Tinmans Love Child

47 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

Remember Coventry were relegated in 2011-12 after we beat them at Ashton Gate under MacInnes at Easter, with goals from Stead and Bolasie. We went down the following season under S’OD but took only 2 seasons to bounce back. We then ditched Cotterill for Johnson and Ashton and flattered to deceive for a couple of seasons with Tammy Abraham and then the League Cup run, but after that it was a case of going backwards. Only in the last 2 seasons under Nige have we actually seen progress in the club and team.

Coventry had to hit rock bottom in League 2, the owners at odds with the owners of the stadium, playing home games at Birmingham and Northampton, but their stroke of good fortune was bringing back Mark Robins as manager and sticking with him.

As for being overtaken by other clubs coming up from a lower division, I am sure fans of many other established second tier clubs felt similarly aggrieved  when we made the 2007-8 playoff final.

Great game that, 3-1 from memory and Bolasie scored!?!? My wife came to that one and we were sat in the Williams stand, and when the away fans were pouring out my wife very much enjoyed the "cheerio cheerio cheerio" chant!

2 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

Someone said can see all 3 coming straight back down and it was pointed out that it gets said every year and rarely happens. 
 

The championship being stronger next season also gets said every year. It is hard not to come to that conclusion for next season though isn’t it?
 

Southampton are full of young promising players already. They are gonna bring in 50m or more in sales most likely on top of that. So they will be able to retool. 

Leicester maybe less worried about but hard to look at them and think they will struggle. Will have plenty after sales to rebuild. Leeds and Everton also in this category. Forest have had a hell of an effort but if they come down I wouldn’t fear them per se. 
 

Wouldn’t sleep on Ipswich either being competitive. Ashton jokes aside they will acquire talent. Peterborough always an exciting attacking side too if they come up. 
 

Nice to know it can be done for sure but you also get seasons where the PP clubs dominate the top 6. I also don’t think we’ll get the same Norwich and Watford sides. Next season maybe only be 1-2 spaces for non PP clubs and I wouldn’t put us at the top of that list quite yet

For me the more teams competing the better for us, cause that means more teams beating each other and the division is closer, the last thing you want is 4/5 teams running away with it cause we wouldn't be one of those 5, but 10 teams going for it then I can defo see us in that group and it's all to play for

To be fair Cov although hard times in recent years have had way more success than us, was it 30 odd years in the top flight before they dropped out around 2000?  When they first moved to the Ricoh it was way way ahead of AG in terms of quality and size.  Yes now I would say we have sorted the ground etc etc but we don't have that top flight pedigree.  Even Luton were in the top flight more recently than us!

5 hours ago, Wanderingred said:

People need to get over it. Rather than be frustrated that “the likes of” Coventry and Luton are in a playoff final, use it to motivate us. It can be done without parachute payments, and there’s no reason why we can’t be in the same position 12 months later.

By the way, for every team that’s overtaken us in the last few years, there are an equal number of teams that have plummeted past us in the opposite direction.

In fact all 4 teams in the playoffs had no parachute payments at all did they?  

13 hours ago, Pedrowe said:

The planning application hasn’t even been  registered yet .
 

As we’re aware, Bristol City Council isn’t widely renowned for their swift decision-making... Typically, applications of this nature require a period of 8-13+ weeks to navigate through the system, which means they could be waiting right up to the beginning of the new season (presuming the application is registered in the next week or so). There is also a possibility that the application might be subject to review by a planning committee, especially if concerns are raised by residents in Horfield.

It’s so tinpot and unprofessional from Rovers to be leaving the planning process until the last minute, especially when they’re selling season tickets for a stand that hasn’t got planning permission. Surely they could’ve done it months ago

This probably isn’t going to end well…

For me success will be finishing in or around the playoffs, if we just miss out then that's the way it goes, but I really want us to be at least playing for something on the last day of the season.  The improvements made in the last two years, plus hopefully some good signings, make me reasonably confident, and NP has had 2 years to get his ducks in a row so now it's time to show what he's really made of!

7 hours ago, Ronnie Sinclair said:

That was in December 1995 wasn't it?  I had a mishap in the motor on that ice went down Ilchester Crescent sideways

Was it that late in the 90's, I remember I was living in Staple Hill (opposite Disco shop!) as I slipped on the path, but we moved to Bradley Stoke around then as well so assumed it was earlier!  Amazing what 30 years does to memories!

38 minutes ago, harrys said:

Didn’t a home cup game against Liverpool get called off in the early ‘90s ?

Fa Cup v Liverpool was 1-1 at Ashton Gate when the flood lights failed, game replayed at AG the following week from memory and finished 1-1, so replay was at Anfield and well you know the rest...

While we are doing weather who can forget the weird frozen rain on derby day early 90's which was invisible to the eye but if you walked on it you went down on your arse!  The game got called off, I remember being gutted

Bottled it absolutely but still a great season, they have some great young players, and now champions league money to make some choice signings, for me it's great to see them back up there competing

39 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

New Bristol version of monopoly is being launched. Unlike the current version, there is at least disparity between Ashton and the Memorial Grounds value…

 

Old **** Road?

13 minutes ago, Midlands Robin said:

They'll be absolutely knackered if any of the houses on Alton Road, Ellicot Road or Downend Road object to the plans.

