Dr Balls

And a pink cardboard ticket that got clipped around the edge at every game so that by the end of the season you had this frayed bit of mashed pink that if you were lucky was just about still legible but about 25% smaller than when you originally got it!

The official EFL “Pearson Penalty Embargo” has clearly been lifted and City will now be showered with penalties at a rate of 1 every home game! You do have to wonder and maybe Manning is just lucky rather than good. Was Napoleon’s preference in generals, so perhaps that time in Guernsey has had an effect on Lansdown, wishing for the same in Head Coaches!

Interesting to see from the stats that we had more shots than them (21 v 16), plus more on target (5 v 4) and more corners (7 v 6). I agree they liked better in possession and going forward, and they could have been 3-1 or 4-1 up at half time, even without the softest penalty award ever, but they weren’t, thanks to some last ditch defending. As for our second and third goals, I thought they were richly deserved. On another night, we might have lost but we didn’t. And after last minute mugging against both Stoke and Norwich this season we are due a bit of luck.

Yeah but they don’t have a “nest egg”. Gotta love a “nest egg”!

Wasn’t he one of the Italians caught up in a gambling scandal? As for TGH, I am going to stick my neck out and say that from a purely attacking perspective he’s a better option than Scott and certainly more likely to score. I know many might disagree on that point, but if the buyout really is only £1.3M, i.e. about 1/20th of the fee we got for Scott, we would be bonkers not to trigger it. Along with Dickie and O’Leary, he was one of the only players in Saturday’s performance that were better than their Sunderland opposite number.

Having read “The Bluffers Guide to Football Coaching and Management”. Even after some experience in the role, his luck had to run out eventually even with the least critical of owners. And nothing he has done since suggests that he’s actually any good at it. He peaked with Bristol City and that Carabao Cup run. It has been downhill from then on. Plus he passed on his anti-Midas touch to Dean Holden…

First half good going forward but even then he often left Pring with a 3 on 1 of Pring versus Roberts, Pritchard and Huggins. How Sunderland didn’t score from those chances also says something about their lack of cutting edge up front. Mehmeti offers something going forward but he has so much to learn in how to be a complete player and tracking back for the sake of the team in terms of defensive duties. The difference when Weimann came on second half was obvious.

No first mistake was about 20 minutes in when Vyner clearly expected and wanted him to come out and claim the ball. Instead hr stayed on his line for once and Vyner got in a real mess that nearly led to a goal. However his shot stopping was top drawer, but then so was Bentley’s and that wasn’t the reason the latter was let go. It was because Max was both cheaper and possibly had better distribution / was happy to play as a sweeper-keeper. All that said some really good saves and ultimately the reason why we kept a clean sheet when everything suggested that they were going to roll us over quite easily.

And the SOD period was one of the most depressing times to be a City fan. The only bright spot was buying JET.

Unfortunately in football, and particularly the Championship, time isn’t necessarily on your side as a manager. As for Manning’s competence that really depends on whether results start to improve. Stubbornly maintaining a system of play that isn’t working, might suggest strength of character, but also raises questions of competence. Trying to get the tones of a flute out of a tuba would be described as madness. Converting a counter-attacking team, with players who are better out of possession, into a possession-based team, might similarly turn out to be very foolish.

Because those running the club have so little knowledge and understanding that they can’t tell the difference between an apple and an orange? Just picking a manager on the basis of being young and a very moderate degree of success at a lower level, without bearing in mind how his teams have played, suggests a complete lack of any football nous. But then if Tinnion is the “football brain” of the triumvirate leading the club now, then that explains a hell of a lot. He achieved nothing as a manager and clearly has been a snake for at least 20 years!

And as he says himself, a 47% win rate is pretty impressive at any level. Just a shame it was all in League 1! And at least Wilson’s sacking was after we had lost the playoff final I.e. the end of the season. Bringing in a new manager mid-season is always fraught with a degree of risk.

