The Journalist

If we can get back to our best we can absolutely get something out of this. Predicting a 4-1 West Brom win.

I know you’re a big fan of Lee (me too, really - anyone who works as hard as he did for our club gets my support), but surely you know that’s not really the issue here, right?! It’s clearly not the sentiment of what he’s saying that makes this laughable. Team played well, should’ve won but didn’t - that’s fine and I’d have thought even most “common fans”, to use your horrible phrase, will understand that. It’s how he’s said it and the words he’s used. The language he turns to time and time again to get his messages across. Any leadership role is about being able to communicate simply and effectively with people and this has always been a major weakness of his - at least his public-facing communication - and why he’s so widely derided and mocked by fans. And, regardless of all that, while we can agree or disagree about what the “common fan” does or doesn’t understand about football… that’s still his audience when he’s giving these interviews. It’s his job to communicate effectively to/with those people!

We’ve stopped playing since our goal. And there it is.

Not sure he’s even given a foul has he?!

We’ve gone into our shell uncomfortably early.

I think we’ve broadly played alright, but again the delivery into the box has been so poor. I’d hook Conway at half-time and put Martin on. Ditto Dasilva for Pring. Weimann and Williams both having more influential games, though.

Conway has to switch on a bit here. Far too passive, being completely bullied.

Would like to have seen at least one of the wing-backs changed. Also think O'Leary is one of the least-imposing Championship goalkeepers I've ever seen, if that's what we're after.

Ed Hadwin’s very much under rated as an interviewer. Of the local BBC reporters, he has be far and away the best rapport with Pearson.

It was an absolute grind for large parts - I was at every game that season, home and away, so I know. I was there. The 11-match winning run, during which we regularly got out of jail with late winners, was a complete anomaly and dragged us from being a mid-table team. During the seven games after that run ended we lost five and scored just three. That was more like the City we saw for most of that season. It was in complete contrast to the season before, during which we WERE free-scoring, free-flowing and played some of the best football in my lifetime. That team wasn't that dissimilar to Pearson's side now - great going forward but shocking at the back. It was bloody good fun though. In two games we conceded six goals to the team who finished bottom, for goodness sake! Thankfully we scored 10... But I know you'll continue to ignore me on this, @Robbored, because you've lost your mind.

You've hit the nail on the head. It really irks me. People say the same about Alan Dicks and Terry Cooper but I ask them... where are they managing these days? Exactly.

In fairness, though, he still lived in Chesterfield throughout his time here and wasn't really that present for a lot of it. Proper manager.

We played some really shit, dour football that season. Our performance in the final was actually in keeping with 75% of that campaign. Surely nobody is going to argue against that?

So obscure that I got the name of my own suggestion wrong. The suggestion that was also wrong. Not gone well, has it?

Was pretty pleased with myself to have plucked out a fairly obscure one - James Wilson joining us from Cheltenham when we were in the Championship, but they were in bloody League One at the time!

So, if anything, what you’re saying is… we didn’t put enough crosses in? Another 20 or so and we’d have pinched a 1-0? ?

And it was good to see us make sure we didn’t lose it if we couldn’t win it. I do think our body language could’ve been better in the last 20 minutes, though. We looked too comfortable with a 0-0 draw and I don’t think we should ever be that really. With Scott and James both out and Naismith injured, though, no real qualms with the performance. Just lacked any cutting edge, which you can’t say has happened often this season.

By far our best player and nights like tonight show it. For an hour we were without the two players most important to the way we play.

Was quite surprised by how content we seemed with a point, even just in body language and setting up when the ball was out of play. That’s not the Bristol City I thought we were developing into three games ago.

Can only echo this plea.

So what am I clicking on then?! All kinds of links and pop-ups flying at me here.

Can I be today’s designated annoying twerp and ask where I can find a stream of the game online please? What’s the usual website that does them? Apologies in advance, I realise at least one person will be absolutely enraged by my request.

... Was Arveladze the one driving then?

Surprised the foreword wasn’t written by Robbored.

I'm looking at it slightly differently - I wonder whether this season may actually be our best chance of sneaking into the play-offs. If we finish 11th, for example, but Alex Scott, Antoine Semenyo and Tommy Conway all continue to impress, how likely is it we lose at least two of those three? And then there are others - including our goalkeeper - out of contract too? I'm not sure, with our FFP situation as it is, with the way we're playing currently and the way this season is already panning out, it's going to be as simple as just seeing an upward trajectory/year-on-year improvement. The next block of games before the World Cup will obviously give us a clearer idea, but instinctively my feeling is we're ahead of schedule and an opportunity to go and get in that top six could present itself sooner than we expected. If it pans out that way, we may need to grasp it now rather than expecting it to happen again.