Dr Balls

The reality is that he is a midfielder who is only playing his second season as a centre back and at Championship level. The mistakes he makes on the ball might be tolerated (just) if he was in midfield (for example Massengo giving the ball away) but are going to get punished more severely if you are the last player at the back. It’s exactly what happened against both Sunderland and Blackpool when we conceded sloppy goals after he either lost the ball or gave it away, so on that basis you could say it’s at least 3 points he has caused us to lose. However other aspects of his game are very good, he just needs a bit of a talking too and coaching from Nige about how to play as a central defender in dangerous situations, and not putting himself in them unnecessary.

Unsurprisingly at half time, it’s still scoreless between Coventry and Preston…

Still got this complete card album (and the other All Stars ones too) somewhere in the basement: What a winning combination - cheesy star-shaped corn snacks and football cards. Genius!

After tonight’s results, it’s starting to look like the parachute payments are already skewing the table yet again… https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/championship/table That said win tomorrow night and we could be up to 6th.

Talking of evening kick offs and floodlights, have to say this quiz is pretty tough (only scored 8/20): https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/aug/30/football-quiz-name-the-team-from-the-floodlights

Of course this was the time of power cuts, and includes that famous victory away at Leeds in the FA Cup. Don’t mind starting earlier on a Saturday, and I don’t think it would overly affect attendance. However in mideeek, I really don’t think it would work. And anyway there is a 4 week break for the World Cup almost as soon as the clocks go back. That might be a lifeline for a few pubs too…

And at least another 3-4 years before it will get you to Portishead!

So I take from this that Preston take quite a few speculative shots from outside the penalty area (nearly half of all their shots) plus although they haven’t conceded they give up almost as many shots to the opposition as we do. Still amazing to go through the first 6 games of a league season scoring just 1 goal and conceding none.

However in terms of our Swedish imports NE was still more successful than Engvall…

If that’s the case @Davefevshave their shots just not been on target? Likewise have the teams that they have played against not had their shooting boots on either? Against Cardiff on Saturday the odds of a no-score draw must have been exceedingly low if you had gone to the bookies. They are due to play Coventry on Wednesday, assuming that their pitch is now up to being played on. Another 0-0 seems unlikely considering Coventry have scored 5 and conceded 7 in just 3 games, but who knows.

By comparison with some we have had recently, the ref sounds half competent at least!

Just goes to prove how important it is to have a tight defence. Should make for an interesting comparison of styles when we play next month as their weakness is our strength and vice versa. Just hope we score goals because then it’s likely we win!

As per previous posts, unsurprising and sad, but has to be the right decision for his health given the number of head injuries he has sustained over his career. On his day, as good as any central defender we have had at the club, and it always felt a bit of a coup when he first came here. Good luck Bakes and hope you stay well. A testimonial against Villa would seem the obvious way to give him a proper send off.

Agree. The problem is not goals being scored but goals conceded. It’s exactly the same issue as last season. We need to be better in midfield and defensively, cutting out the costly mistakes and “gimme” goals.

True about Ashton selling relatively well - but he inherited players to sell for very decent fees. The only one brought in during his time at the club where we clearly made a profit was Webster and even then his move from Ipswich followed a tip off from Cole Skuse. If you think of recent sales since Pearson arrived it’s more been a case of just trying to get the player off of the wage bill any way we can. Think how difficult it was to sell Palmer or Bakinson. The only one who walked away was Cundy, because he wanted regular games at Barnsley, but then given we bought him for a song and his wages would have been pretty low by Championship standards that wasn’t a huge financial loss.

The obvious answer is the same line up as against Cardiff or failing that the same as against Luton but with Wilson brought in to replace Sykes. If Weimann isn’t fit that would be a major loss. I would suggest Massengo would be better further forward to replace him, with Scott and Williams behind. And that would still mean Wilson at RWB. I would leave Semenyo on the bench to come on as an impact sub with 15-20 minutes to go, depending on the score by that stage. Dropping Wells from the starting line up would be very harsh given his combination with Conway.

First time all season that they have conceded. Chances of an equaliser seem low…

@TomFit’s not like Grant Shapps has done anything at all so far other than dither and delay. All the money has been pledged, all he has to do is sign it off ASAP. However you and I know that he won’t do anything until the last moment possible, assuming that there isn’t some other bump along the way. @East End Old BoyI am not saying that Liam Fox hasn’t tried to push things forward, and that he has vented his frustration at the whole process, but the reality is that as far as the Tory party are concerned, the South West is not their focus, so funding and projects down here are not a priority. The assumption is that us bumpkins will continue to tug our forelocks and vote for them, come what may. A concentrating of minds is what is needed - and Dr Fox taking the “nuclear option” would certainly do that!

You know the best way to make the Portishead line happen and a decision made earlier? For Liam Fox to resign. That would focus top Tory minds very quickly and before you can say “by-election defeat”, it would be given the green light. Then Fox could lap up the local plaudits and improve his chance of getting re-elected. He’s been an MP for 30 years, so he’s well past the point of getting a full MP’s pension (20 years as an MP if you would like to know) anyway, so losing and retiring gracefully wouldn’t be that bad an option either. But he doesn’t like his constituents that much, so he won’t!

I wouldn’t disagree that Andi Weimann is a very good player and one of the best at this level. I have always rated him and I would even suggest that as Bobby Reid’s replacement, he was Ashton’s best bit of recruitment at Ashton Gate. Remember the season when Diedhiou was suspended at the start and AW scored 5 goals playing up front? But then as soon as Diedhiou was available again LJ shunted Weimann out onto the wing and the goals dried up. That had happened with previous managers too, but Nige played AW in his best position and the return was 22 League goals in one season. That’s appreciating what AW as our most consistent player brings to the team.

So we are equal on points with Preston. However so far this season they have had one 1-0 win and 4 no score draws. I know that every expert says the basis of a successful team is a strong defence but as I recall the aim of the game is actually to score goals. Would be interested to know the fans opinion. Happy at being unbeaten yes, but also likely quite bored too.

@Davefevs Maybe this is the new norm? Another 2-0 at home and another good performance. We can only hope but the next few games up to the international break, which include both Norwich and Burnley away, will really show how far we have come - or not.

It’s fair to say that Nige has been a very significant part of the Andi Weimann renaissance, to the point of AW returning to the Austrian National squad for the first time in 7 years and then scoring his first international goal against the world champions. He’s been the first manager in a long time either at City or elsewhere to play AW in his best position. That’s not luck.

Considering two of our most successful managers of recent times were called Dicks and (Gary) Johnson, I think we should be careful about suggesting anatomically-suggestive named managers for other clubs!!

I would suggest the League 2 referee hit the decisions right in that game and the guy we had on Tuesday missed the penalty on Atkinson (I thought it was clearly a foul at the time and having watched the multi-angle replays even more convinced) plus under-appreciated the violence of Freeman on Sykes. A shove from behind knocking someone to the floor with the ferocity that Freeman used was violent conduct, hands or no hands. As for VAR at this level, considering most linesmen seem to struggle with getting offside decisions correct (Tuesday night in the first half there was one Luton forward who was a yard offside as the ball was played through to him but no flag was forthcoming) and referees can’t tell a dive from a foul or vice versa then it does seem just a matter of time before it appears.