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FNQ

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  1. Hull City away match day thread

    in The Havanatopia Match Day Archive

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

    Good day fellow City fans. Prior to considering the importance of today I invite you to sit quietly for a moment and recall memories of 24th May 2008, which remains the closest City have got to the top-flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Football_League_Championship_play-off_Final

    Right, on to today, which is another very important game away at Hull City, aka the Tigers, who currently occupy 19th place on 22 points. They topped league one last season finishing with 89 points.  They are on a good run of form with 13 points from the last 18 available (won 4, lost 1 and drawn 1).

    Our head-to-head record is impressive we have won 36, lost 28 and drawn 24. In the 2019/20 season we beat them @ home 2-1 and away 3-1. In 2018 at Ashton Gate it finished 5-5 with our goals coming from Pack, Diedhiou 2, Decordova-Reid and in the 90th minute Bryan.

    Other than Danny Coles I’m not aware of any other players who played for us and them, although no doubt a few others have done so. NP managed them between June 2010 and November 2011.

    Today is one of the furthest trips for the traveling Red Army, with 230 + miles between Bristol and the MKM Stadium, and the club have received an initial allocation of 1,222 tickets. In case you are a last minute merchant pay on the day will be available at the MKM Stadium. Tickets will be available at the Pitchside Bar from 1pm, which will be cash only. Be loud and proud and cheer the boys to three points.

    Hull, or to give it its full title Kingston upon Hull, has made a return to the top 10 places described as the worst places to live in the UK. The annual iLiveHereUK list is compiled from public votes and this year Hull has come in at fifth place. Here's what some iLiveHereUK contributors had to say about Hull:

    "Where else can you see humans acting in such a depraved manner and view original and authentic 50’s post-war brutalist concrete architecture?"

    "It’s like God’s little experiment, if he put the worst of everything into one pot and stirred it up a bit."

    "I personally recommend a day trip to Hull for all families, perhaps instead of a day trip to the zoo."

    "Hull to chavs is what the Sargasso Sea is to eels, one endless spawning ground."

    If you want more, here you go: https://www.ilivehere.co.uk/hull-again.html

    Where to drink

    For those making the trip to Yorkshire the titchy Hop and Vine is apparently the place for cider. According to East Yorkshire CideRed they usually stock a very good selection of local ciders from Colemans (co-founded by a Somerset exile): https://www.facebook.com/hopandvinehull

    In the ground the Tigers Trust Arena Bar is open to away supporters.

    The Brickmakers pub virtually opposite the stadium car park entrance is now open to away fans. Good atmosphere, friendly Hull fans, Big screen Sky Sports. There is also the nearby New Walton Street Social Club that welcomes away supporters.

    There are a number of other pubs within a few minutes walk of the stadium, but these are all designated as being for home supporters only. Most Hull fans still seem to be heading for pubs situated around Boothferry Park. These are best avoided by away fans particularly the Silver Cod pub. Otherwise you can head for the nearby City Centre, where there are plenty of pubs to be found. The Linnet and Lark on Princes Avenue has lots of TVs showing Sky Sports, making it perfect to watch the early or late kick off games. It is a 15 minute walk away from the stadium. Also there are a number of other bars dotted along Princes Avenue, which should be okay for away fans to drink in. These include PAVE (http://pavebar.co.uk) which has a great selection of beers from all around the world and quality food. Closer to the stadium around a 15 minute walk up Walton Street, is the Avenues pub on Chanterlands Avenue, that welcomes both home and away supporters (https://www.sizzlingpubs.co.uk/findapub/yorkshireandthehumber/theavenuekingstonuponhull?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb)

    If you are walking to the stadium from the City Centre there are several pubs on Spring Bank, or there is the Admiral of the Humber (a Wetherspoons outlet) https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/hotels/england/east-yorkshire/the-admiral-of-the-humber on Anlaby Road near Hull Paragon Railway Station. The Punch Hotel pub (https://www.facebook.com/ThePunchHotel) is situated in the town centre next to the Princes Quay shopping centre, so not far from the train station. It does great homemade food.

