beaverface

Sometimes the opposition put a lot of men behind the ball and sit very deep, thus restricting space behind for runners. The natural instinct is to bring a big target man (or defender) on, to then pump crosses into the box, right on top of the keeper and force a goal that way.

Personally, I'd also like us to have a few more accurate long shots. Over the last few years, we rarely take accurate long shots, they usually shank off the likes of Joe Williams foot - which admitted has set up chances through luck rather than design - it would be great if we could pop in a few more long range efforts.

3 minutes ago, Ciderhead433 said:

Can you not get a card for your son then you both can let your son in 

Yep, that is an option, but not embracing the technology.

My wife and I both have Season Tickets, and we're carers for our son who has a season ticket and my wife has loaded our sons season ticket into her wallet, however I cannot do the same as it's only one wallet per season ticket.

This causes a bit of an issue for us, as sometimes only I can take my son, or it might be that I meet in her the ground. So unless I somehow transfer the ticket across to me, he's going to struggle to get in. (I await the forthcoming news on how to do that)

I'm not quite sure why we can't load the same ticket onto more than one mobile, and once one of them has redeemed the ticket by going through the turnstyle, the same ticket on another phone should then become unusable. Similar to the way you can't spend a voucher code after you've used it.

This approach would work well, especially for us, because as a family we could store all three of our ST's onto a phone each, therefore creating a back-up if one our batteries died, forgot our phones, screen gets broken, one of us not being able to attend.

We're definitely not adverse to moving with the times, we embrace it, but it could be a little more practical in nature.

What was Mark Robins stats like?

I seem to recall he had a pretty good goals\games ratio. Admittedly, he was only on loan for a few games, but someone who I thought we should've really pushed the boat out for.

4 hours ago, OneCity said:

Would be remiss of me not to drop in this little reminder...

 

A few observations:

- Isn't it great to see both City and Rovers in their traditional coloured kits, with both sides wearing white shorts

- No shirt sponsorships makes both kits look better

- Both goalkeepers wearing proper green keeper shirts with white shorts and either red or blue socks.

- Interesting that next to the tunnel on the left hand dugout side you can see fans with blue hats on, and yet when City score, there are loads of fans celebrating behind that same dugout. Was there segregation then in that particular stand?

Well, I did have two £5 gift vouchers from the rewards scheme that I intended to use for the new City shirt, but they also went the way of the Dodo come the end of May !

Whilst typing this message, I thought I'd check out the rewards page which is still under maintenance, and has been for a few weeks...

Loving the built in confetti canons

Had a quick look on the Club Shop website as I was interested in buying something. However, the delivery cost has now gone up to £5.95 !!!

4 hours ago, Smith & Gavin said:

Here’s how it was looking last night!

So, have they "turfed" the pitch rather than grow it from seed? It literally was a sand pit last week.

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’m one of those who called him a Rolls-Royce…I think he’s effortlessly, quick and glides around, especially when covering.  I said his performances this season (albeit limited in number) were classy.  They’ve been nothing like you describe above…that was Kalas or recent seasons.  See next para.

I agree, think he’s struggled to lead, but I’d argue that it’s the deficiencies of others causing the problems.  Of course it’s disappointing that his game suffers when he’s not got as good defenders alongside him.  If you’d have had to play alongside Vyner and Moore of previous seasons, it’s not much of a surprise that you’re gonna be dragged all over the place.

On form, Kalas is a top defender.

The questions are about proposed availability vs wage offered.

I don’t think Vyner has got anywhere near to the level of Kalas at his best…and that’s not diminishing Zak’s improvement either.  Vyner didn’t even have a full-season at these new levels either.  Early season he was still having mistake-games.  He does appear to have got rid of this though, well done Zak.

Some good points, and once again some I agree with, and some I don't - which is fine

I guess it's these observations that makse it a difficult task for the staff to justify, and type of contract offer to Kalas, as they've probably seen everything you and I have, plus more.

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I mean, not so much Vyner but first season or loan spell he had some excellent recovery speed Kalas. Think he is better technically than he gets credit for albeit conservative.

Don't disagree on Vyner but Kalas hmm, his technical stats prior to joining us were strong albeit at Fulham under Jokanovic they indeed were a very possession heavy side which would influence that.

Leadership thing too, yes he won't necessarily lead. The injuries probably won't have helped either as pre injury I could have seen Kalas in a highish line but that would also require the right midfield and team setups etc.

Fair comment, and kind of aligns to what I was saying.

Thought Kalas started out strong at the beginning with us, I just feel he's either trying too hard to be anywhere and everywhere, and his distribution has shown up as not being so good the last season or two. However, that could be down to instructions from the manager, as Kalas has been hitting a lot of long balls rather than possession based football.

I think Kalas needs the right kind of defensive partner next to him. Thought he looked really good when on loan, and especially when he played next to Webster. However when he has lesser players next to him, he struggles to be the leader of the defence.

I've seen him described further up the trail as having Rolls Royce type of performances, but I see the opposite. What I see in Kalas is full blooded, aggressive, last ditch sliding tackles and blocks. His distribution hasn't been great, far from Rolls Royce, and yet if I compare to Vyner, I would say he's like a car that getting better the more we tune it. He's started to glide across the pitch, uses his pace and strength, and looks a very elegant player in the process. I suppose the decision the club have to figure out, is Vyner now tuned to the top end of his 1.6litre engine capacity, or can he be upgraded to compete against the Porsches (or Bentley's - excuse the pun) of this World?

I've a feeling (more hope that anything) that he'll stay this season.

If it's true that he has 2  years left on his contract, that puts the club in a tricky position next summer if a) we don't get promotion, or b) a bidding war doesn't happen.

I hear there's a contract offer on the table at the moment, but I wonder if the contract says "we'll up your wages for the next 2 years, but only if you commit to stay for one further year afterwards."

Basically, a 3 years contract from this exact time might benefit both parties.

Overall, I think it depends on how stung AS felt after being released by Southampton and Bournemouth, compared with knowing what he has here, compared with potentially sitting in the reserves or being loaned out at a massive club.

22 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

Move Ashton Gate to Amsterdam.

Wife and I are on holiday here in a village about 15km north of the city.

Bus service is 8 buses per hour from 6am to midnight. Cost about 3 euros per journey.

Ahh, but Amsterdam doesn't have to cope with two rivers like Bristol does

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I get the impression they challenge them, push them to find out what their propensity to improve / attitude to driving their own improvement is, too.

We’ve seen a few different examples too, not all have been successes.

Yep, I think Bakinson is an example of it going the other way.

2 hours ago, bcfc01 said:

Fontaine was the first thought I had on reading the LFW article.

He was with us for over 8 years and the last couple of years his confidence was totally shot and was not helped by McInnes heaping more pressure on him by making him captain, misplaced amateur psychology by him. 

As with Dickie, he had to leave (he was here too long anyway) to try to restore his confidence. He's still playing in Scotland at 37 I think, which indicates he did.

Lets hope that Dickie gets back to his best, he's a very good player at this level.

 

I started a thread on this a few weeks ago comparing the Fontaine situation with that of Vyner, and how well Vyner has performed in comparison to the beginning of the season. 

My thinking was that NP and the rest of the coaching staff really knew how to push the buttons and get the best out of Vyner. I wonder if they can do the same for Dickie?

12 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

Wow its having a complete rebuild, almost as radical as NPs new hair cut!

 

Looks a bit bobbly to me

24 minutes ago, Riaz said:

I think changing the policy from signing young hungry players to attempting to go for it a bit, is where we went wrong.

We sold Flint Bryan and Reid the same summer and started signing slightly older players on high wages - that was a mistake IMO

 

Was that the summer when LJ was coming out with quotes saying he needs backing to take us to the next level?

1 hour ago, One Team said:

Alan DICKS

Gary JOHNSON

Lee JOHNSON

Simon COX

WILLIE Kirk 

Rob DICKIE 

Clearly a pattern forming! 

Don't forget...

Alex Scott the DOGS BOLLOX!

I wanna know where Alex Scott is, in all these line-ups?

At this precise moment, he's still a City player

43 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Fair.

We had a right mixed bag under Lee…good and bad.  But his bad spell still wasnt as bad as other manager’s bad spells.

Definitely agree about the good and bad times. Some of the stuff played during the good times was exceptional. Unfortunately, LJ tinkered and tried to change things on a match by match basis, and it cost us. Also, didn't Steve McClaren say that every single goal we attempted to score was a Worldy and that we never score the scrappy\messy goals?

What I will say is that LJ also presided over the longest EVER losing spell as any Bristol City manager in history - I'd say that's a pretty bad spell (although I would say that the football wasn't as dire as under some other managers - but it was close!)

2 hours ago, Bris Red said:

Awful to see it in black and white to be fair, as others have said with the average gates we are pulling in now at home the fanbase really deserves better. Considering the absolute shit we have had to put up with to still average 20k and over at home is unbelievable support.

The only hope it does give you is we must surely be one of the  stand out clubs in this country for outside investment. Everything at the football club is in place and for an owner/owners who really want to take a club forward we have to be a fantastic proposition.

Reading between the lines, and listening to what others have murmured - plus Steve Lansdown not easily finding outside investment - I get the feeling that we've probably maximised what we can achieve with Ashton Gate, and if new investors came in, they'd want to see what potential could be tapped into to take us to the next level. However having little expansion space, and not being able to relocate easily to a new stadium may just hold us back for outside investment.

This is just a feeling I'm having given the soundbites being said by various people on threads throughout otib etc.

4 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

We used to feel great about getting out of the third flight and playing in the second one.  It's a mark of where the club is now that we've enjoyed 8 seasons now at this level and are about to enjoy a ninth, with more possibility of a play-off finish than a relegation battle. 

I always feel that promotion from the 3rd division up to the 2nd feels a lot more euphoric as there's always that chance that the winning\crest of a wave will continue in the higher division. Inevitably for us it doesn't, but it feels a lot more hopeful than being in the same division year in year out.

ps. Im not advocating going down, I'm just comparing the feeling of coming up vs already being in the division. As they say, it's the hope that kills you !!

If Luton get promoted, would they be the first team to go from non-league to the top division since the Premier has been formed?

I agree with comments above, I am jealous, but not because I'm bitter or feel we're better than other teams, the results don't lie over the course of the season. My frustration is how we can't improve ourselves quickly enough without seeing other teams surpass us from lower down.

However I console myself that there are 19 other clubs in our division who probably feel the same way as what I do.

1 minute ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

Completely and utterly tinpot! Two days to take direct action, by visiting the club shop (wherever that is, not that I GAF) with just one day’s notice. Any STH living outside of Bristol must be well pissed off. 
 

Looking more closely at the proposed new structures, if you end up in a seat located on the leftmost side of the smaller stand, will you actually be able to see the goal at your end of the pitch - especially when (probably ’if’) the larger stand is full? Maybe a big selling point!

I wonder if they'll let you sit in the stand before you finalise the seat you want?