The Dolman Pragmatist

Jesus, you're a miserable and joyless lot.  He's picked a squad of professional footballers, pretty much in the positions you'd expect.  Our two centre forwards are out, so he's brought back Wilbraham, who hasn't let us down before.  You don't know how fit or unfit players, but you just can't wait to condemn, can you?  I really despair.  Can you do nothing but complain, even before the bl**dy match is underway?  

2 minutes ago, 1891 B.C. Sweden said:

#NEWvBRC: Giefer, Vyner, Flint, Wright, Bryan, Cotterill, O'Neil, Reid, K.Smith, O'Dowda, Wilbraham. #BristolCity

subs: Fielding, Magnusson, Hegeler, Pack, Paterson, Tomlin, Taylor

Decent selection, though I'd have had Pack instead of Korey Smith.  I was pretty sure that Wilbraham would start, and quite right for this fixture.

3 minutes ago, Lucan said:

Agreed 100percent.....

Lack of guts

No belief

lack of defensive discipline 

Anyone who says that this sort of draw is no different to any other simply doesn't understand football.

just look at the reactions when a team loses on penalties for example... to have victory snatched away like that is devastating to morale and yet LJ lets this happen time and time again..

Full of cliches.  'Lack of guts' 'no belief' 'lack of defensive discipline'.  Football isn't like that.  A lead of 3-0 doesn't guarantee you a victory because there was another team out there, and probably a better one than us.  Fact is we held on for a draw.  

The suggestion that  LJ 'let this happen' is so staggeringly crass and naive that it defies belief.   Are you for real?  Come on, you're gas, aren't you?

2 minutes ago, RumRed said:

3 up and then getting a single point is not decent, it shows a fundamental weakness in the side.

Whereas 0-3 to 3-0 would presumably show a fundamental strength?  Look, we're all disappointed, but when Liverpool came back from three down at half time in the Champions League final, I don't remember anyone suggesting it was because Milan were sh*t.

5 minutes ago, DJI said:

It does not matter who you play. To go from 3-0 up to 3-3 is not a good point for ANY team.

 

Please explain why it is any different to any other 3-3 draw, apart from in the inevitable sense of disappointment?

I can't believe this forum, or perhaps I should.  If we had been 3-0 down at half time and come back to get a 3-3 draw, people would have been hailing a fantastic point.  The fact is we were playing a very good side who had the same number of players as us, and we scored three goals each.  It doesn't matter what order they were scored in.  They scored three and we scored three.  It was a good point.  Of course it's disappointing, having been in the lead, but it's still a good point.  Those who say they would have been happy with a point before the game should be happy.  We got a point.

6 minutes ago, Shtanley said:

3-0 up and to not win against anybody is a disaster though. 

No it's not.  Why are you pretending that it is?

1 minute ago, Red-Robbo said:

That's exactly my feelings,  NE.

We have to conclude that very sadly, Lee cannot get the best from his players. When things started going wrong,  he panicked and I think that's rubbed off on the team.

What we need now is a "Mr Motivator".

Sadly, and I mean sadly, for the first time I think I've drifted into this camp.  Last thing I wanted, but I fear the end is nigh.

1 minute ago, EstoniaTallinnRed said:

No you are stupid for backing a coach who hasn't got a clue of how to get the best out of the players. He will take us down unless SL gets rid, you mark my words.

And if you're wrong, will you go away?

10 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

It is a disgrace. The "Master Tactician" has set up for a 0-0 and hoping for a 1-0. That is where we are at under him now.

Ah, it's the managers fault again then.  Brilliant.  So the fact everyone thought it was a good team selection doesn't count then: he's 'set them up for a 0-0 draw'!  How does that work then?  Do the players not have brains in their heads?  Is their every move controlled by the manager on the touchline?  Get a grip.  Time the players took responsibility.

1 hour ago, 054123 said:

I would love a win today, really and truly guv.

I just don't feel confident with the current incarnation of city to deliver anything I'm afraid. 

The 'current incarnation of city' delivered a few things in the first three months of the season, didn't it?  Could it possibly be that we are going through a bad patch from which we will recover?

I love you lot.  The more you take the p*ss out of everything the Gas are - ground, fans, resources, players, manager etc.etc. - the more remarkable their position in League One becomes.  I would not bet against them getting promotion this season.  They have a winning mentality and you can't buy that.  They also tend to get better as the season goes on, and have an impressive record in play-offs.  Looks as if relegation to the Conference may turn out to have been the best thing that ever happened to them...

54 minutes ago, I Am A Cider Drinker said:

YESSSS FREEMAN!! 

I'm certainly not his biggest fan, but, he has deserved that after his performances recently 

Couldn't you just have celebrated?

3 minutes ago, CotswoldRed said:

Freeman, backside, Burtons, window. 

Give it a rest, eh?

No sign of Gustav in the 18...

24 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

He's an upgrade on Freeman, IMO. And will only get better. 

I think he may be in the long term, but I haven't seen it yet.  Freeman contributed more in the Villa match than O'Dowda has so far...