    Tigers trivia

    • An account of their history is here: https://www.wearehullcity.co.uk/club/club-history/through-the-years/ and here: https://thebeautifulhistory.wordpress.com/clubs/hull-city/
    • Hull City is the only team in the Football League which hasn't got a single letter that you can colour in.
    • In 1984, Hull City declared they would play in the first ever football match on the moon. Then Chairman Don Robinson took the squad to NASA’s base in Cape Canaveral during an American tour but admitted he hadn't found a team to play against.
    • Hull City took part in England’s first ever penalty shootout – and lost. The Tigers were defeated by Manchester United in the semi-final of the short-lived Watney Cup in 1970, with George Best scoring the first spot-kick. Denis Law then became the first player to have a penalty saved in a shootout while City keeper Ian McKechnie became the first player to miss when he fluffed the deciding penalty.
    • A random set of celebrity Tigers fans are American indie heroes Pavement, who also once owned a racehorse called Hull City Tiger, which itself had a song dedicated to it by Hull based band Salako.
    • A film about Hull City has won an OSCAR. Well, kind of. See You At Wembley Frankie Walsh, a comedy about a fan choosing between a wedding and a cup final, was awarded best foreign film at the 1987 Student Academy Awards. The film's director, Mark Herman, has smuggled references to his beloved Tigers in most of his films since. In Little Voice, for instance, Ewan McGregor character's pigeon was called Duane after then star striker Duane Darby, while in Brassed Off the celebratory balloons were in black and amber.
    • London 0 Hull 4 wasn't just the title of The Housemartins' 1986 album, it proved to be a football prophecy. In October 2008 Hull City beat West Ham to take a fourth win out of four against London clubs having previously beaten Fulham, Arsenal and Spurs.
    • Nearly all rundowns of terrible football kits feature Hull City's tiger-stripe shirt from 1992/3, with a completely random pattern which meant no two were the same. But the mockery didn't stop the shirt breaking the club's shirt sales records - and they sell for up to £100 each now on eBay.
    • Up to the early 1960s, when league games were often played on Christmas Day, Hull City and Grimsby Town were the only two teams exempt from playing because fans in the fishing industry needed to be at work.
    • Ye Olde White Harte pub on Silver Street in Hull is believed to have played a key role in the start of the English Civil War. In the room now known as the Plotting Parlour, the decision was reputedly taken in 1642 to refuse Charles I entry to the town. This sparked the first siege of Hull, which was the first major action of the Civil War.
    • Not only is the George Hotel in Hull one of the oldest surviving pubs in the city, dating back to 1683, it also boasts what is claimed to be the smallest window in England. Originally a coaching inn, its window - which is more like a slit in the wall - is said to have been used by the porter to look out for stagecoaches and customers so they could be given immediate attention.
    • The Bounty, skippered by the infamous Captain William Bligh, was built and launched in Hull.
    • Daniel Defoe's famous fictional castaway, Robinson Crusoe, set sail from Queen's Dock in Hull on 1 September 1651.
    • The Rank Organisation, which owned five leading film studios including Pinewood Studios, was founded by Hull-born J. Arthur Rank in 1937. Who else on here has dire memories of the old Top Rank, and the immortal phrase ‘gentlemen to the stage please, gentleman to the stage.’
    • Used by generations of model plane fans to decorate anything from Spitfires to Boeing 737s, tiny tins of Humbrol paints were manufactured for many years in Hull. Humbrol, originally known as the Humber Oil Company, was founded in the city in 1919 and initially supplied bicycle oil. However, in the middle of the 20th Century, plastic model kits by companies such as Airfix became hugely popular. As a result, the firm began to manufacture "tinlets" of paint designed especially to make these models look as close to the real thing as possible.

