Yozzarian

Quick post here, a service message that hopefully may help.

As a slim, pretty fit late 40-something I nevertheless found out that I have high cholesterol and am prediabetic a week ago.  Now I knew my diet wasn't good but never imagined I'd be told this via a blood test.  Things should be totally reversible - hopefully just through overhauling what I eat/drink which I have already done like a man possessed - but the point of this post is if you are not sure you're eating well and you are a similar age, it couldn't hurt to get a blood test.  It's actually never too early to think about these things but you really want to avoid developing Type-2 diabetes and if you are middle aged it's important as you don't want to increase your risk of heart disease or stroke.

That was it really.  

1 hour ago, Leveller said:

So, at this moment, where do you actually WANT us to finish this season?

 

The recent performances and wins have prompted renewed debates about whether we could, even now, scrape into the playoffs. There’s clearly an assumption this is desirable. But what do you actually want?

 

As far as I remember, before the season I predicted we’d be in the middle third (ie 9^th to 16^th) with the hope that we’d be in the top half of that (ie 9^th to 12^th). As it stands, we’re on course for that.

 

What are the possible outcomes from here? I’d suggest –

 

1 – have a great run in, make the playoffs, and by some miracle, win them and get promoted

 

2 – as 1 but disappoint in the playoffs and carry on in the Championship next year

 

3 – carry on with the current good form, but fall a bit short in 7^th or 8^th

 

4 – continue fairly well and end up 9^th to 12^th (top half finish)

 

5 – return to inconsistency (or worse) and end up back in the bottom half

 

I’ll assume no City fan actually wants option 5. What about the others?

 

For me:-

 

1 – much as I want to reach the top flight, I’m not sure I’d actually want it this season. If we went up now, would we crash and burn more spectacularly than any team has before? It’s possible. But no doubt some will argue that we might do a Brentford, or at least start a beneficial yo-yo era.

 

2 – making the playoffs but failing could be the worst disappointment of all! It’s the hope that kills you. To get to 6^th would require a fantastic run. To lose the playoff matches then would really hurt.

 

3 – might be the best result. 7^th would represent a great improvement on last season and on the early part of this. It wouldn’t be a disappointment unless we reached 6^th then fell back again. It ought to provide great platform for next season.

 

4 – like 3, but not quite as good. I wouldn’t be devastated if we achieved a top half finish and no better.

 

5 – God forbid. A return to inconsistency and finishing, say, 14^th would be a real disappointment now.

 

 

 

So – I hope we win every match I watch, but I’m not sure if I want the EPL yet, or defeat in the playoffs! What about you?

 

PS – please don’t take my views TOO seriously. By the time you read them, I will have changed my mind.

 

It's always worth going up at any time. I hardly think most of us would expect to stay up if we did get promoted this season, however you take the funds and run, planning to invest 2 seasons from now, with the parachute payments.

If by some miracle you hang on the following season then you build in the summer and try to cement your place.

2 minutes ago, CiderHider said:

These commentators are speechless :laugh:, h-h-how did this happen, must be fatigue, yeah they look lethargic 

They've given us credit all night I reckon, very complimentary.

I don't think I've seen us look as impressive as this on TV in some time (At home under the weather).

8 hours ago, MarcusX said:

One of those things I just can’t comprehend. I do plenty of endurance running, but being out at sea is something else entirely. Even the thought of being out there terrifies me. Fair play to him!

The huge expanse and depth of the sea is the stuff of nightmares...and being out there alone when massive waves may hit is awful. People have been lost doing precisely what he's doing.

Hope? That we'd win a cup and see Premiership life before I depart this mortal coil. Expectaction? That it affords me a regular chance to meet up with friends and maybe, just maybe, a good game in 20.

8 minutes ago, Red94 said:

I’ve tried to start these ‘older’ songs so many times in S26 but no one knows them so they don’t pick up. In the end I just give up trying

We seem to have generations of fans not knowing the other's songs and then accordingly, only the very few getting mass-involvement. 

5 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:

Respect for that! And good to see Oldham reducing prices for his homecoming too.

JustGiving page is here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/frankrothwell

 

 

Thanks for adding the link!

Just a small post as after seeing it this morning on Sky Sports News, I'm filled with admiration. At the age of 73, Oldham's Chairman is rowing solo across the Atlantic to raise money for Alzheimers. He's 2 months in and has capsized three times. His motto, 'If you can do something to help people, do it.' He has a Just Giving page apparently.

What should Jon do I wonder?

2 hours ago, richwwtk said:

Tom Thumb didn't have words, you probably remember it as the dooby dooby doo song with the extended woooooaaaaaaaaahhhhh intro.

My favourite football song ever, though completely nonsensical.

