Offside

I agree he struggled today. A surprising substitution and a massive gamble to bring him in in such a high pressure game. I would have thought that if NP doesn’t trust the likes of players like COD, then Scott would have been a more obvious choice seeing as he has impressed so far and we badly needed someone to hold onto the ball. Postives - it was good to see Benarous run at them with the ball (we don’t do that enough) and he took it into the corner to buy time when some of our other players seemed intent on giving them the ball. FWIW I think we missed Bakinson when he went off.

Sad to hear that. RIP, Walter.

This is a very important game for us to win. We need to end this horrendous run at home, get some confidence back and be able to leave the ground feeling happy for a change. But if we play like we have been, it’ll be another draw or defeat.

I’ve got zero confidence about this game. We always seem to get thrashed there.

Scratch and Sniff

In those images we look a mess. Gaps all over the place. Our players not engaging with their players (like one the first one - the amount of space their player with the ball has deep in our half!). So many of our players in positions where they’re not doing anything. Very passive from us. We don’t make it difficult for the opposition.

James has been decent so far, but he really benefits from having energetic players like HNM and Williams alongside him. King has been quite anonymous in the games I have seen.

Completely agree. Yes Bournemouth are a good side, but I thought they were no better than Fulham. And against Fulham we gave it a real go (in a game we should have lost given the chances they missed near the end). We made it very easy for Bournemouth today. Often because we made poor decisions. For example, in the first half when we tried to play it out, Baker passed to Kalas, who went right and passed to Tanner, who was on the touchline and already being pressed and we lost the ball. So predictable. One of many examples of us passing into trouble. And very frustrating because Baker was in loads of space and Kalas switching it back to him would have been the much better option. I’m not singling those players out, Kalas especially was one of our better performers today, but it was just an example of how we are so predictable and one dimensional. The Bournemouth players knew exactly what we were going to do because we telegraphed it and, hey, presto, we gave away the ball.

Also today a lack of aggression, mobility and the ability to control the ball and pass it. Bournemouth were good, but we made it far too easy.

King never looked like he was going to last the 90 minutes, so I was surprised to see that Pring got replaced instead of him.

That second goal was typical. We give the ball away very cheaply from a throw-in deep in their half. They counter, Tanner is left exposed, goal. Bournemouth look decent enough but we are making it very easy for them by standing off them. We look powder puff both with and without the ball.

We’ve been very poor so far. Unable to keep hold of the ball.

I’d love to get that long awaited home win today, but I think they’ll have too much quality. Hopefully it’ll be a decent game and we’ll see a good City performance.

Just like how games can still bring back horrible emotions many years later (like in the worst away games thread), the memory of Bob Taylor being allowed to leave so cheaply still rankles. What a player he was, as he went on to show throughout his career.

I like the purple and lime. I’d much rather that than all black. That is the best away kit ever.

Another bad one for me was Aston Villa away in early 2017. I was looking forward to my first trip to Villa Park, I had high hopes for the ground. But what an awful trip it turned out to be. I drove there after work, parked easily……then it hammered down with rain and I got soaked. I decided to get a drink in the ground…….but the away concourse was shockingly awful with long queues and didn’t serve alcohol. My seat was right in the corner of the top tier and felt very detached. City lost 2-0 and never really looked in the game. Kodjia got stick from the City fans and then inevitably scored for them. Then on the way home the M6 was closed and I got stuck on it for absolutely ages. Then the M5 was closed so I had to follow a diversion. I finally got back to Bristol at about 2.30 and had to be up for work at 6am. I’ve not been back to Villa Park.

Yeah, I hated that game too. We were pipped to the league title by Watford that day. Preston got their winner right after we had equalised (Sean McCarthy, who celebrated with an unlikely somersault) and many of our fans were still celebrating our goal. It was all ticket for away fans (we sold out, about 3,000 made the trip) and I’d got to AG really early on the morning they went on general sale to get mine. My dad couldn’t get a ticket so ended up going in the home end with many other City fans, and he said the Preston fans were very friendly.

No, I just looked it up, the game I’m thinking of was in March 1999.

Two of mine (5-1 Blackpool away and Swansea in Tinman’s last game as manager) have already been mentioned. Others that spring to mind: Wolves away, late 90s. We lost 3-0 and one of the goals involved Flapper missing the ball when he tried to kick it and it rolled into the empty net. Any time I’ve seen us play at Ipswich. Millwall away about 4 seasons ago. I was on a CATS coach, terrible journey there (accident meant we ended up going ages around the M25, got to the ground just before kick off, City were terrible, journey back took ages too. Stockport away in the Wilson era, we lost 2-0 in a very gutless performance.

The Mansfield game stands out for me - what an amazing few minutes when we went from 4-2 down to 5-4 up. There was quite a fiesty atmosphere that game too. Anfield in 1994 was a wonderful experience. The Man City game was great too - especially when we went in at HT 1-0 up. Brilliant. Watford away in the 1997-98 promotion season was also memorable (1-1 draw). There were thousands of City fans there, and I remember Goater scoring to put us 1-0 up after running with the ball from the halfway line. What a superb finisher he was. Another really special one was a trip to Bournemouth just after Pulis left. Very joyous scenes in the away end that day, it was such a relief that he was gone. City winning was the icing on the cake, but the sense of relief was at Pulis leaving was really something.

I think that one thing about Jacki was that he played for us at at time when the skills he showed seemed more of a rarity. It felt new and different. Yes he was lazy and a passenger in some games, but I loved him and some of his play was a joy to watch, even just fleeting moments of skill. The fact that he was an experienced Polish international suggests he was better than the likes of JET, but in his time at City (when he was presumably past his best) I’d say he was on a par with JET, Tomlin (the loan version) etc in terms of his ability to wow fans. Although JET was more productive and scored more goals Players like that are what memories are made of. Noble was lacking in fitness, but we all remember that goal at Palace. JET could be frustrating, but we remember that goal v the fewers and the way he took penalties. Tomlin’s attitude stank once he signed permanently, which sours things, but that goal v Huddersfield (I think) when he flicked the ball over their defender was sublime. And I include Scotty Murray in this category of player too, there was no better sight than him bombing down the wing after latching onto a pass from Tinman. Also as far back as Mark Gavin, who in that promotion season looked like he had the ball tied to his boots and would torment defenders.

Absolutely. Perfect example of the scattergun approach of buying a player seemingly for the sake of it and then not playing him because he’s deemed not good enough.

First time I’ve seen him interviewed. He came across really well. Seems like the sort of guy players would respect and listen to.

A very welcome three points. Sounds like an exciting game. COYR.

RIP fellow red.