ashton_fan

It must be our first game without Kala's for a while

I would start with James in midfield today in place of Massengo who has looked a bit jaded recently, maybe bring him on for the last half hour from the bench.

Just arrived in his Merc, not part of the squad but looked ok

1. Cheesley at Arsenal 2. Gillies at Leeds (Cup) 3. Gillies at Coventry (Div 1) 4. Fear at Man Utd (Div 2) 5. Tinnion at Liverpool

So you're telling our top scorer he mustn't go up front?

I saw that Blackpool away fixture, they obviously forgot to remove it after the game

In one of those games for Brum was sent off after 10 minutes for a second yellow, maybe that affected his chance of a deal?

I think Nige wants to give Max a chance. He has to sell at least one in the summer who'll get a few millions in and he'd rather sell Bents than Massengo , Scott or Semenyo. Having said that if Bents isn't in the side his transfer value will be going down, we might still get £2-3M for him. Max has all the attributes of a good keeper he just need the mental confidence to come out for balls around the 6-yard box, his distribution is better than Bents but he's got to be a bit braver. Having Klose in front of him might help.

Reading fans seem to think they'll have their best side out for a while following some players returning from injury, and that they've been unfortunate to lose games they've largely dominated in the last few weeks. We must score first if we're going to win this one, in this situation (playing a team on a bad run) City have a habit of giving away a soft goal (eg penalty, own goal, bad backpass) and the opponents suddenly believe in themselves after looking hopeless initially.

There was only any point in sacking LJ if they had someone better lined up, it's the same mistake we've made in the past. Now they're rudderless and destined to slide down the table, I can see Warnock in as a panic appointment.

Having watched Boreham Wood win at Bournemouth, their defence didn't have any holes in it, it was completeley solid and Bournemouth struggled to find a way through until the last 15 minutes when some of their players started tiring and Bournemouth brought on their better players. Our players must have more ability than Boreham's so surely it's just a coaching issue? Also look at Watford, first clean sheet in ages with Roy Hodgson in charge who drills defenders to death in training. Has our defence got worse since Keith Downing left as he used to be our defensive coach? Perhaps we need another defensive coach to get them organised?

Takes me back seeing that stand with pillars in the way! Appreciate the photos, it reminds me of my visit to Blackpool many seasons ago.

I feel for the fans that travelled up there, at least I could just switch Robins TV off they've got 150 odd miles to drive back in miserable conditions

I've only been to Blackpool once, in 1976 during our promotion run-in. We lost 2-1 and I remember that due to a colour clash we ended up wearing tangerine socks borrowed from the home team. Looking at the weather forecast it's meant to be lashing down with rain there and winds gusting to 50mph so will be a bit of a lottery.

I remember chatting to Gerry Sweeney and he claimed he was the most successful manager in Bristol City's history with a win rate of 100%, although he was only in charge for one game!

We're not going to get promoted or relegated this season so although that late goal yesterday hurt like hell at the time it won't make any difference to the season's outcome. I'm sure Nige will have found an answer before next season starts, let's just hope we can hold on to our best young talent.

Perhaps from the playing point of view but by that stage the club wasn't in danger of going under, that was the worst thing when we played Newport the fact that it could be the last game

The difference between this and the Luton game is our defence looks ok

It was all a bit unreal how quickly things went downhill. I still blame the Board for the financial mismanagement after a coup in which Robert Hobbs (the Chairman) was overthrown after overseeing our successful seasons in Div 1. The new board got us relegated and then to make things worse sacking Alan Dicks due to a poor start in Div 2, if we'd kept him I think he could have turned things around. By the time we got to the Newport match we were at rock bottom and the board managed to focus on the AG8 as the issue to obscure their own failings.

It wasn't the 8's fault that the club was bankrupt, that was down to mismanagement by the Board at the time, the contracts the players were given while in Div 1 should have had clauses regarding what would happen if the club was relegated. The players at that time weren't on the sort of wages being paid now and had families to look after, some were towards the end of their playing days. The club at the time focussed on them to stop people noticing that it was the Board's fault the club was in such a mess financially. This is not revisionist, I was there while it was going on.

Has been a great player at Championship level in the past so worth a punt. However has had serious knee injuries and can't run as fast since he had those problems. In the past we've signed previously good defenders with fitness issues and it hasn't worked out but I suppose Nige hasn't got many options at present so let's hope he can play a part for the rest of the season, our defence certainly needs some help.

Max should be still improving at his level of age/experience while Bents is probably at his best now, I think maybe Nige is giving Max a run to see if he can up his game given more minutes on the pitch, if it works then he can sell Bents either now or at the end of the season and use the funds gained on a needed CB. Max may come out more for crosses if he's given more coaching in that area, it's definitely where he need to improve. We have seen how Antoine is now adding goalscoring to his skills which he couldn't do until recently, young players have time to overcome weaknesses in their game. It hasn't helped Max that our current CB's are relatively inexperienced at Championship level with the exception of Kalas.

I think we'll struggle to get anybody better than the 2 keepers we already have. We could do with another commanding CB like Baker that's our main weakness against teams with tall strikers at the moment.

Our form there recently has been pretty poor, we did well to get a draw there last season but haven't won there since 2000. The record books show we got a 1-1 draw there in the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1992! I'll be happy providing we don't lose.

I'm expecting a tough game today, Cardiff have a decent away record it's their home form that has let them down, they recently picked a point at WBA and have had some tricky fixtures in the last few games, we'll need to be at our best to win.