cidered abroad

Happening a lot lately. Against Reading we had 26 fouls against their 5. Dives clearly do not count as fouls.

In no particular order. Gillies v Leeds Tinnion v Liverpool Cheesley v Arsenal Sweeney v WBA Mabbutt v Man U Atyeo. Any one of 350! Hirst v Gas

I feel the same way; takes me back to the way we felt as AD brought the young ones in around 1970. After four seasons of fighting relegation, it was like a massive breath of fresh air. Now with a manager who has been there and done it getting Leicester up to the Prem and some exciting Academy and young recruits with talent and a determination to succeed, I look forward again to every match because the desire is there again.

I like their humour. Still I suppose one needs a giant sense of humour living in a shithole like Middlesbrough. I went to a friends house recently and his wife lived there for two years. So we had a game ti see which was the worst between Boro, Newport (South Wales) and Stoke. Boro a close second to Newport!

@Mr Popodopolous @Davefevs Have we had any income from the use of the stadium for Covid Vaccinations that will help to reduce the losses?

Oh boy, what a screamer! About time we got back up there to hammer ? European Champions League winners in the Premier League.

Thanks very much for your thread. I was going to start a similar one today as I considered Williams was very good in the holding midfield role. A job that allows the energetic ones like Massengo and Scott to do most of the running. A role that covered the central defenders. A massive unheralded contribution to the win.

In terms of experience at this level, he is very much a promising youngster. Let me give a very good example from the past that shows there are many who develop much later than an eighteen year superstar. Gordon Parr, one of the best defenders I've seen at City made his debut at 20 years. But played only a couple of games in the next five years before becoming an automatic selection for the next ten years. So don't give up on any twenty five year old. Cundy and Vyner to name two.

OK let's all dwell on the negatives and to hell with the positives!

I am stunned at how little some of our contributors understand about the game and how difficult it is for young players to break into a first team at all levels of the game. They will be the inconsistent for a couple of seasons or three for no apparent reason. Semenyo was a good example today. Scored a goal and assisted in a second. But the sparkle was missing at times. So what? Since he returned from injury in November /December he has been one of the sparks that have helped to rebuild our team. Along with all the other young ones, who are breathing new life into the team and club. O'Leary, Tanner, Atkinson, Pring , Massengo, Scott, Benarous and others. Didn't Sam Bell do a tidy job for an hour? We are on the way back and upwards.

Is it a rental in the accepted sense (like renting a house) or the costs that we would have incurred that are now done by Bristol Sport - former employees of City now employed by Bristol Sport to maintain stadium, ticket sales etc. I assume that EFL FFP rules will not allow a club to avoid these costs?

I believe that you are incorrect about City paying rent to play at Ashton Gate. Before the advent of "Bristol Sport", City were the only club using the stadium. Thus all the ancillary services like stadium/pitch maintenance, ticket sales, refreshments, stewarding etc, were done by employees of BCFC. But now all these functions are carried out by employees of Bristol Sport. Bristol City FC make a contribution to cover their share of these costs. As do Bristol Bears and probably Flyers basketball. So we almost certainly, pay less for this than we would have if we were still the only team using the stadium. And because of the significant increase in income from sales, City are benefitting much more than they did. Income from hospitality is considerably more than it was before the stadium rebuild. So to claim a negative that we pay rent to play at our stadium is incorrect. I also suspect that because FFP for EFL Clubs and Rugby Salary Cap rules are so different, that we get a significant, larger share of share of hospitality income than Bears. The fact that the stadium is owned by Bristol City Holdings, a non trading company set up by Des Williams board after the 1982 fiasco, to ensure that never again would there be a risk of losing it via bankruptcy, I know that SL is the major shareholder in all things City, Bears, Flyers and any others so he "owns" the stadium but it is still separate from any other company that uses the stadium. PS. If any if the financial wizards on this Forum believe that the above fact are wrong, I'm very happy to be corrected

What a complete plonker we have as a chairman!

As you say @IAmNick we've not had a settled team at all, apart from the front three since Semenyo returned from injury. As for defending, I have an opinion that our major problem is that we have neither a centre half nor central midfielder who are "Organisers". In fact if you think back ten to fifteen years, we haven't had such a person in the back line since Louis Carey and only two or three in midfield with Marvin Elliott, Wade Elliott and Brownhill. Don't get me wrong, we've had dominant defenders like Flint and Kallas but both are " Doers" not leaders. And decent midfielders but again no leaders. Recent signings are young ones with potential. But does anyone know what Massengo will do when he gets the ball? Not criticism, just how I see him. He's still only young and will improve We still have four or five in the squad who are sucking the life out of us with an annual total pay package of around £5 million. Until we can sort that out, we'll continue to struggle to find consistency with the number of young ones doing their best and making costly mistakes.

Factually correct but you may not be taking into consideration that Matty James and Andy King were also recruited to be leaders in the dressing room. The team spirit has been a significant improvement on the two previous years.

City took around five thousand to MK in Cotterill's promotion season. I know, because I have as there.

YES . TWO BOOKABLE OFFENCES. GOOD REFEREEING.

Change of original date? (Due to Wales v Scotland on Saturday afternoon?)

Albert Adomah is a complete person. Works hard for the club he is representing yet with a smile and personality that could not be dented even if he scored the winning goal against one's own team.

Appeared that he bottled the challenge for a ball that, to me, seemed comfortably to be his ball. I assume that is why Fleming pulled him off or was it yet another injury?

@ScottishRed There is little that one can say to anyone who's child dies before parents and or grandparents. Thank you for your thoughts and how your son would have reacted. The same way as the majority of decent people. But st wishes to you and your family.

I have that Cardiff programme and a Sheffield U. I'll look them out. House a bit chaotic with DIY.

My father also saw both Wedlock and Atyeo. As Dad grew up in the Rhondda, son of a father born in Claverham, he only saw the former when visiting his uncle (his father's brother) who lived on Coronation Road. He said it was very difficult to compare them at different positions and era's

A real privilege to have seen his first and last games and a few hundred in between. To have travelled on trains with the team, when he was always willing to talk with us, never refusing autographs for anyone. And after he had retired, always approachable before and after matches in the car park. A Legend is not enough to describe him. On a train back from Cardiff after a 1-0 win, a current England player, he admitted in front if his teammates that he had a stinker in the previous home game when we lost 1-4 to Sheffield United. That's how big a character he was.

I agree with your last paragraph. But something keeps nagging me in that he is a quality international centre back who we should treasure, yet his lack of leadership is a significant factor in the way that we are unable to clear crosses from our six yard area. Plus the fact that neither keeper appears comfortable in coming even to the edge of that six yard line. Additionally we have a midfield that are now seeming better at creating attacking moves than providing shelter for our back line. I hope Pearson has a clear vision of who and what he needs to solve it because I don't have a clue.