Jerseybean

"Today was a Difficult Day," said Pooh. There was a pause. "Do you want to talk about it?" asked Piglet. "No," said Pooh after a bit. "No, I don't think I do." "That's okay," said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend. "What are you doing?" asked Pooh. "Nothing, really," said Piglet. "Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don't feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either. "But goodness," continued Piglet, "Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you've got someone there for you. And I'll always be here for you, Pooh." And as Pooh sat there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs...he thought that his best friend had never been more right." A.A. Milne

Data: Away at Hull conceded 93rd minute - 1 point Away at Wycombe 77 and 93 minutes - through to the next round of the Carabao Cup Away at Blackpool conceded 90th minute - 2 points Away at Blackburn Rovers 93rd minute Away at Norwich 77th minute Home to PNE conceded in 82 scored in 90 + 2 points Home to Millwall conceded on 76 -1 point Away to Reading conceded in 93 Home to Swansea conceded 75 - 2 points Home to Lincoln 80 minute Home to Swansea 75 minute - kept us in the FA Cup Home to Birmingham 76 minute Away to Swansea 112 minute - put us into the fourth round of the FA Cup Away to Sunderland 93 minute + 1 point Home to Blackpool 81 minute Away to Stoke 85 minute + 2 points Away to Sheffield United 76 minute - 2 points Home to Rotherham United 91 minute + 2 points

As the curtain comes down on our season, it would’ve be good to hear others immediate reflections, on this season and next. To get the ball rolling here are my key thoughts. We have made steady progress both on and off the pitch. Much has been written about our financial plight and the move to slim down the squad, create a more sustainable wage structure, which is also more equitable is to be applauded. There have been times when the squad has been stretched, due to its size and injuries, but it has also created opportunities for younger players to be given an opportunity and by and large they haven’t let the club or themselves down. The emergence of some really good young talent and the consolidation of other youngsters has been a real positive and although we may have seen the last of Scotty in a City shirt we have a crop of fine young players in and around the first team. I’m especially looking forward to seeing Conway progress, he looks the real deal to me. An area which has improved significantly has been our game management. in recent seasons we have conceded far too many late goals, thankfully that has been addressed and here is the data for late goals scored and conceded this season. Throughout the season, as is always the case in the championship, fine margins have dominated. The vast majority of our games, whether we have won or lost, have been decided by one goal. As NP said recently we’ve been in every game this season. Even against the two top teams we lost 2-1 home and away v Burnley and 1-0 home and away v Sheffield United. The only two who did the double over us. We lost 1-0 away at third-place Luton, beating them at home and drew both home and away against Middlesbrough. Our overall points tally of 59 is better than last year’s, although we still have a long way to go in order to be where we want to be, which is pushing for promotion. I’m a big fan of NP’s and think he has managed things well overall. This closed-season will be the first where he is not clearing out loads of players and it presents an opportunity to strengthen in key areas. My hope is we can secure our targets early on and everyone can have a really good pre-season. He has recently said, ‘The bottom line is this, the culture, that the players are very much part of creating, is about having really healthy competition, relative fairness, I can't say football is always going to be fair because it's not, there's always going to be grumpy players somewhere but I want healthy competition in the club but I want us to aim high.’ When looking at what he has done it really does align with his bottom line approach. Looking forward to next season we will be playing Plymouth, Ipswich, (plus one of Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton, Barnsley and Peterborough) and three of Southampton, Leicester, Forest, Everton and Leeds, so fresh challenges await. While Burnley, Sheffield United, (and one of Luton, Boro, Sunderland and Coventry) Reading, Blackpool and Wigan won’t feature (reckon our away mileage will drop somewhat). I would expect that, at the very least, we can improve on this seasons position and if some of the fine margins, which I mentioned, can be turned into points then we might just be in with a shout of the play-offs. Next seasons fixtures will be released on June 15th at 9am with the season commencing the 12th August, also the weekend of the Balloon Festival which means we should have an away fixture to start the season. More than 13,500 seats have already been renewed or purchased by existing Season Ticket holders or Members and now Season Tickets are available on general sale at an advanced price. By July 1, only one player in the squad (Joe Williams) won’t have either been signed by Nige or re-contracted by him. Here’s some premature speculation: https://www.bristolworld.com/sport/football/bristol-city/bristol-city-transfers-nigel-pearsons-squad-next-season-if-the-rumours-are-true-4128067?fbclid=IwAR1VmWNLIkp9FO8g9Mnzk3JPhAiNjdOvg5rEESVPPkX0LbS82O0Vgoj70F0 Fellow-Reds and OTIB’s everywhere enjoy the closed-season.

