handsofclay

No way was that a penalty, it's embarrassing for Forest fans to claim that they were hard done by in this instance further compounded by their boss saying that Maguire would also have been given a second yellow if it had been given.

My favourite accumulator, when I bet, is both teams to score. I prefer that because one can still win big money and the bet stays alive until the very end of the game. Whereas if one is doing a results accumulator there's always one or two out of say the dozen where it goes wildly wrong so if one has put Norwich to win at QPR and with twenty minutes to go it's 4-0 to QPR it's highly unlikely that'll get turned around, whereas focusing on both sides to score it could be 6-0 to QPR going into added time but there's always a chance Norwich will get a consolation goal right up until the last kick. Mainly do that when I am at home on a Saturday afternoon, but that's rarely the case.

Luton fans who snipe at us for taking their better players should keep in mind that we let them keep Payne back then.

Colin Lee four v the Gas in 1978. He was our agent playing for Tottenham on debut, I think, having signed from Torquay whom he'd joined from us. I think with us he just made the subs bench once and I think unused v West Ham in a one all draw at Ashton Gate in 1976. Famous for the PG Chimps being the pre-match entertainment and a West Ham player breaking his leg (Holland?).

No they wouldn't because every other week they'd be serving a suspension so wouldn't be able to be sent off that week.

No you're not. First I seen of him was when he was advertising BT or something a few years ago. I don't keep up with Hollywood and stopped taking interest in the Oscars decades ago when I discovered that they cheated Rin Tin Tin out of being awarded the first Oscar. Then again when I heard a couple of years ago that The Killers had sold out Ashton Gate that's the first time I had ever heard of them!

Similar to the Roman Centurion who was at Ashton Gate for the games in AD 104 and in the concourse at halftime asked for a Martinus. 'Are you sure it's not a Martini you want?' replied the barman. 'Look, mate,' responded the Centurion, grabbing him by the throat. 'If I wanted a double I would've asked for one!'

I vividly recall walking out of the ground after Joe Royle's four goal debut in 1977 and hearing two blokes in front of me berating him for missing what they considered a sitter. It wasn't a little moan but a full on moan about it. I was a teenager at the time and these blokes were in their forties so I would guess and say that they are no longer with us...although it seems their descendants are. I could understand it slightly if the game finished 4-4 but it was a comprehensive 4-1 victory. I thought every City fan would be ecstatically happy, like I was. So I learned from a very early age that there are always some miserable sods around and that they derive their brand of happiness from finding faults to have a good moan about.

I'm surprised it only bought you ten minutes of silence as if you tried it on Saturday it was 48 hours before the stadium started filling for the Middlesbrough game.

A great sports presenter and articulate broadcaster who really knew his stuff due to his experience at the heart of the game and for that reason was always fascinating to listen to. As others have said, for him to be so well respected by City fans with his Gas background speaks volumes. Thank you Geoff.

I reckon Sunderland might just survive too.

Well done Harry Cornick. Great first half performance and his persistence created the goal.

Jeez with defending like that Gus Caesar's gene pool must still be active

Royle also scored a hat-trick, iirc, against Coventry City in a 5-0 Boxing Day win. So scored two hat tricks for us in the top flight. I believe he is the only player to have achieved that for Bristol City. Kevin Mabbutt scored the only other hat-trick for us in our second, and thus far last, stint in the top flight.

V Middlesbrough won 4-1. Singing nice one Joey nice one son, nice one Joey let's have another one.

The problem is if a big show isn't made of any transgressions they tend not to get acted upon. Same with penalties, if a player is clipped in the box and tries to stay on his feet a penalty isn't given. In fact VAR don't even look at it. But if at the slightest touch the player goes down, then if the ref doesn't give it at least VAR looks at it, sees there was contact and the pen is given. During the World Cup when Maguire, iirc, was rugby tackled to the ground in the box he got up and apart from a look at the ref did little to highlight it. VAR didn't even look at it yet it was a nailed on penalty! But pound to a penny, had Maguire stayed down clutching various parts of his anatomy and other England players confronted the culprit and made a show of the incident, VAR would definitely have looked at it and given a penalty. I see on here plenty of times posters complaining about City or England players not being savvy enough in getting decisions go our way. When, God forbid, an England player does just that, then he gets unjustified stick. Well done Harry Kane, more power to your elbow. After all, he wasn't at fault, all he did was ensure the Everton player who did transgress the rules got the correct punishment for it.

I think they're determined to prove that Conte was right about them. They're succeeding.

But the dog wasn't taking any chances. Watched too much of our refs to rely on them making the right decision.

To my knowledge there's only one Gazza.

People might've scoffed earlier on regarding my suggestion of Steve Bloomer 28 goals in 23 appearances, probably thinking that comes from an era when it was easier to score. It wasn't. If anything it was harder. It was easier for defending sides to get offsides as it was before the rule change that reduced it from three to two defending players between the recipient of the ball and the goal. Also Derby County are the only club in the country whose record all-time goalscorer amassed his tally before WW1. If it was so easy to score back then lots of other clubs would also have set their goal-scoring records in the Edwardian era. To illustrate this, Bristol City played ten games, including replays, in the 1909 FA Cup campaign and scored 12 goals in those ten games. Hardly prolific goal-scoring in a very successful campaign. Yet Steve Bloomer was scoring at a greater rate than that for England every match in that era.

Steve Bloomer who doesn't quite make the list with 28 goals from 23 matches.

In a second tier match in Egypt a referee, used to officiating in the top tier of Egyptian football where VAR is deployed, borrowed a spectator's phone to replay a goal that the team that conceded it were complaining about. He then seen there was a handball so disallowed it. He has now been suspended even though he arrived at the right decision because he used modern technology and his initiative. Yet in the top tier it's fine to use video assistance. Seems a shame as by this means VAR can be used in virtually any match even on the Downs League and maybe an app could be developed which could put the lines on the phone to help determine offsides too. Obviously it might take a bit of time locating which fan in a crowd of thousands has the best video clip of the incident and the phone might meet with an accident as it's being passed around the ground towards the ref if it purports to show something detrimental to the side most of the spectators support, but there is a germ of a great idea there. Surely ideas like this should be encouraged and refs who use their initiative to arrive at the right decision should be embraced and not punished.

I have personal experience of this as in our over 50s hybrid of Walking Football just a few weeks ago I had a shot that was going in the top corner and had beaten the keeper all ends up. A defender then dived with his arm outstretched and saved it with his hand on the line. Of course, in our football, we cannot go sending players off who have paid to play. So no other punitive measures bar a penalty was awarded which a teammate then walloped against the post and it was cleared. We lost 2-1 but we had a certain goal prevented by foul means and were given a goalscoring opportunity, which was missed, and nothing else in response. The guilty party seemed to be embarrassed by what he had done as he is fairly new to our group and hopefully it won't happen again, but if it does we will have to entertain the unpalatable prospect of sending off players who have paid like everyone else to play who deliberately stop certain goals by foul means as otherwise it might become the norm.

It was more than a goalscoring opportunity had he not deliberately handballed it it would've been a goal. It's all very well saying that by awarding a penalty it has provided another goalscoring opportunity but that opportunity could be missed, thus if players aren't sent off for preventing a goal by foul means it would encourage all players to become second goalkeepers if the official keeper is beaten in the hope that the resultant penalty would be missed.

Apparently, Burnley have asked if they can have a points deduction so that they can remain in the Championship next season.