    Given their recent form and league position they will want to claim three points today. Pre-match Grant McCann said ‘They’re another team with a lot of experience in and around their team. If you go right through the middle of their team, they’ve got people like (Tomas) Kalas, (Chris) Martin, (Han-Noah) Massengo – who they brought in for quite a lot of money – Nahki Wells sat on their bench. They can mix it up, they can play short, they can play long. They’ve got the focal point of Martin and they’ve got good footballers in the middle of the pitch. Every team in the Championship have got real quality and Bristol City are the same. It’s going to be another tough game for us.’ Tom Eaves could return to the squad today post injury.

    We are buoyed by the potential return of James and maybe Tanner and King although it’s unlikely they will be quite ready for today. NP has opened up in his presser about our limited goal-scoring and our limited creation of goal-scoring chances, in so doing acknowledging what we knew before the season started - we are going to struggle for goals this season. Let’s hope we score a few today!

    92E203E4-D42E-4E14-95EB-8DDA6061781D.jpeg

    Great job again JB..

    2-1 to us.

    COYR’s

    • Like 1

  5. Stoke City at home match-day thread

    in The Havanatopia Match Day Archive

    Posted

    15 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

    Good day fellow-Reds. Stoke City under the Bristol sky tonight at 745 pm and it’s the main match on Sky so is not on Robins TV. If you want to get to the Gate and cheer on the boys: https://tickets.bristol-sport.co.uk/categories/bristolcityfchome?

    The first visit to Ashton Gate for Dean Holden since his departure, I’m sure he will be given a decent reception. As Michael O’Neil pointed out in his presser ‘We know their squad quite well. Obviously Dean Holden was there last season so we have good knowledge on the players.’

    Who remembers Stoke City 2 Bristol City 1, April 19th, 2008? For those who don’t take a look here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_1/7344104.stm

    Stoke subsequently secured promotion by finishing in second place (behind WBA) and Gary Johnson said after the game that  ‘Some people are naturally disappointed because it looks as though automatic promotion is unlikely. What we must do now is make sure we are in the play-offs and then give it our best shot if that is the case.’

    The Britannia was rocking that day and the City faithful never once dropped their voices below an audibly magnificent level. As they say, the rest is history, for any young uns who don’t know what I’m talking about read this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_1/7416502.stm

    Here are the final league places at the end of the 2007/08 season:

    1 West Bromwich Albion 

    2 Stoke City (P)

    3 Hull City 

    4 Bristol City

    5 Crystal Palace

    6 Watford

    My Australian mate Bill is a big Stoke fan, his pre-match comments follow:

    ‘Be afraid, be very afraid. Your home record is the worst in the four English leagues, possibly every league and our last two alway games were wins and against teams with good home records, Luton and Blackpool. Plus we have our star striker Tyrese Campbell back from long-term injury and in Jacob Brown we have a young, in-form striker who has just won his first Scottish cap.

    I also have the delightful memory of a few seasons back (2018) when we thrashed you 1-0 at Ashton Gate thanks to the last ever league goal from Darren Fletcher! You could of course garner some hope from two critical injuries to Harry Souttar our highly rated centre half and a broken leg for Powell our truly inspirational number 10. But don’t hope too much we have excellent replacements and you can’t even beat average sides with 10 men.  So I think it’s going to be another 1-0 thrashing!! Oh and it’s been 10 years since Stoke won four games in a row.’

    Mention of Bill provides an opportunity to promote his excellent new book, which I highly recommend to anybody interested in mental health. His compelling book is provocative, humorous, touching and based on his extensive experience  of clinical psychology. It’s called  ‘What Happened?: What mental health is really about’  By Dr Bill Saunders and is available now from Amazon.

    Our record against them isn’t great we’ve lost 26, won 17 and drawn 15.

    Last season they finished in 14th place and against them we lost 0-2 (at home) and won 0-2 (away.)

