Offside

I was very happy when Pearson was appointed and he has all the credentials, but our form is very worrying. Our performances are a mess  

I was expecting him to get much more out of the players. 

It was very important (and exhilarating!) to finally end that winless run of home games.

But the performance was dreadful and we need to start being much better both with and without the ball. 

2 hours ago, VT05763 said:

It was about to get very ugly ....... and then we scored.

Could that be the moment when things turned for the better.

Definitely felt like a turning point. 

I really like him. He’s committed, quick and decent going forward. Considering how young he is, and that a few months ago he was playing lower league football, and as a team we have been struggling, he’s done well. 

The support in the last part of the game was brilliant. 

There was also a turning point in the first half when we were 1-0 down, and playing in a very lethargic way, when the fans made their displeasure known and it seemed to give the players a jolt. 

Phew. What a great feeling to get that win. The scenes after the final whistle were memorable and I thought the crowd got behind the team superbly in those last few minutes. 

City were mainly poor and did the usual thing in the last part of the game where we invited pressure and failed to keep hold of the ball, but at least we can enjoy a Saturday night after a home match again. 

Two very well taken goals. Not his best game, and he seems to have lost a yard of pace since his injury, but I love his work ethic.

4 minutes ago, Dredd said:

Out of interest, was this bad again today for those of you affected? Was a little disappointed to see the green kit

Yes it was awful. If City didn’t wear white shorts I’d really struggle in games like today. 

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. 

13 hours ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

Smash and Grab; Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister .

Scratch and Sniff

17 hours ago, Davefevs said:

For me this is collective, no way Dasilva’s fault imho.  I posted the start pic earlier, so as it evolves:

James too far away from the man who’s received the ball and travelling forward.  Spence starts to make a run.  Jay does not know whether to engage the man on the ball, track Spence, or what about Johnson, is Baker marking him or has he passed him on.  The defensive line is crap, Kalas and Tanner deeper than the other 3 (JD, NB, RA).  So you can start by blaming the collective 6.  Massengo and Weimann fine of the rest of the midfield.

Spence’s run is purposeful and now at full tilt. Dasilva on the turn, still not sure whether Baker has Johnson, has passed him on, or is trying to play outside.  The pass is perfectly weighted.

Spence is in full flight, Dasilva struggling.  Baker’s line is now in front of Dasilva (he’s now marking Johnson), but also wrong side of the ball.  He’ll pay for that 1 second later.

And now we see Dasilva beaten through a combination of things, Spence’s pace, the timing of the pass, a foul and it’s a penalty.  Baker is stuffed….and brings him down.

So, imho, Dasilva part of a collective problem, and also how Forest found gaps between the lines (give them credit to).

That’s my view anyway.

 

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. 

31 minutes ago, OddBallJim said:

Meh. We gave them far too much respect. Nobody tried to physically challenge their opposite number/marker. They’re good, but we made them look world class.

Another frustrating home performance.

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. 
 

2 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

How dare you!!!!

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. 

19 hours ago, RED4LIFE said:

Away at Preston last game of the season mid to late 90's.

Drove up, couldnt get a ticket so walked back to the car to listen to the game on the radio as all the pubs were shut. Lo and behold, the local commentary was Burnley vs The Gas.

City lost and we lost one of our mates and spent hours trying to find him (before everyone had mobile phones). Got back to Bristol around 9:30pm.to find pur mate in the pub as he forgot where we parked so jumped on a supporters coach.

 

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.