ashton_fan

Official site working ok here

This match is on Sky Red Button. I have discovered how to watch it on NOW TV (I have a monthly Sky Sports subscription, it doesn't work on a day pass), I use an Amazon Fire stick to watch NOW. On the Home screen for NOW scroll to the bottom and there is an item 'Bonus Streams' (it only appears on match days), click on this and it shows the red button games: Apologies if this was known already but it was news to me! Probably better coverage than Robins TV.

The game against Stoke was a bad one to lose with 3 difficult matches coming up. We could easily lose all of them and be in the bottom 3 in the new year. SL doesn't like changing managers but tends to hit the panic button at this time of year if he thinks there is a realistic chance of relegation so Nige cannot afford to make any more gaffs.

He's not on the bench

Fred Ford was a bit before my time but he got the team promoted to Div 2 while John Atyeo was still playing. They did ok the first season up but once Atyeo retired the team struggled, he was difficult to replace. In his last season aged 34 he was still the top scorer with 19 goals. This home defeat against Blackpool was Fred's last game in charge and coincidentally was on MOTD:

I spoke with Gerry before a match a few years ago and he mentioned this statistic and that he was the only City manager with 100% win rate

He more or less said it in his pre-match

Nige obviously aware his job on the line so opting for experience today

I'd forgotten we sold Goater mid season, John Ward said he was looking forward to using him in the Championship, we would probably have stayed up if we'd kept him

Here's the highlights of that 97/98 promotion season:

Maybe he hasn't improved as expected due to the coaching he's had since he arrived here? While at Monaco he would have been coached to play european-style football and he appeared in a Champions League match, the requirements for the Championship are quite different so it must have been confusing for a young player to have to change his ways after all the years he was taught previously? I think if he goes back to Europe he will be a success, he has the ability and works hard but City just haven't found a suitable role for him in the side

It's all down to what SL thinks rather than us. He has a history of sacking if we're in the bottom 3 around Christmas/January time eg McInnes, Cotts and SO'D. He's trying to sell the club but his business model falls apart if the team is in L1, he has to give a new manager time to turn things around so December realistically is the latest he can leave it, giving the new manager a transfer window so he has a fighting chance. I'm sure he'd rather that results improve so he doesn't have to make a decision but if he thinks there's no alternative he'll do it.

If we don't beat Watford and end up in the bottom 3 then Nige definitely at risk, SL gets nervous if he thinks we might get relegated

Our game listed on Hesgoal, no guarantee it will work though

They did score 6 at the tented village in September mind

He's coming out and commanding his area much better than previously, and this is where Bents was weak also. Now he's stopping shots as well no way Bents will get back if he keeps it up, he's also aware of Bajic in the wings so knows he's got to continue to play well if he wants to be number 1 in future once Bents has left.

I'd have thought Bell would be nailed-on to start, possibly alongside Conway or Martin. Also he may give Joe Low his full debut. King and Massengo in midfield. Lincoln fans saying their team prefers not to have possession and play on the break, that's why they lost to Chippenham, their midfield is not up to much. Having said that they won 6-3 at the Mem in September so a bit unpredictable.

Another game where I would settle for a point

You have to remember in those days they counted the actual numbers attending rather than the number of tickets sold as they do today, we used to average around 21K in those years which was a big increase over the crowds we got in Div 2, usually around the 10K mark although they were a bit higher in our promotion season.

I can't agree that the support was luke-warm in the First Division era, there weren't so many season ticket holders so gates fluctuated more, yes there were some lower gates in midweek games against teams lower in the table but for example when we played Liverpool at home at the end of our first season we got 38,688. Me and my mates certainly didn't stop watching them when they went down either although we did lose a lot of fans who used to travel from around the south-west just to see a first division game as there was nothing else anywhere close. You wouldn't expect to get the same number of fans willing to watch Notts County rather than Arsenal, say.

I've just moved from Holland to the US and now no problems

Robins TV down at the moment, comes back with server error

It was a great win last night but I doubt we could keep a clean sheet against better forward lines if we continue to concede so many corners (13 last night). If we want to progress to the top six rather than be an inconsistent mid-table side we have to stop defending so deeply for long periods giving opponents a run of corners and/or free kicks, that's how we were undone at Birmingham and at numerous other away games over the last couple of seasons. Many Championship sides rely on set pieces for most of their goals. Max has been an improvement as at least he is willing to come off his line and catch/punch which causes play to reset and break up the play.