    They faced Peterborough in their last a game and won 2-0 (with the second goal coming in the 96th minute) Surridge's late red card means he won’t feature tonight, they currently occupy fifth place in the table. Tonight’s encounter will be a tough one particularly given our home form.

    Form over last six matches, Bristol City: LLWLLD Stoke Cityk: LLDWWW and Stoke haven’t conceded in their last three games.

    Stoke are one of the oldest English football teams and were one of the founding members of the Football League. They began as Stoke Ramblers, but have been known as Stoke City since 1925. One of the best periods for the club was between 1933 and1953, they played in the top division and managed to reach the fourth place twice. They also have a Football League Cup victory from 1972 and would reach the FA Cup final for the first time in 2011.

    Some of the most famous players in the club's history are Stanley Matthews, Neil Franklin, Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton, Peter Dobing, George Eastham, Peter McIlroy, Denis Smith, Harry Burrows who at the time had the most powerful left foot in football, the mercurial Alan Hudson, John Ritchie  and the best player never to be capped by England, Jimmy Greenhoff.

    Mention of Gordon Banks reminds me of one of many of Bill’s claims - that he was once substituted by Gordon Banks. Allegedly at the time of his removal Bill’s team were winning 4-1 and by the end it was 4-4. Bill clings on to the notion that he was a better goalie than Gordon! Another of his claims is that funnily enough he once played five a side against George Eastham, his job was to mark him,  Bill’s team lost 6-0, George scored a couple and made the rest. Unsurprisingly Bill never once got the ball from him!

    Michael O’Neil, who was appointed in November 2019 when they were bottom of the league, has been rebuilding and getting rid of lots of players in the process. Does that sound familiar? At the end of last season they said goodbye a few times as they cleared the decks for squad rebuilding. Among the former Potters are Jack Butland, Mame Diouf, Mo Sankoh and Julien Ngoy.

    O’Neil’s philosophy also rings a bell, he has said: ‘Having more people out of the team than in it is what really challenges your culture. More players have left than have come in and we put a real focus on the types of people we want, not just what they are as players.’

    When he arrived he was hamstrung by the players bought in by previous managers and administrators, many of their fans have pointed out that the club has been mismanaged for quite a while. As one noted ‘Hughes's first couple of seasons were OK until he ripped the heart and soul out of the team, since then it's been a comedy of errors with expensive garbage coming through the door along with idealistic managers with an open cheque book. O’Neil has come in and has been shackled by FFP. He is giving youth a go (Josh Tymon especially) and with the likes of Fletcher, Vranic and Allen the old heads are providing experience.

    Stoke snippets

    • Stoke once had a vicar patrolling midfield. Father Elijah Smith took off his cassock to play for the Potters in the 1880s. The half-back, who was in charge of a church in Stoke, starred in the club's first ever league win, over Notts County.
    • The Potters finished bottom of Football League in its inaugural season, and again the following year before they failed to be re-elected in 1890.
    • Stoke are responsible for the penalty kick. The Potters had reason to gripe when they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Notts County in 1891. They were piling on the pressure in search of an equaliser when Notts defender Jack Hendry punched away a goal-bound shot. Stoke were given a free-kick but the opponents stacked 11 men on their own line and blocked any shot. Referee John Lewis thought this wasn't fair so campaigned to introduce the penalty kick when he became a football legislator.
    • The most capped player to have played for the club is goalkeeper Gordon Banks – with 73 caps for England.
    • Sir Stanley Matthews holds the record for the oldest ever player to feature in England’s top division. His appearance for Stoke City against Fulham in February 1965 came shortly after his 50th birthday.
    • The club’s only major trophy to date was the League Cup, which they won in 1972 after beating Chelsea 2-1 in the final. They also lifted the Football League Trophy in 1992 and 2000.
    • The Oatcake was their fanzine, which was named after a local delicacy. It ran for over 30 years before publishing its 653rd and final issue for the opening Championship game against QPR in August 2019.

