ashton_fan

1 minute ago, Tafkarmlf said:

It's rare I have to ask, anyone got a working stream literally nothing working for me inc the official site.. 

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.

23 minutes ago, Engvall’s Splinter said:

When players are benched do we always have to suggest it’s the “naughty step”? 

He's not on the bench

4 hours ago, Major Isewater said:

You leave Gord alone. He was a fantastic player for us. The poor bloke’s career is blighted by those two very important misses but at least he had the guts to take them. 
Anyone have a Gordon Owen highlights video ( other than the opposition keepers) ? 
 

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:

On 23/08/2021 at 08:00, richwwtk said:

Gerry Sweeney was manager for one game, a 2-1 win at Crewe so if you measure by PPG our most successful manager ever!

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

1 minute ago, David Brent said:

Conway & Wells rightly restored at least. 

Is it?

He more or less said it in his pre-match

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

1 hour ago, italian dave said:

My thought exactly!

Not to mention someone who can score from a free kick.

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:

5 hours ago, YGBjammy said:

I sometimes wonder if HNM had a crew cut and was called Joe Smith, and had arrived here from Tranmere rather than Monaco, would he still be here now? Feel like he's improved since he arrived, but maybe only half as much as we expected, if that. 

I think he needs a decent midfield around him to flourish, probably as part of a 3. I wouldn't be surprised either way if he ends up:

a) playing in Europa League within 2 seasons

b) Moves to French 2nd Division and we never hear of him again

Great potential, but as others on here have said, his variability is huge.

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 

3 hours ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Given that they lost to Chippenham at the weekend, we’re on a hiding to nothing here.

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

11 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Sorry, that’s wrong & looking it up it was actually far worse than I recalled;

78/79 season (these are Saturday games)

Boro home 12,300, Birmingham & QPR both 15,000. 

79/80 (relegation season)

Boro home 10,800, Bolton 13,000, WBA,15,000, Ipswich 14,000, Southampton 12,000.

There was a recession but our gates were pretty poor, the novelty of being in the top flight had worn off & people simply didn’t turn up.

I didn’t stop going either (& never have) but thousands clearly did.

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.

54 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

To answer the OP, no, it wasn’t.

This was when we rejected the £250k offer from Arsenal for Merrick & Ritchie, hoping we got promoted to Division One instead, which of course we did.

The financial crisis came much later, (3/4 years) the long term contracts we gave out as a response to Gary Collier walking out on us (though it is forgotten now we got £350k for him, a huge sum then) was definitely a big factor. Players who had been great servants were on the way down but on top flight money they couldn’t justify.

Worth recalling too that despite the nostalgia for that era some of our gates in the top flight were truly awful, definitely remember a couple of 15,000 ones against the likes of Boro.

It wasn’t the glamour of the Premier League true, but the West Country public were pretty lukewarm in supporting the club then, that was also a big factor.

Gates dropped off a cliff as soon as we were relegated (& then relegated again). Someone I know who went every game in the top flight stopped & has only been back about 5 times in the 40 years since.

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.

7 minutes ago, elhombrecito said:

Robins TV working perfectly here in Atlanta...

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.