cellist

Mehmeti has had way more game time than sammie ever did. Not sure thats the right comparison because nobody can say he hasn't been given a fair crack of the whip. Like you say some of the scapegoating a bit harsh, an easy target for a general sense of frustration. Hope it comes good for him. And if we are going to play the way we are trying to, you're right that you need some kind of unpredictable outlet on the pitch (the fact that at the moment he fairly predictably gives the ball away notwithstanding!)

Run out of reactions but I think this is very well said. As for the bit in bold - it does seem we have a leadership team that are easily taken in by that sort of thing doesn't it? Overthinking, overcoaching, it's very reminiscent of LJ whose best run it needs to be remembered coincided with a bit of an injury crisis that limited his options, and the spine of a team with exactly that robustness and spirited togetherness you mentioned - built (not entirely) by his predecessor. I share your frustration and feeling that we were, in some senses, nearly there. Nearly on to something. Baffles me how we seem to have passed it up to make the same sort of mistake we've made previously.

When we talk about SL selling up one day - we often say "be careful what you wish for". Not sure what I think about that, but as for the manager, well if he were to be sacked, who will be appointing his successor? Does that fill you with hope? All I'll say is that a certain former manager is currently out of work (for the second time this season)

Why isn't it fair? Maybe unfair to write him off - but the criticism is fair imo and the line "he deserves a summer window and pre season completely lets BT & JL off the hook. They said he was brought in to get more out of the current squad, this season. Can anyone argue that he's done this so far? I'd argue it's got worse - some might say that on balance its the same when you factor in the cup run and Watford (A) and Southampton. But he hasn't fulfilled the brief he was set - he hasn't done the job he was brought in to do. He's had more or less the same number of games but got fewer points. Seems pretty clear cut. Could be behind the scenes reasons as to why he has failed to do this. Maybe it's not 100% on him. I can only speculate. Perhaps this was because he was also told to change the style of play completely (likely, given the rhetoric about "front foot football".) That sort of thing would require a full pre-season wouldn't it! Who would ask a manager to come in and improve the results and completely overhaul the style of play half way through a busy season without much money to spend? No sensible owner/technical director I can think of would run a club that way! Perhaps he was also told to play certain players - team selection today with 2 unfit players in the starting XI is bizarre. Mehmeti has certainly had a lot more game time and only seen a little improvement. Maybe BT is meddling in that as well, who knows. I don't know why he has failed so far but it seems pretty clear so far to me that he has failed to get more out of the current squad, not only in terms of results but also performances. We've seen more from this squad that we got today or last week, or on numerous other occasions. So he has to take some of the flack - you can split the blame with JL and BT if you like but LM has to take his fair share too.

Exactly this. Loved watching Tinnion ping passes around against giants like Chesterfield and Port Vale back in the day. But he has thoroughly blotted his copybook for me with the Pearson sacking/Manning appointment and the communication around that. The dramatic, toys-out-of-the-pram "I'm off twitter see you when we're in the Premier league" only to come back 2 weeks later didn't exactly help. Wasn't old enough to know the ins and outs of the Wilson sacking but have since come across one or two comments from Wilson's book that don't show him in the best light. Really irritates me how, after having his chance as manager and really showing no aptitude for management at all, he seems to be back in a position of so much responsibility without ever having to go away and prove himself. It's hard to imagine another championship club (with "premier league aspirations") going within a million miles of him.

Well they would say that, leaving with 3 points! I feel pretty angry because I felt that we were beginning to leave the beige, bland, soft Bristol City behind under NP. But we're back to bland again. I'm angry because it feels like we've thrown what we were building away. I'm angry because we've been total suckers for this ridiculous fad of employing boring, monotonous coaches who bamboozle their players with meaningless gibberish about box entries and behaviours on the grass, but can't get them fired up for a league game. We don't look like we know what we're doing. It is bland and beige, but it feels worse than that because whatever we were under Nige, we weren't bland and beige. (Of course it wasn't free flowing, of course there were some poor performances especially early on. But at least when it was bad, he would call a spade a spade. We've been told today was a "great learning experience". What have we learned that we didn't learn at home to Millwall? Or Birmingham? Or QPR?

Feel he sums up our club in lots of ways

At least he's tried to make a change. But will the performance improve?

Last man ref!!!!