    Hot on the heels of an improved home performance on Saturday, especially in the first half, it will be interesting to see if tonight we can start to build a bit of concentration, confidence and consistency. I lost count of how many times Curtis Fleming used the word ‘consistency’ in his press-match presser. In fact I reckon when NP asked him to do the presser he added see if you can make a point about a decent 45 minutes being just that and stress it is something we need to build on. Curtis then contrived to communicate by continually and consistently chatting about being consistent! ?

    Matty James, George Tanner and Andy King are all unavailable so the squad is likely to be unchanged, although NP may make some tweaks to the starting line-up.

     

    88B04165-460B-486A-9BDD-47EA252C3C27.jpeg

    Hey JB, tell your Aussie mate to ave it! We hammered em 1-0 

    COYR’s.

    • Like 1

  8. Soft Touch?

    in Football Chat

    Posted

    Remember Andy Gray commenting on a game.. forget who was playing, but his words stuck with me, describing the full back he said in his dour Scottish accent… *typical old school full back, the ball can go pas me, the winger can go past me… but you’re not both going past me”  ?

     

    • Like 1

  12. Fulham at home match-day thread

    in The Havanatopia Match Day Archive

    Posted

    40 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

    Good day ‘long-suffering fans’ (as NP termed us this week) everywhere, Fulham this afternoon, however, before getting to that here’s an interesting comparison regarding our form:

    Last eight games of 20/21: W0 D2 L6 F7 A18  Points = 2

    First eight games of 21/22: W3 D3 L2 F10 A9  Points = 12

    First eight games of last season, which everyone was raving about: W4 D2 L2 F11 A6 Points  = 14

    On to today.

    Very intense ex-manager Scott Parker had this to say when they were relegated from the Premiership last season, ‘I’m hurt, I’m gutted. There’s been disappointment this year, and we need to put our hands up, we need to get around a table, we need to understand where we want to go as a club, what we need to do.’ Shortly afterwards Parker decided where he wanted to go as he departed for Bournemouth and Marco Silva was appointed their head coach, on a three year deal, following his sacking by Watford.

    They are one of the favorites for promotion and have made a solid start, currently sitting in 4th place on 16 points. Their two defeats to date being against Blackpool and last time out against Reading.

    Fulham have dominated every time they have played - even the couple of matches they have lost. They have the most shots on target in the league with 53 and look really threatening in attack. We have, so far, had just 26 shots on target. We will certainly have to be clinical in attack (as we were at QPR) and take full advantage of the chances we create against a Fulham defence who have been very well drilled. As a team they are looking to bounce back from losing two out of their last three games.

    Famous names like Johnny Haynes, Bobby Moore, Rodney Marsh and George Best have been part of the team through the years. Today there are of course a couple of familiar faces in their squad, Joe Bryan and Bobby De Cordova-Reid, two of our best academy players from recent times. Joe has recently clocked up his100th appearance for the Cottagers and scored twice in extra time in the play-off final victory against Brentford. They also have Mitrovic who is one of the best strikers in the Championship he won the Championship's golden boot the season they gained promotion and Mitro is their top scorer this campaign, the striker recently signed a new five-year contract. Fulham are the league’s top scorers with 18.

    Our head-to-head record against them is lost 25, won 22 and drawn 16. We’ve only lost once in the last eight games against them. The last time we met at Ashton Gate it finished 1-1 a game in which they had 19 shots on goal, it was a game they probably should’ve won. Tom Cairney equalized in the 84th minute after Nahki Wells had put us ahead in front of a crowd of 23,796, which turned out to be the last game at AG with fans pre-lockdown.

    We’ve had a week to regroup following our remarkable victory at the  Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium while on Tuesday they drew 0-0 with Leeds in the EFL Cup with Leeds winning on penalties.

    Following the day-light robbery in West London last Saturday our starting line-up will be interesting, will NP start with Wells, the manager recently said: ‘It is really good to have healthy competition. For someone like Nahki it will be a big debate this week in whether he gets a start. It is a great problem to have.’ Another debate is whether Tanner and Bakinson will retain their places. NP has said that Andy King and Nathan Baker could be in contention. Fulham will be without Fabio Carvalh.

