The Journalist

I don't for a minute think they'd look at Pearson, but hypothetically I wonder if he'd stay or go.

Whether we like it or not the vast majority of managers would snap your arm off for a move from us to Leicester (and a genuine chance at staying in the Premier League), but I wonder whether having put so much work in, and at this point in his life, he'd want to see it through.

It's almost like he's done pretty much all the hard work here it'd be a shame to walk away now.

Would seem a shame if Gavin Ward didn’t win Champagne Moment. After everything, you’d love to be a fly on the wall at the PGMOL when that award turned up in the post.

I thought Adriano Basso was going to be useless on early showings.

Surprised Robbored hasn’t posted yet too, he’d surely win this category - biggest football thing he got wrong was his own name when Gary Johnson pulled him into his office.

I think it'll only negatively impact on attendances if clubs continue to completely price out large swathes of ordinary fans with the ridiculous cost of watching bang-average live football these days.

If this means clubs are forced to rethink ticket pricing that's only a good thing, I think, because the majority of football fans know the live product is better than watching on TV. Make it affordable and accessible and they'll keep coming whether it's on TV or not.

15 minutes ago, alexukhc said:

Maybe the most successful academy players we’ve produced?

At the time of writing, it's hard to think of a more successful one.

I think he deserves huge credit. I remember seeing him in the FA Cup replay against Premier League side West Brom in 2016 - just shy of his 23rd birthday - and thinking he looked like a child playing an adult's game. He was so far off the pace it was difficult to believe he'd ever make a proper impact in the Championship, let alone at the top level.

It all happened relatively late for him but he's done amazingly.

Not one that ever saw the light of day, obviously, but I'll always remember this Blackpool story which, until it reached my subs desk, read...

Blackpool: Lee Clark to ride Big One if club stay up

(This is what it ended up as...)

Nothing to do with me... 

5 hours ago, GrahamC said:

One of Danny Wilson’s numerous baffling transfer deadline day (blimey, remember that? Junior Bent & Nicky Morgan in 89/90, much more like it!) signings that made absolutely no impression whatsoever.

Caskey was an unused sub for us several times but he never even got on the pitch.

Tony Hey was an even more obscure one.

As you say Caskey resembled Beadle after his playing career, the problem was he was still meant to be a footballer.

I like to think my knowledge of mid-2000s Bristol City - given I barely missed a game home or away during that period - is as good as ANYONE's... but even you've got me on Tony Hey. No recollection of him whatsoever!

Pretty remarkable that he's still only 26, has 37 England caps... but hasn't played an international for four years.

I'm struggling to think of another fall from grace like it. And, you have to say, all things considered you just hope he's OK.

I think Luton are a good team and are doing brilliantly. Last night they gave us our toughest game of the season so far IMO.

But, as they say, there's only one thing worse than a bad loser... a bad winner.

7 hours ago, GrahamC said:

So, couple of things;

It was actually his second start.

At the start of the season many highlighted that our squad only contained 2 players aged in the sweet spot of 26-30, one of them was Kalas, who was injured then & is again now, the other was Bentley, who doesn’t play for us anymore. So Cornick is 28 next month, he’s hardly on the way down at that age, is he?

Last season Cornick scored 13 in a side that finished in the playoff positions, earning 20 more points than we did.

We paid £300k for him, he’s an experienced Championship squad player with an excellent availability record, who doesn’t look as though he’s as fit as we’d like, but with 9 games left that is far more likely to be addressed pre season.

If he still looks unfit in October & we haven’t seen much from him by then I’d understand this but there does seem a rush by a fair few to write him off.

This in a nutshell.

He looks slightly off the pace and short of confidence. Both of those things are going to be hard to recover amid the mayhem of the Championship, especially having just moved house/potentially uprooted family etc. He’s a human.

Let’s see where the land lies after pre-season IMO.

1 minute ago, ExiledAjax said:

This picture is better than any written match report I could produce. Sums the whole thing up. Fair result.

As I said earlier in the thread, it felt like they physically overwhelmed us. They’re a really tough side, particularly at home. Doubt we’ll have a tougher game this season.