Was it unique to us or a more general thing around the grounds?

Ah that one! It's a song that's lost on me, think it started up when I lived in another city and didn't get to many games.

11 minutes ago, The Wild Bunch said:

The Tom Thumb’s Song is from that era I think.  Always remember that being sung around that time.  People have tried singing it in recent years but the younger fans don’t know it unfortunately.

That's not one I remember by name actually. There are many I've probably forgotten.

On 04/02/2024 at 17:03, Bristol Oil Services said:

Atmosphere is not really about people singing specific songs, it's more to do with them just making a bloody racket in response to lively events on the pitch, encouraging the team forward, encouraging the team to attack, putting pressure on the officials, hounding an opponent. Just shouting come on or even something more guttural and primal. Just making some noise. Rrrrraaaaggghhh!!

Unfortunately, the limp style of modern football mostly centred around the halfway line going sideways and back between central defenders and wing/full backs and the keeper sends many to their phones, their daydreams or the concourse. 

What we need to get an atmosphere at AG is not more or different or old songs, what we need is action in the final third and a busy visiting goalkeeper and a visibly up for it and energised team putting the opposition on the back foot for sustained periods, their woodwork rattling as the ball pings about their penalty area.

But we don't see anything of the sort at AG for anywhere near long enough in any game, and so for long long periods of time we sit and stare as we pass it about just inside our half across the halfway line (with a bloke three rows behind you bellowing into the silence: "Get it forward!") or we watch the opposition with their £83m squad dominating the ball and bearing down on our back five and Max time and again. 

There's just not enough of the sort of football at the right end of the pitch that might wake us from our West Country slumber and get us out of our seats to make the sort of atmosphere that Leeds fans will make at Elland Road (like when they came back from 2 down to draw 2:2 with us a few years ago; when do we ever bombard the opposition like that at AG? Not even the time we came back from 2 down to Leeds to draw 2:2 at home but then we had "atmosphere" that night, as Leeds "f*cked it up") Because Leeds have £83m of players, and they have the ball; we have £8.3m of players, and we keep giving them the ball.

It's partly the modern style of overly coached "idealogical" halfway-line-and-back-to-the-keeper (then hoof!) football, partly having poorer players than the opposition and so not having the ball and so unable to pin them in and put them under pressure, and three parts Bristolian/West Country indifference. Plus smart phones. 

And the lack of belief that there's really anything going on here at the moment, the sense of going around in circles, and the sense of aimless drift.

This is spot on.

What I will say though - as someone in their late 40s whose first season was the 89/90 promotion - is that in comparison to then, our songs seem few in number, fairly sanitised and stuff that when I can make out the words doesn't get my juices flowing (Forza stuff is lost on me). Times and songs change and better football/consistent team formations like the old days help build songs for each player (things were a lot better under the Double side than now); standing on the terrace helped also as you were energised and primed to sing more. 

Counter to this, is that when I was in the Atyeo stand against Swindon under Cotterill or away recently at West Ham I sung relentlessly any new song that was trawled out, so it's a mixture of things.  Sitting at home and watching the mostly boring football of the present day is key over song choices but I do miss:

Bob Bob Super Bob (change for any new player)

If you see Him on the corner.....

One man went to burn....

Lets go ******* mental...(more thrilling when stood for the first time behind the goal in the East End next to a 20 stone shirtless bloke who would terrify teenage you if you weren't a red)

Pyscho's gonna get you...

You can stick your ******* flag....

So many of these are never getting sung again ha but one can reminisce.  Is there anywhere here that lists the words of the current round? I'd join in more if my rubbish ears could make out more of the lyrics.

Ultimately, the Man Utd victory proves that if we are given good football, we can still create an atmosphere.

12 hours ago, YorkshireSection said:

It was amazing wasnt it, still remember his movement, he got into so many goal scoring positions he should have scored more through his career but for City he was class.

COLE NOT GAS.

Fourth highest scorer in the Prem and a legend at both Newcastle and Man Utd. Only his England record would be a disappointment to him, I'd imagine. 55 goals in 70 games for the Toon is incredible and 93 in 195 for Man Utd is excellent.

3 hours ago, Ryan said:

The best player Ive ever seen in a city shirt doesn't have anything to remember him by at the gate. Its not right. He was better than Carey and Murray. Fact 

To be fair, the best player that I've ever seen play for City was Andy Cole (but I get your point, Taylor was incredible and my first favourite player). I still remember Cole rocking up on loan 10 games or so from the end of a season and destroying defences. They weren't in the same league.

8 minutes ago, candygram for mongo said:

When it first opened me and the lads I go with went in there every game, we haven’t been in there for a few years now.