A few years back we had an swap network set up at work, and you could see what swaps everyone had on a spreadsheet and then swaps were sent via internal mail!  So much easier completing a sticker album as an adult with cash and email! Probs not in the spirit though!  I heard it costs about £300 on average to complete a sticker album these days!

My first album was Mexico 86!

Cov fans must be bricking it!

I can't seem to remember Nicky Hunts nickname?

3 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

Nick names are bad names. 

On 02/05/2023 at 11:21, Super said:

With Man City and Newcastle the next 2 games.....

I bet Arsenal fans have perked up, imagine Big Sam gets a win against City!

4 hours ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Find the rush to knock the club "we should have kept or what a mistake we made" sentiment of these threads a bit frustrating.

The club has to make a decision on if to keep a player when they are young and not always reached their potential, so have to decide what the level they may go on to achieve and if it's worth our continued investment in time money etc.

As fans most of us only get to see a tiny snippet of what these players are like on the pitch as they are usually playing for the development sides or off on loan, but even if we see them play, we do not know about attitude (one of the most important factors if they have skill) or what distractions they have outside of football.

When you released players you will not always get it right, or maybe the issues the club sees with an individual go away as the player has received a kick up the back side by being released, so we cannot know if they would have been the same had they stayed.

I am not saying any of the players mentioned had problems, but for whatever reason the team that have had years of experience of identifying talent have decided they will not benefit the club going forward, I am sure its not something they do if they think money can be made in the future.

Sometimes these players need to move on for a fresh start and a different environment or coach, some will have careers, but most just disappear.

I didn't start this thread to knock the club, and if it came across that way then apologies, I was more pleased for Towler than anything else

Saw this, good to see him do so well!  Not sure on the value accuracy or not but good for us I guess!

On 25/04/2023 at 20:09, One Team said:

I’ve just seen this from Spurs, refunding fans after their performance and result at Newcastle. 

It was awful, clearly, but surely watching a shit game and woeful performance now and then is part and parcel of supporting your team home and away. Isn’t that part of what makes the great games and great results great; that from time to time we endure absolute rubbish?

Certainly we’ve had enough woeful performances over the years, and I do recall refunds of CATS travel costs once or twice, but I’m not sure how this sits with me. 

Isn’t the better gesture from your team’s players is to apologise, move on and then put in a performance in the very next game?

Agree, a bit patronising really, I'm sure the players mean well but they would be better saying that the squad is going to pay for all away travel for every game going forward as a proper gesture to away fans if they want to do something

1 hour ago, IpswichFanInPeace said:

Hi there all,

Firstly, ignore the ridiculous piece in The Sun! That should be a default position anyway, but the club knew Schumacher had won before, McKenna didn't attend, the club congratulated Schumacher and nobody stormed out. Our contingent left the ceremony at the end, but as this was close to this award being handed out, a Norwich fan who writes for The Sun has made this nonsense up.

I'd love to know what the issues you had with Ashton are. Since Day 1 at our club he's been incredible.

He reunited the fan base, got players out into the community, oversaw the recruitment of an amazing manager (a gamble), convinced disillusioned fans to return, oversaw phenomenal recruitment, including convincing many players with top Championship offers to buy into our project, has stayed out of the managers way, kept fans updated, delivered record gates, record season tickets (all in League One!), record shirt sales with massive international appear through a link  up with a global superstar, driven the further investment and redevelopment of large parts of the stadium and even on Tuesday night he got on the supporters coaches and thanked everyone personally.

We are almost ready to build a statue of the guy. He couldn't have been better at his job.

So forgive us if we aren't bothered about what he did at Ashton Gate which may have been either a) being made a scapegoat for the owner / directors or b) he genuinely made mistakes at your club which he learned from to our significant benefit.

If I found him in bed with my wife I'd tuck him in and bring him some cheese and biscuits.

COYB.

In a nutshell, Mark Ashton flogged all our best players season after season, spent the profits buying up lots of players on massive contracts who weren't as good, then left to join Ipswich, and it's taken nearly 3 seasons to sort the inflated, unbalanced and average squad situation out after skirting very close to the FFP limits.  Have I missed anything?

22 minutes ago, Selred said:

Why do people dislike Plymouth so much?

I expect the responses will be any of the following

1) Horrible fans

2) Horrible club

3) Horrible place

Personally I'm a lover not a fighter, I don't understand hating a club from miles away, it makes no sense to me

Lump on Arsenal 3-2 at 4-1!

Not sure if mentioned yet but just noticed Rovers have Sheff Wed tonight as well as us v Sheff Utd, I can't remember seeing a fixture like this before, any stattos out there able to confirm?

7 hours ago, GrahamC said:

100%.

Was thinking earlier of Pearson’s first retained list, Hunt (£1.5m), Baker (£3.5m but later re-signed) Watkins (£1m), Adelakun (£600k), Paterson (£900k), Walsh (up to £1m), Diedhiou (£5.3m) all allowed to leave us for free.

Not sure any of those decisions were actually wrong, as none of them have exactly set the world on fire since but symptomatic of the total shit show NP inherited & is finally about to reach the bottom of. Also moved Nagy on later that summer, another £2m down the drain.

Second year saw Palmer & O’Dowda go, that’s another £5m, ******* hell.
 

 

And when you compare that to what we have brought through this season for free from the academy!