Midlands Robin

In other amusing news, Timmy Abraham (Tammy's brother) who did sweet FA at the sags on loan last season has scored for Newport and Mark Ashton's Ipswich Town appear to be heading out.

Had a good bit of luck today. I got put through as the lucky caller on the BBC Radio Bristol Big Mystery Prize competition. The DJ said to me "How are you feeling?" "Nervous" I replied. "Don't worry he said, it's an easy Maths question, get it right and you win the star prize" "That's a bit of luck" I said "I did Maths at GCSE and A-Level and then I went on to do an HND in Engineering and there's lots of Maths in that" The DJ responded, "Well then it shouldn't be too difficult for you. Ok, Before we start, I can reveal that the Grand Mystery Prize today is 2 VIP Tickets to a Bristol Rovers match of your choice. After the match you'll have the chance to meet the manager and players and you'll get a signed shirt. So, the question you need to answer to win this amazing prize is....... what it 2 plus 2?" "7" I said.

If it's anything like Irene, about 100 pounds an hour.

They're looking great so far. 1 goal in open play against Melksham, Barnet and Guzz. Still pre-season but the Barca of league two obviously have some work to do.

I can never understand why some owners are quite content to burn the house down while they're standing in it? It's not as if Power will come out of it with anything worthwhile. The club rent the ground and seemingly have nothing else of worth to make money from. All he's managed to do is cripple a club and the bin it. Not exactly a sound business model that's likely to encourage future business partners to have faith in you. Sounds like they'd be better off starting from scratch.

Ian Dury, now there was a man who rocked a Donkey Jacket.

If we base it on Tottenham Hotspur who, as we all recall the Sags commercial manager saying a few years ago, were the only other club in the country to do as much ground development work as the methane snorters then, from announcement to first match, the Stadium of Shite should be open in around 9 years.

This part I agree with you about. Using figures however is completely misleading. Wigan in the mid 90's averaged crowds of less than 2000. Just over 10 years later another 17000 people from Wigan suddenly remembered they had a football club. Between 79/80 and 80/81 our gates dropped by 50 percent and by the time we'd hit rock bottom we'd lost 75 percent of those who were there 5 years before. Good football brings good crowds. Wigan have done a good job to retain their supporters after their premiership years. The Sags have been locked on 6 to 7 thousand delusionals for decades now. It just shows all they have is a core group of supporters who watch that shite regardless but apart from a couple of seasons under the dog botherer, they aren't growing at all. Until City reach the Premier League the majority of potential fans will stick to sky sports. We haven't been a top flight club for 41 years. There are many dad's who have to tell their kids to ask Granddad what it was like watching City in the first division. That's the most shameful state of affairs for a city our size not the lack of support. Anyway, the Sags always give it Charlie big potatos. **** 'Em.

Fair play though, 47 percent of Nailsworth watch Forrest Green Rovers. ?

This proves my point though. The stat doesn't take into account where people live. You can't for example say, the West Brom stat is wrong because it's clearly skewed by fans attending matches who don't live in West Brom but say the Wigan stat is correct because every person who attends their games lives in Wigan. The figures for Bristol could differ vastly depending on whether you include just the city population (around 450000), the urban population (around 600000) or the area (around 1 million)? How many city fans live in North Somerset, Weston and surrounding areas? How many saggys live in the South Gloucestershire area? Don't get me wrong, anything to have a laugh at the Sags is a good thing but we shouldn't be beating ourselves up over play population attendances as it's just not a reliable figure to use.

There's a huge problem using average attendances against population size as a stick to beat clubs with. You'll be amazed to learn for example that 32% of the population of West Bromwich (78,000 people as of 2018) went and watched their club meanwhile a tiny 1.41 of Birmingham's 1.1 million population watch Birmingham City. If the population of Wigan or Barnsley was to quadruple overnight their attendances wouldn't suddenly by increase in line with their percentages. Their percentage of population attending would get smaller.

Shows what City thinks of the women's team. Bung an advert on the OS and see who applies. Seems a bit embarrassing.

Regarding their training patch, the story is in this post article: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-rovers-modify-plans-quarters-5301986.amp If you make it to somewhere near the bottom of the text it's apparent that the proposed design didn't meet FA requirements to host multiple youth games simultaneously. They also forgot to build any office space in the original building design for support staff.

Grouty "They put me in charge of the Tote end" Barton "We haven't got a Tote End" Grouty "I know" Barton "Clerical error?" Grouty "No, IKEA"

Both with Fleetwood connections and both free agents so it would seem very likely. McAleny is an interesting one. He's had more loans than you can shake a stick at. Did very little at Fleetwood and after his first season spent the majority of the next two on loan, then signs a one year deal with Oldham where he goes on the best league scoring run of his career with 17 goals in a season. It's a wonder Oldham aren't trying to retain him. Mind you, he seems like another Nichols type of player, a one season wonder. The Sags will sign him and wonder where the goals went. Certainly looks like Mr Tilson gets to keep his crown for another year. ???

I agree @Davefevs and I can't see the excuse as to a reason why that's the case. Yes we all know times are hard due to covid but it's almost as if it's the team that Bristol Sport forgot. A real shame.

Does anyone else think that, if it wasn't for the fact that Tanya Oxtoby was due to take time off for the birth of her child then she would have been let go due to the poor performance of the team? It may have put the club in a very difficult position because, let's face it, up to the start of her maternity leave, City were awful and there was little sign that things were going to change. I could just imagine how poor it would look to sack someone about to go maternity leave. I posted a few pages back that this is very much a missed opportunity by the club. Women's football is growing in popularity and respect with each passing season and with only 1 up 1 down getting back into the top flight will be tough. Much like the Rugby where SL was able to buy the best coaching and playing staff for far less cost than the men's footballing equivalent, the level of investment to ensure a competitive ladies team is far less than the men's.

Tisdale was on a PPG of 0.95 which means had they stuck with him they would have scored 6 more points which would have been enough to........ Finish in 23, one point above Swindle. Well it's something ????

True. I doubt Bristol Academy would have been able to find the funds to develop so in theory having the Bristol Sport backing should have seen a level of investment that could have seen them at least competing in the top half of the table. As it stands, I think someone forgot to remind the family that they actually own the team. With 2 points from the first 10 games and no apparent demand for improvement or signing new players, shunting the team off to Bath to play (not that this really mattered without fans) and the lack of discussion around the team from the club all means it would seem they couldn't really give a.toss what the Ladies team does. It's a wasted opportunity as women's football is steadily growing and it's another chance of getting the shirt seen by the wider community. I thought Bristol Sport was all about maximising the brand.

It won't be of they lose and we win.

Wally has been in charge of the Sags for 5 years (Feb 2016). When he bought the circus they were in the 4th tier with an awful ground and after five years of hard work and investment they are now.... In the 4th tier with an awful ground. Looks like all of that hard work, second only to Spurs in terms of ground improvement, has really paid off.

?????????????

On the bright side. At least they'll be moving into their brand new ground in August this year. This is what their very nice chairman told Geoff T on the 6th of August 2019: What’s the latest on the new ground? Last year we talked about this. You asked me three years time where will we be? And I said hopefully in a new stadium, two years to go from now hopefully that is still our aim, our target.

What a lovely day it's turning out to be.

Very nice of Charlton to keep banging goals in so we get to see Michelle Owen ??