Prefer to drink in The Orchard, can get a seat most times and drink reasonably priced beer/cider and get a Clark’s pie on the way.

We'd probably sack it off completely and do something similar accept there's now an extended group of old-boys that we like to catch-up with who show their faces. 

1 minute ago, steviestevieneville said:

first world problems .

I mean, football is first world problems if you want to go down that path. We are all invested in our club doing well and enjoying the match day experience. Think the above was fair commentary tbh but respect to other opinions.

Don't know if it's the best we've played in years but I do know that in stark contrast to last Saturday, I enjoyed the game and atmosphere. 

Renewed disappointment this evening with the management of the bar at Ashton Gate. You have a big FA Cup tie and an essentially sold out ground and what do you do? You close off half of the bar because you're preparing it for the fine dining experience at the big rugby derby tomorrow. Also failing to impress was the battle one lady had getting a chair for her elderly relative who I overheard mentioning he had a heart issue (this was eventually rectified).

My friends and I do all meet after each game for one or two drinks but all agree we don't feel overly welcomed and that it's a huge, missed opportunity. When it first opened I assumed the club would push for it to be the go-to place to watch televised football every weekend, at the very least that it would stay open on match days until usual pub closing times. As it is, the screen is often turned off before the completion of a 5.30pm kick-off, you're lucky if the sound is on and time at the bar is called barely two drinks in. It all screams of a ball dropped. What happened to the banging carvary on Sundays that they ran for barely a few months? No ones coming? Hammer the marketing or get a PR firm in that knows how to get bums on seats. I'd happily pay into my club for a great roast and Super Sunday. With regards to tonight, I've no issue with them having to prepare for another sell-out less than a day later but why not pay staff to start the preparations later on? It was overly crowded due to the space being halved and uncomfortable.

I like the place overall. It's much better than before when we didn't have the facility. It just feels a little amateur at times.  

My main takeaway from the game was total boredom - for the majority - and the noting of absolutely NO noise for the early part of the match (fair enough). I did catch-up with mates as per though and we even went out around Hotwells for drinks and a curry. 

I've said to friends, that I find the modern way of playing really tedious.  You accept that the game has moved on but when your first season was Gavin and Smith bombing down the wing, putting in crosses for Taylor and Turner, it does not compare. 

Clearly, it CAN still be good - just check Cotterill's team or Johnson's at their best.

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

A few saying we're a "young" side. Are we that young any more? I've a feeling that age has crept up on us and we're likely a pretty average side in terms of age profile.

On Tuesday the average age of the 15 players used was 25.5 years. That's pretty standard I'd say (don't have the numbers to hand but from memory the average age of the average squad is around 25 or 26 years old) Youngest were 21 year olds Conway and Bell. Oldest was Wells at 33. 5 were in their "prime years" of 25-30.

I don't see us as notably "young" any more. Especially swapping 32 year old Weimann for 24 year old Twine. We're not notably old either tbh.

(The age profile feeds my personal theory that 2024/25 is the season we have to push for promotion).

Thought I'd read we had the youngest team in the 4 divisions? Probably totally wrong and that I dreamt it!

30 minutes ago, KendrickDNB said:

Surely not

All day, every day. Doesn't matter how shit your club becomes, you have major trophies to your name and no one can take that away from you. must make clubs like Forest or Huddersfield smile when the 'big boys' take the piss in ties, when they can simply point to stars above the club crest.

Yes I want promotion to the Prem and to even stay there, but I know we are never winning it in my lifetime (or even making the Champs league). To win an FA Cup would be incredible.  If only Man C had been knocked out prior to our LC semi...

Got mine. Super easy. As before, just went from the link emailed to me, didn't even need to log in.

A surprise to hear of the ticket issues last night after myself and two others rocked up to the SS turnstiles at 7.35pm and got in within 5 mins.  Clearly not as smooth elsewhere and coms to advise on easier points of access at fault.  Generally everything takes longer since season cards went digital but I haven't found it too bad.

I'd be lying if I said that the Preston result hadn't stolen some of the wind from my sails before this match. It's the hope that kills you when it comes to City; I'm happy with us storming a league season and I can get my head around/get used to us being shit all year, what I struggle with is the yo-yoing between 'we might make a run for the play-offs' one minute and 'get used to ending 15th come the end of the year so results don't tank my mood,' the next.

This said, I'll be there and cheering with everyone else.

I rarely go away but standing at the West Ham game yesterday felt just like being in the East End 1989/90 for my first season. I know going away amplifies excitement, as does the nature of that cup tie but I'm convinced that standing would help atmosphere. I was singing like the best of them at the London stadium but sat down, the game feels entirely more sedate. I think safe standing -well planned to cater to all tastes and those who can't or don't like standing - would transform football.