So, loyal football fans of relatively small club queue for tickets for a plum cup match.  Meanwhile across the city, smug fans of club bankrolled by billionaire celebrate making online purchases from their sunbeds abroad.  Frankly, I'd rather be one of those Rovers supporters queuing for a ticket than a fan of one of the multi-million corporate entities who make-up our so called 'premier league'.  Am I the only here who rather admires fans who opt for the smaller club in a two-club city?

5 minutes ago, Just Red said:

It is a fantastic achievement, although your not the only club to have achieved it. There has also been a huge amount of luck in it. Winning a penalty shootout and Accrington not winning. And those two things are what really need to be remembered in order to ground your fan base. 

 

Sorry, but not clear how winning a penalty shootout, and then a rival losing a key match, amounts to 'luck'.  Rovers got promotion last year by coming second in a season of 46 games; getting through to the playoff final; then winning the final on penalties.  Can't see that as being luck-related.  This year they have gone one better by getting automatic promotion after 46 games.  The fact that Accrington lost their final game is neither here not there.  Rovers ended up in a higher position after 46 games and any luck will probably have been two-way across the season.

I think they have done fantastically well in the last two seasons and if I were a Rovers fan I'd be chuffed to bits.  As to where is their 'natural position' - no such thing!  I grew up with the likes of Watford and Swansea as lower division clubs, and look at them now.  If I were a Rovers fan I'd be optimistic about next season.  I'd certainly expect a top-half finish from them.

7 hours ago, Just Red said:

A bit of realism is needed here. Trollope was hounded out as he kept leading them to League One mid table obscurity and now they are celebrating being back in that league that they was so desperate to leave? #GasLogic

There aim once again is to catch up with us, a couple of years in league one will be a good achievement for them. However once again they will become frustrated as they are unable to catch up with us and will hound someone else out who's performing a competent job.

Two years ago they were so shite they were relegated out of the league. They have bounced back straight away but my concern if I was them would be have they bounced back to quickly? The whole club from top to bottom is simply not a league one club and I can see them quickly returning to League Two.

Had we won the Championship play off final without a doubt we would have finished bottom of the prem because of the rapid rise would have been too much for us.

To jump two divisions and to sustain that sucess you really need a good solid infrastructure and Rovers simply do not have that.

Despite their 'billionaire Chelsea supporting owner' they simply will not be able to compete financially with many of the club's at that level, their stadium is non league standard, no academy, poor training facilities etc. Being promoted is one thing button sustain it you need all those ingredients Rovers are sadly lacking, hence why I am not remotely concerned about their coming to get us claims. 

Just look at Yeovil. Getting to the Championship destroyed them. Sam's could happen to Rovers.

We'll see.  I confess to having found this thread increasingly depressing - particularly those posts which have said, in effect, ok Rovers have got promotion on the field, but who's got the better ground/richer chairman/better youth policy/etc.etc.  It's what happens on the field that matters and it's what happens in the moment.  Yes, we would probably have finished bottom of the Prem if we'd been promoted in 2008, but I'd still have taken that just for the excitement of winning at Wembley.

What Rovers have achieved is fantastic.  From a club in the depths of despair only two years ago, they have achieved two successive promotions, the second of them automatic.  I think that is pretty remarkable.  I think they deserve nothing but credit from us.  I suspect their biggest challenge may be to hang on to their manager, but if they do I doubt they will struggle next season and the notion that League One will destroy them is fanciful.  Yeovil had never been in the Championship before.  Rovers, on the other hand, have spent the majority of their existence in the third tier.

I admit I was hoping for a last minute Accrington goal, but then I'm a City fan.  It didn't come, so well done to them and I don't begrudge them their success.  If Forest Green could achieve a win in their play-off final, it will have been a pretty remarkable season for this part of the world.

What is the team?

7 minutes ago, Esmond Million's Bung said:

The good news you boys can enjoy a night of abusing one of the worst managers ever at BCFC

 

Not for me, mate.  I've always believed that we'd be in a better position now if we stuck with Pulis.  Of course we'll never know, but I have a feeling he would have got us up before 2007...

Just been on RB and again very short with the interviewer.  I know he is a bad loser, but he really needs to be polite with the interviewers.

Quite agree. He comes across like a petulant and rather unpleasant man sometimes. Interviewer was only trying to do his job, and Cotterill's behaviour was uncalled for. Man strikes me as a bit of a prat sometimes. We know he is a good manager when things are going for him, but can he come when the odds are not in his favour? I wonder...

I like the fact we still find them funny and are still basically taking the pi$$. So any of them come looking over on here thinking we're crying in our beer and are bitter and twisted maybe dissapointed

On the contrary, I think this thread has 'bitter and twisted' written all over it.  I hoped that Grimsby would win yesterday, but they didn't and I'm over that already. It doesn't matter what division you are in, or how you achieve it, promotion is promotion and if I were a Gas fan I'd be celebrating as if I'd won the Premiership.  Good luck to them, it's what football is all about.  It doesn't matter what division you are in, or what your history is, success is to be enjoyed.

Time to move on, I think.

What's happened to Saville?

We need to get something today. Lose and we could easily be dragged back into the relegation scrap.