Well played JB

The 59 bit was correct

Well played 59 it was!

Enjoy the game, COYR! What brilliant support home and away all season, well done one and all.

What was the score?

Struck me as an odd term, ‘when I was terminated at Bristol City’ used by Chris Martin. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/chris-martin-qpr-championship-derby-29901336

Arson suspected: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-harbour-fire-man-arrested-8421945?utm_source=bristol_live_newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter2&utm_medium=email

Our media team strike again…this is in the OS match preview for tomorrows game, against QPR not Sheffield United! ? HEAD-TO-HEAD SHEFFIELD UNITED Matches won: 34 Matches drawn: 24 Matches lost: 33 Top goalscorer: Lyndon Dykes (8) Top assists: Ilias Chair (9) BRISTOL CITY Matches won: 33 Matches drawn: 24 Matches lost: 34 Top goalscorer: Tommy Conway (12) Top assists: Nahki Wells (8)

QPR match preview: https://www.qpr.co.uk/fixtures/first-team/2022/queens-park-rangers-v-bristol-city/?tab=preview

Although he suggested that he would do this, tbh I thought he was just humoring me…

Thanks Big Tone for making me smile each and every time the CV appears

Brace yourself Major, just posted the MDT

Good day fellow-Reds. West London here we come for our final game of the season, having sold out our 1700 ticket allocation. As this is our final away fixture of the campaign a huge well done to all those City fans who have travelled to support the team so brilliantly again. Having won their last two games, away to Burnley and Stoke, they secured Championship survival. Queens Park Rangers' stadium name has reverted back to Loftus Road for the 2022-23 season. In 2019, the club gifted the naming rights of the ground to a charity, with fans voting for the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium. Kiyan Prince was a member of QPR's youth academy, who was stabbed to death in May 2006 when he was 15-years-old. In October Wolves made a formal approach to their then boss Michael Beale about becoming their new manager, but he rejected the opportunity. Then he joined Rangers. Neil Critchley was appointed their new head coach in December on a three-and-a-half-year deal. In February he was sacked after just 12 games in charge at Loftus Road. At the time they had gone 10 Championship games without a win and were17th in the table, eight points above the relegation zone. Gareth Ainsworth was appointed on 23 February, the 49-year-old scored 21 goals in 152 games during a seven-year playing spell with the R's, he left Wycombe to manage QPR. Ahead of the game Ainsworth had this to say, "You can see the boys are relieved, there's a lot of smiles and freedom around the place. If you look at the season as a whole, it wasn’t good enough - but the last few games have definitely been good enough and the lads deserve that week of nice training and going into the home game without something riding on it. At home we haven’t been great this season, the records have shown that. But I am really hoping on Monday we can play without that recent fear and without one or two worries – hopefully one or two lads who haven’t got as many minutes under their belts recently will get some game time, I want to have a look at a good few things that I haven’t been able to yet. I hope the fans are excited for what is coming next season no matter what the result on Monday, and we will see what we can do in the summer in regards to turning this place around. Once that whistle goes and you are in that zone, you just want to win and we will be going out to do everything we can to win on Monday. I want to send the fans home happy, whether that is seeing the effort from the players or the result that comes with it. I have a lot of respect for Nigel Pearson, he is a very good guy in football and his team are a very good side. Hopefully we can get the win and celebrate with the lap of appreciation I have asked the players to do, as the fans have been through a hell of a lot this season. I totally understand it. We have taken some stick, some applause and just want to go round to everyone and say thank you. It has been a tough year, there is a lot of work to do, so stick with us. But, for now, it’s great to say that QPR will be in the Championship next season." On October 1st they beat us 2-1 at ours: https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/highlights-bristol-city-vs-queens-park-rangers/ Immediately after the game I posted ‘Disappointing as it is I do think QPR, although in large part thanks to our contribution (mistakes), deserved to win that. We really didn’t do enough and tbh they could have won by more.’ which seemed to be the general view from others. Post-match NP said ‘We made some really poor decisions, which cost very dearly. They’ve got a good attacking threat. I spoke before the game about them being a good Championship side but we can’t give people a two-goal start in the fashion that we did. It’s a disappointing day for us because we’ve come to expect a lot better of ourselves and we’ve contributed too much to our own downfall today.’ Back in 2010 Nicky Maynard scored this beauty: Last time we were there it finished like this: In October Dixon-Bonner joined QPR, putting pen to paper as a free agent after leaving Liverpool in the summer. London-born Dixon-Bonner came through the youth system at Arsenal before joining the Reds’ academy as a 14-year-old in 2015. The 21-year-old knew ex-QPR boss Beale from his time at Liverpool and also worked with first-team coach Neil Banfield while with the Gunners. Over the years we have won 34, lost 37 and drawn 25 times against them. Andy Woolmer will be the man with the whistle, he was in charge recently when we drew 2-2 against Boro. He is a former postman, so let’s hope he doesn’t post too many cards, Woolmer is an experienced official having been appointed to the Referees List in 2004, he will be assisted by Philip Dermott and Akil Howson. The fourth official is Dean Whitestone. NP pre-match: There is a rumour that Harvey Wiles-Richards will be making his debut. QPR are looking to complete their first league double over us since the 2002/03 campaign under Ian Holloway. QPR have won their final league game in three of the last four seasons (D1) City haven’t won their final league game of the season in any of the last seven seasons (D2 L5) since hammering Walsall 8-2 in League One in 2014/15. QPR have won their last two league games, as many as in their previous 27 combined (W2 D8 L17). They haven’t won three in a row since October under former manager Michael Beale. NW spent two seasons on loan at QPR from 2018-2020, where he contributed 20 goals and nine assists in 66 Championship matches. Others who played for both include, Damion Stewart QPR 2006-10, Bristol City 2010-12, Brian Williams QPR 1977-78, Bristol City 1985-87, Bradley Orr QPR 2010-12, Bristol City 2004-10, Matt Smith QPR 2017-19, Bristol City 2014-15, Leroy Rosenior QPR 1985-87, Bristol City 1992-94. More recently Luke Freeman and even more recently Chris Martin left us for them and of course Uncle Albert wore the shirt of both teams. Cam Pring pre-match: Rob Atkinson will be the guest for Robins TV's global coverage of the game. Supporter info from QPR: https://www.qpr.co.uk/news/club-news/supporter-information-qprbrc-070523/ There will be a minutes applause during the game on 14 minutes in Teddy Disson-Meade’s honour, and people are invited to join in with his mates in singing ‘we love you Teddy’ he will also be honoured during a display before the game. Teddy played for Wealdstown FC and QPR development squad. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/22198848/young-footballer-teddy-disson-meade-dies-tributes/ see photo Famous fans include: Bill Bailey - Actor, comedian, and musician Pete Doherty - The Libertines frontman Ashley Giles - 2005 Ashes legend was born less than 30 miles from Loftus Road. Shane Richie - Surely one of Albert Square's most familiar faces, actor Shane Richie is most famous for his role as Alfie Moon in Eastenders Robert Smith - The Cure lead singer Alex Tudor - England cricketer Pubs The Sindercombe Social, 2 Goldhawk Road, White City, W12 8QD, https://www.thesindercombesocial.co.uk/#/ The Central Bar, Unit 1, West 12 Shopping Centre, Shepherds Bush Green, W12 8PH, https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/london/the-central-bar-shepherds-bush?utm_source=google&utm_medium=maps&utm_campaign=gmb Belushi’s, 13 - 15 Shepherd’s Bush Green, W12 8PH, https://www.belushis.com/bars/london/shepherds-bush For excellent pubs in West London try one of these: https://thegoodpubguide.co.uk/?s=&gpg=West London&pub_category=1-main-entry Food If you are looking for brunch try Wild Thyme, https://wildthymelondon.com/ For a good Indian look for Nepal Authentic Dining, http://nepalrestaurant.co.uk/ For great coffee try Black Sheep Coffee, https://leavetheherdbehind.com/blogs/locations/westfield-shepherds-bush The Bush Pie and Mash is well worth finding, https://www.bushpieandmash.co.uk They serve delicious traditional pie, mash and liquor, freshly made on the premises. Located right in the heart of Shepherds Bush (only a 10-minute walk from the ground). They offer eat-in and takeaway services. Please note that to eat in they operate a one in one out policy. For other pie and mash shops in West London (although not that close to the ground) see: https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/food-drink-news/eight-pie-mash-shops-west-9761585 Wherever you are and whatever you have lined up, hope you have a healthy and happy closed-season and here’s to next season. COYR!

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/we-devastated-rebuild-says-underfall-8420141?utm_source=bristol_live_newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter2&utm_medium=email

As I was leaving, having explained I couldn’t stay for the cheese board as there was a MDT to be written - this: