biffer and his geriatric footballing oafs but at least I have enough warning to keep away from the centre of town. They are already crowing about away ticket sales on the Narnia that is their forum. At this rate they may need 2 coaches.

Read this in the post article: "The application also seeks to remove conditions relating to opening hours and open of the site for non-professional use." So the Sags first team haven't got permission to train there yet then?

Someone a few pages back posted Barton's win ratio compared to Garner's. I always think that in these circumstances win ratios are the wrong metric to use. A manager could have 1 win and 4 losses in 5 games and have the same win ratio as one with 1 win and 4 draws. For a true appreciation of absolute shiteness you have to look at the "loss ratio" Garner lost 17 in 33 for 52% Biffer Barton lost 17 in 24 for 72% To put it another way, Garner scored points in almost half his league games while Barton can just about score points in a quarter (oh how ironic, quarters?) ??

Bwahhh, Haas Haas Haas, bwaaahhh haaa, hah hah hah hah ?

If we had taken all three points tonight it would have been a brave man to argue that we fully deserved them. Despite the marginal improvement in the second half, overall we should have been 3 or 4 down in the first. So many problems across the pitch its impossible to tell where to start putting things right. At times Kalas and Atkinson played like they were total strangers. Baker (despite the goal) and Vyner provide almost no decent threat from wide positions and struggle to get back. Martin looked a yard too slow tonight and the remainder of the attack ran around without producing any real threat. Who wants to start the thread discussing how critical the Jan transfer window is? We have mediocrity stamped all over the club and right now, it simply isn't good enough.

For ***** sake

Jesus Christ, we rode our luck in that half. How much space do Atkinson and Kalas want to give their players in our box? If Vyner crosses roads like he crossed balls tonight he'd end up back where he started. Not a great night so far

Two paragons of virtue right there. ? It's still possible to be an asshole and not break the law. Just look at 99 percent of the MP's involved in the expenses scandal. Yes, my scenarios were very general and I agree, anyone leveling the accusation of illegal activities needs to be extremely sure of what they're saying before claiming such. I'm also sure that posting of a link between person A, person B and an Investment company isn't enough to bring Perry Mason banging on your door. Whatever went on, the last 12 months turned out pretty badly for our football club but didn't seem to effect the career of our former CEO. Edit - But our future is definitely looking better with NP and RG in post.

So ultimately we've several options. 1) The breach of rules option which we'll discount as it could involve legal ramifications. 2) Ashton was not involved in any of the big work but was aware of the goings on, perhaps acted as a point of contact and was offered the role at Ipswich prior to SL being aware. 3) Ashton informed SL that he was working with investors to buy into Ipswich town on behalf of a former colleague and SL was happy for him to do so as long as it didn't effect his City work, ultimately Ashton decided to put his notice in and leave at the end of the season. 4) Ashton woke up one morning to find a group of investors involving a long time friend and work mate of his had purchased Ipswich and quite out of the blue they called him up and offered him the CEO job. Personally, I'd say the least likely of all of those would be option 3. I just can't see SL being happy with his CEO working for someone else when he should be concentrating 100 percent on Bristol City. From what I recall when the initial threads appeared on OTIB, there was no suggestion that any impropriety had taken place. The poster simply pointed out that a company with a link to one of Ashton's friends had popped up in relation to football investment. There was nothing more concrete than that. It was that scrap of info that sent the hot line at OTIB towers off. Either way, I'm sure enough rocks will eventually get kicked over to reveal more light on the subject.

I'm not so sure. We'd need to work out a timeline of events but the big questions such as who said what and when I doubt we'll ever fully know. I can guarantee though that when I'm not in work at my desk, my boss would have no idea what I'm doing. It's not all that absurd to believe Ashton was devoting some time prior to the announcement of his departure working on non City related projects.