I don’t dislike the new manager as such but I am highly critical of his management in terms of the decisions that he has made around selection (not picking TGH as a starter, regularly subbing Sykes at 60 minutes) and playing style (going from a counter-attacking strong defence approach to a possession-based slow build-up). It’s also clear that a number of players have lost form since his appointment (Vyner, Conway, Bell - spot the link? All former Academy players). Is that because of the loss of the previous manager and the new manager himself and his ways? It doesn’t really matter but it comes to the same thing. Revolution is needed when something clearly isn’t working. Evolution is far better if things are working but might need a tweak to work a little better. We have gone for the former, not because of what was happening on the field, but due to issues of control off it, and so far it’s proved to be not what we needed. Whether or not Manning can adapt his playing style to something that actually suits the players we have remains very open to question. And if he doesn’t we could be in for a very long and difficult second half of the season.

Just watched the highlights and their 2 goals. Really poor defending by Vyner for both goals. Lost his man for the first then for the second bounced off the goalscorer and then in no man’s land when the ball came in. It would seem that instead of the Zak from the last 12 months under Pearson, since his recent return from injury, we are seeing the player that many of us remember from before, when he really didn’t look like a Championship level player. Partly explains why he have started conceding far more goals since Manning took over. Really needs to regain some form and confidence soon or there will be some echoes of Fontaine.

Putting it bluntly, Nige was the kind of person who would make a good mate by being honest with you. Upfront, told it how he saw it and felt it. No hidden agenda, just bringing people on board with his ideas. Fans slowly came on board with that as they realised he was just quietly getting on with what he had been tasked to do - cut the playing budget, bring through Academy players and keep us competitive in the Championship. That’s quite the equation to have to work out and not come a cropper. Contrast that initial description of Nige with those who put him out of a job, and the difference is as stark as midday and midnight. Obfuscation, lies and waffling bullsh!t is all we have had from the “board” - all 2 of them, plus their new “Director of Football”. And now when it’s clear the plan is going wrong? Trappist-like in their silence…

In the “live” table, we are now closer in points to 22nd than 6th. Just remind me again, “The only way is…?” Really need points in the next 2 home games or come Christnas, we will already be in the bottom 6. This division is brutally competitive and quickly finds out those who flatter to deceive.

My biggest worry is that Dickie’s form drops as he gets flashbacks from what happened last season at QPR and sees the same happening here. Class is permanent but unfortunately form is definitely not!

Leave Crayon Boy in charge and this the cluster omnishambles you end up with. Of course, the way we are playing right now, little need to worry about supply issues from O’Neills as there will be a lot less demand in League 1. Maybe Crayon Boy is a genius after all - 2 or more steps ahead!

That there are no cool bars in Plymouth?!

It’s the loss of confidence that is the biggest worry as that usually goes hand in hand with form. And if it goes on long enough, teams can almost sleepwalk into a relegation battle. Every year there is a team that loses momentum and plummets down the table and is battling to stay up come the end of the season. Last season it was QPR with a change of coach, and no reason that we couldn’t follow exactly the same pattern this season with no guarantee of survival.

Maybe because he doesn’t know any other way than being a “mini Pep”? Has anyone confirmed why his MK Dons team imploded? Could it be that he was trying to play a way that didn’t work any more given the players available? If that is the case then that doesn’t augur well for what is likely to happen during the rest of the season. Look where MK Dons are right now - more worried about losing their league status completely…

So in essence - a nepo boy, a financial wonk, a failed manager, and an inexperienced coach. What could possibly go wrong!

There is absolutely no way Crayon Boy is going to own this huge mistake that he has made. A sudden last minute withdrawal from his next speaking appearance to the Senior Reds is almost a certainty.

Chucked in the deep end without any water-wings, when he’s previously only paddled the shallow end that is League One, while we all share a certain sinking feeling…

Agree. I don’t have any confidence for either Saturday or the following Friday. We appear to be on a downward trajectory and I have no confidence that Manning knows how to turn it around.