    Today an attendance of 18,000 + is anticipated, Fulham have been allocated 2,300 tickets. Here’s a link to the match day programme: https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/read-the-online-matchday-programme-city-v-fulham/

    A few Fulham facts:

    • Fulham’s original nickname was the Saints as when they were originally formed by a group of worshipers from a church in West Kensington they were known as Fulham St Andrew’s Church Sunday School FC.
    • England World Cup winner George Cohen made the last of his 459 appearances for Fulham against us at Ashton Gate on 1st March 1969, in league division 2, a game that we won 6-0! To jog memories here’s the match programme and here’s a bit more about that game: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-flashback-one-englands-3920542
    • Founded in 1879 Fulham are the oldest professional football club in London.
    • Fulham’s principle owner Shahid Khan is also the owner of NFL franchise the Jacksonville Jaguars, as well as the 2019 wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling.
    • Craven Cottage was a venue for several football games during the 1948 Olympic Games held in London.
    • Hugh Grant and Richard Osman are two of their best known fans, this week Osman was pictured at Storysmith Books in Bedminster so maybe he’ll be at the game
    • World Mobile, a telecoms network that uses blockchain technology, is their new principal commercial partner.

    To end here’s NP’s pre-match thoughts:

    ‘It would be a really good day if we can beat them. We know what they are, they are a side that passes the ball, they are quite expansive in possession, they like to play attractive, attacking football. What we have got to do is make it difficult for them to do that. They will be expecting this to be a tough game as well. It would be a great game to win but they all are, I don't care who I am playing against. It is about giving the opposition the respect they deserve but ultimately, as I always say, we judge ourselves against ourselves. That is the most important thing. When you have periods in a season of inconsistency, that is the most frustrating times when we can't replicate good performances, that is a frustration but I think generally thinking we have been more positive. And hopefully, for the players and our long-suffering fans we get a home win.’

     

     

    C4E2EEDB-2648-4315-BD9A-C7803B2B17DE.jpeg

    Great post JB… that 68/69 program brought back some memories… it was the first game as a young lad that I ever attended. My ol man told me before the game, “just watch Johnnie Haynes he’s class.. forget every one else.”.. Johnnie Haynes didn’t touch the ball and we won 6-0… ?

    • Like 1

  14. Bristol R*vers dustbin thread

    in Football Chat

    Posted

    13 hours ago, bcfc01 said:

    Barton;

    “I’ve got my professional life at stake here because if I can’t get Bristol Rovers promoted out of this division, I’m not going to get the top jobs I want, I’m not going to get to work up the food chain for these big clubs, so I’ve got a lot invested.”

     

    He’s obviously going to plead insanity…

  15. Bristol R*vers dustbin thread

    in Football Chat

    Posted

    On 06/01/2020 at 23:12, Major Isewater said:

    Have you ever seen two football men happier ?

     

    image.png
     

    Let’s have some captions .

    Muppet on the right... "This shirt stinks like some dirty pikey has been wearing it for the last couple of years.."

    Muppet on the left.. ""Take it home and wash it kid... you're gas now"

    • Haha 1

  21. The Official Rotherham United v Bristol City match Day Thread

    in The Havanatopia Match Day Archive

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, NeilS said:

    I had a dream!! We lost 5.1, just putting it out there just in case we do, 'cuz no one would believe me if we do, and then I said I had this dream....

    Not a good hunting ground for us, never won at the new ground, and never beat the Millers for 25? years away, so let's re-write history lads.

     

    City 1-3  

     

    Agreed... It's gonna be a Yorkshire Ripper...

    1) W 2-1

    2) W 2-1

    3) L 0-1

    4) L 0-1

    5) W 3-1

    6) it's written...

    COYR's

    • Like 1
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