cidered abroad

Pawson was pretty awful when he reffed City v MK Dons in our promotion year under Cotts. Hasn't improved since!

Perfectly true. How the tactical side of the game has developed. In my young days, the wingers hugged the touchline and all the hard work was done by half backs and inside forwards. 4-4-2 changed that but now the wing-backs in teams like Man City and Liverpool see so much of the ball that they have to have the athletic strengths of a 100 metre sprinter and the stamina of a long distance runner for the whole game Those with both abilities end up at top clubs and at our level it will need two pairs for right and left side to share the loads in every game. If these type of signings become a reality, I see us with a central back three, a couple of midfielders that are there to protect and destroy and hopefully Alex Scott and Weimann to join the wing-backs in creating lightening attacks. We could be in for a very interesting season. The word "interesting" could come to mean "Superb"!

Where has there been mention of Palmer?

There is, I believe, a full size playing area indoors at the Bristol Bears training ground about half a mile from ours. I also remember that there is a pool there for water recoveries from injury. All owned by one person, SL so free to use by City, just as our facilities are free to Bears.

What a great guy he is. Alright so good managers can make mistakes, be too abrasive for some, but if the players give 100% in training and games, they will get his respect and affection in return. He was very good for Bristol City, just as Nigel Pearson is now for City. Straight talking, hard working and with a good deal of talent to coach, manage and sometimes to nurse the players.

I'm pleased for Rovers and their fans, all 100,000 of them!

I wholeheartedly second that comment.

Should the First team flourish in a way not seen since Alan Dicks time, then the manager will receive most of the credit. However, the one who has and is doing his utmost to turn City into a force to be recognised in the English football world is a failed manager, City playing legend, who has quietly done his job over the last few years. Thank you Brian Tinnion. PS. Not meant as any criticism of Pearson. He in fact is now driving the use of Academy boys in a way not for a long time and it gives me a lot of confidence for the future of City.

Adding to my previous post. At least it proves that it doesn't matter how much they are paid or how big their transfer fees were, all teams in the world are capable of unforeseen collapses in the last few minutes of matches. We are all members of the human race who are all fallible.

I think that must rule out Guardiola for the City job when Pearson leaves us!

No surprise but at least we gave a local lad, a chance of making good. Best wishes.

A bad workman always blames his tools!

Appalling!

I left the ground straight after final whistle because our fans do not know how to leave the glory, for want of a better word, to the players. Who wants to stand there and watch idiots who think it makes them important!

Your reference to the Leicester City FA Cup game in 1960. Are you referring to the midweek game after the original on Saturday was abandoned due to swimming pool condition? That Saturday was a farce. Two special trains to Leicester. Dad and I on the first one to arrive at 2.40pm. Absolutely pelting down and got in the ground a minute or two before kick off. Impossible to play football as I mentioned earlier. Second train arrived about 3.15 and fans got into ground around 3.40. At half time referee abandoned the game and as far as I know, nobody got a refund. We got walloped 5-0 on the Tuesday night. Leicester got to the Final against Spurs who beat them to become the first club in 20th century to do First Division and FA Cup double. I saw Spurs in their first home game in European Cup the next season. Trailing Gornik of Poland 3-1 after first leg, they won 8-1. Superb team and a pleasure to watch the game live.

YES

1963 FA CUP away to Sunderland, top of Division 2 with us in mid Div 3. Left Parson At late Friday evening, picked up through Bristol. Freezing cold weather and no heating on train, just loads of condensation. Locomotive broke down at 2am behind a behind the goal stand at Birmingham City. About an hour an a half to get anothr loco. Arrived in Sunderland around 10.30 Saturday morning. A real dump of a place. Game in doubt because pitch frozen solid but it went ahead. Peter Hooper scored our goal in a 6-1 walloping. Train journey home as bad as the one going there. Back home about 4 am. Don't anyone ever tell me I don't support my team.

Because NP is such a good manager, he subbed Towler to protect him rather than as a punishment as some previous City managers would have!

You have hit the nail well and truly in a sweet spot. I've seen seven relegations with City and in almost every case, the major cause has been a dearth of goals. This year's problems have been at the other end of the pitch. Just five or six fewer goals conceded at crucial moments would have turned us into a top ten side and given a totally different view on this season. Recently, with a stable back three, has shown an improvement plus some terrible misses by opponents have created hope for a better next season.

About 25 years ago I heard a French man on Radio 2 saying that in France if the government wants to do things like build a high speed rail track from Paris to Marseilles, the government announces what it wants to do, give the people a few months to comment negatively. Then they just go ahead and do it. The programme was one of first about HS2. The Frogs finished their line about 20 years ago. Have we actually started HS2 yet?

Well done Bears. Some good performances but Harry Thacker was MOM by a country mile. I should have gone but felt too tired for a drive home in the dark.

Would you please clarify or expand on what you mean. @Mr Popodopolous

@City oz Born in 1943, saw my first league match, taken by my father, much to my eternal shame, at Eastville in Feb 1950. Bristol Rugby in March and City v Aldershot on Good Friday 1950. Cardiff City Easter Monday following. In the summer both Glos and Somerset County cricket. Dad came from Rhondda Valley but his father born in Claverham next to Yatton. When Dad was young he would viisit an uncle who lived on Coronation Road and if City were home, all the males went. Around 1910 to 1914. We'd go to Cardiff about five times a year en route to visit Nana and they were in the First Division. Saw Blackpool with Stan Matthews, Pompey had twice won the league a year or so before. John Atyeo was an amateur at Pompey while the won them before he joined City. Wolves were an awesome team then with England captain Billy Wright. So I got in the habit of watching as much live football, rugby and cricket at a very young age. My memory of those days is clear, it's what I did five minutes ago that are the problem now. Early sixties after I left school and I grabbed the chance to see live football whenever I could. Even at Eastville as a last resort. Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea v Liverpool,West Ham in 1963, Fulham later on with George Best and Bobby Moore Internationals at Wembley and lots of City away games. Also didn't miss a City home game for nearly 25 years from 1960.

The age old scenario when those who admire good football from teams other than their "own" club are derided by others. I've supported City all my life and have only followed a couple of other sides because I lived in those towns for a while; Shrewsbury and Livingston. But I've also been fortunate to see live games of some of the best teams in the world at the time. Portsmouth, First Division champions twice in late 1940's. Wolves in the early 50's. Spurs, league and FA Cup winners in 1961, Brazil at Wembley in 1963 but without Pele. The Busby Babes at Eastville before Munich. Real Madrid's Di Stefano and Puskas, Portugal's Eusebio at Wembley in international games Liverpool, Forest in 1970's at Ashton Gate.I hated losing to them but had a real thrill to see such quality football. Now we are flooded on TV with top class football every week, yet while I still admire the class football from them, I still get a bigger buzz going to City. They are my club, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, til death do us part!

I cannot see that his GAIT is awkward. For a tall lad who appears to have "filled out" his upper body since he arrived, he is very mobile and nimble. £1.5 million is a bargain.