They’re a good side. Not sure we’ve been given a tougher game by anyone this season (just for balance rather than it being all about us being poor).

We’ve done well to stick in there. They’ve physically overwhelmed us at times we’ve made a game of it, at least. Pretty amazing considering the way we started and that only two of our back four and midfield three would be first picks.

About six different errors in the build-up to that. As ragged a 60 seconds as we’ve produced in 2023.

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Which is?

I guess most people will say “no10”.  I say Centre Midfield.

FWIW Nige’s answer was very good.

Completely agree - I don’t think he sees enough of the ball further up the pitch.

I prefer him deeper.

27 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

It's completely unidentifiable as a Bristol City shirt. If you walked down the street wearing it nobody would have a ******* clue who you supported. 

This has genuinely irked me more than it should’ve - I just don’t get the thinking. How has nobody stepped in and stopped it happening? It’s so stupid on a commercial level, SO stupid. Second-rate kit supplier, second-rate branding.

Find me another top-level football club who have had four completely different badges on their shirts in four years!

The badge thing is ridiculous IMO.

Being a football fan is largely about identity and tribalism. Assuming we wear it before the end of the season, it'll be the fourth different badge we've had on our shirts in the space of four years - and that's not including changing the colour of them on the various away kits. How do you identify with something that's constantly changing?!

It's a branding disaster. And it doesn't help that it looks shit and sits on a tinpot supplier, either.

47 minutes ago, downendcity said:

I'm sure it's no coincidence that both Conway and Bell have done so well this season when partnered with Wells.

Sam Bell and Tommy Conway have scored 13 goals between them this season - only one of them came when Nahki Wells wasn't on the pitch.

Bearing in mind Wells has only started 26 out of a possible 43 matches across all competitions, that's not insignificant...

25 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I think perversely, having not played much over the 3 or 4 years, there are still minutes left in his legs.  Someone posted on Friday they doubted that King could play back to back.  My response, part joking, was that he’s probably like a coiled spring, ready to go again.  He probably can’t wait for game day when there’s a chance he’s gonna start.  His weight of passing is excellent.  Think he was offside for the far post volley he didn’t quite get hold of, but he has good instincts in the box too.

Certainly get the logic - I think it’s more appreciating that keeping himself in that condition when there may never be another opportunity takes a different level of drive and persistence.

FWIW, if he started near every game in a 46-game season I think he’d comfortably score double figures. The timing of his runs into the box is excellent - seems to always arrive onto things, sort of Lampardesque. Very clever player.

15 hours ago, Percy Pig said:

He was classy today. Showed real leadership throughout. 

Was nice to see him in a more natural position and he showed his worth once again. I like him. 

OTC has that little bit of something I think, really committed young man who'll add a bit of legs to our midfield when he's on. I'd be tempted to give him a start or two between now and season end 

Also think King deserves a lot of credit for the way he’s clearly trained and kept himself fit.

Having not made a league appearance/started since Boxing Day, given his age (34), given his coaching responsibilities, given his contract situation… to put in two near 90-minute performances in the middle of midfield twice in five days is an absolute credit to him.

He’s clearly near the end as a player and after Boxing Day I doubt anyone would’ve been surprised if he never featured again, but he’s also clearly kept applying himself when it would’ve been really easy not to. Fair play.

1 minute ago, Spike said:

This is so frustrating, we've been all over them and 11 shot with only 1 on target. Very hard to watch!

Harder to watch for Blackpool fans! We’ll win this by three goals or more if it follows the same pattern.

I think we’ve played really well again. If we keep at it the goals will come - and I hope the players believe in that more than a few hysterical boys and girls on here.

Just now, old_eastender said:

Trouble with JD is his rarely prepared to take the covering defender on by going down the outside or cutting back in - Pring does that really well.

That’s it - I don’t have an issue with Mehmeti constantly checking inside because with Pring’s athleticism it gives opposition full-backs a major issue.

That said, Dasilva has still linked up well and done well IMO.

This is Alex Scott’s best position, isn’t it? When the game is in front of him he gets even better - his range of passing is excellent.

I also think Mehmeti is better with Pring behind him at full-back (albeit I think Dasilva is doing OK).