Naismith on co-comms talks more sense with more clarity than I've heard from Manning in his interviews. What a header - Knight often gets on the end of corners. Get in!!!!

simple goal. having huffed and puffed for 15mins, they string a few passes together down the right and it's 1-0

Uh oh, he talked about box entries at 3:20! One of my all time favourite Johnson-isms... He comes across well and relaxed in this interview - much more so than pre/post match. He's talking about coaching which is what he's most passionate about. Can see why the players will enjoy the sessions as some have said, and feel like they're learning. Obviously not translating enough onto the pitch yet - time will tell, but I wonder whether more coaching is really the answer. Could it not be more of the other side of being a manager that is required here - the man-management/motivation/attitude side of things, and also the communication skill to get those ideas across simply and clearly in the heat of the moment. The Klopps/Peps of the world have both sides of this which is what's needed. If you can't be brilliant at both - I guess it's going to depend on the rest of your coaching team and the personality of your squad. Increasingly common nowadays to prioritise the modern "progressive" coach who may be tactically brilliant (or at least knows a lot of the big words...) as opposed to the "old school" man-manager. Every manager wants a bit of both, but which are the managers that win things? David Moyes might have an answer! From our experience over the last few years, which one wins?

He's gone from great prospect to Ali Dia in a few short days. I would say classic otib - but pretty much the whole team have gone from world beaters to competition winners this week.

Spot on. That bottom half record is really worrying. Not only does it waste the good results against "big teams" but you can't rely on it, because it requires your Middlesbroughs/Southamptons/Leedses to be off their game. Leeds tore us a new one the other day. We don't have a divine right to beat QPR. If the shoe was on the other foot we'd be saying that to them. But we do expect more than 3 points out of 24 against the bottom half of the league. Can't say for sure that Nige would have done better in this regard but I suspect he would have. We feel like a soft touch again at home.

No question about our ability to turn up against big sides. Manning has something about him as a coach. But there should he some questions asked about the attitude in the squad, and the ability of Manning to fire them up and affect change mid game.

Any other team you'd be saying 'they won't be as bad after half time'. Not us it seems

Has it got worse since half time?

Ah City. Not able to watch today. You're not going to win every game in the championship- but couldn't we at least have a few shots at home? It's the same every time in these sorts of games. So predictable.

I understand from the posts that it's a bigger giant killing that I previously realised. It's in another league to the Liverpool 94 and Man Utd 17 victories - neither of those teams won the league that year. Nothing wrong with commemorating it. I just feel that a one off shirt is such a public way of doing it and opens the accusations of tin pot from all corners. The opposition were very good, but it wasn't in a cup final or anything like that. We didn't actually win anything, we went out in the next round. Would be interested to know if any other clubs have commemorated an FA cup fifth round victory in this way before. I can't think of any off the top of my head. Something about the timing feels off too - a vastly inferior Leeds team to the team in 74 completely played us off the park just over a week ago. Always like a retro shirt design and absence of so many sponsors logos. Can't really tell the quality of the shirt from the pictures - looks quite shiny!

From the high camera angle - one of the most blatant penalties ever given. Even Cornick (was it?) realised, head in his hands straight away!

Gutted couldn't watch it tonight. What a brilliant result and performance by the sounds of things. Seems like we need to sign Williams up for a new deal - him and James controlled the game according to BBC. COYR

Any famous long shirt wearers in City colours over the years? I'm pretty sure I remember a photo of Pete Styvar in long sleeves, or at least some sort of base layer. No surprise it didn't work out really.

Came across this on facebook regarding the Observer's irregular presentation of clubs' names in the printed league tables. For example, they print Accrington Stanley in full...but Crewe (without the Alexandra)! This reader was bewildered by the inconsistency. Glad to see him holding the Observer to account for falling journalistic standards, and look forward to the response! https://www.facebook.com/groups/dullmensclub/permalink/1481044225885447/ (I'm not a member of the Dull Men's Club, but I do think I'd fit in!) This was then discussed on the "Football Cliches" podcast (always worth a listen - link below) at around 29 mins in and we get a mention - one of the presenters (a Watford fan) was watching the West Ham game with a West Ham fan who kept calling us "Bristol" rather than Bristol City, and he said he found it annoying and wanted to correct him. I found this refreshing - as I don't hear many people outside Bristol usually bother. Living in London, many people I've known a long time still sometimes get confused and forget which team I support and what league we're in. Or they forget there are two clubs in Bristol. We are a funny bunch about this though aren't we - on the one hand we sing "there's only one team in Bristol" - and on the other hand we say "we're Bristol City - you wouldn't say Manchester or Sheffield", both of which are famously two club cities. Can we have it both ways? We'll have to confront this head on when we get to the Premier league for the benefit of Paul Merson et al knowing what to call us...!

Was at Hampton & Richmond v Macclesfield in r5 on Saturday. Macclesfield were far and away the better team. Brought a decent away following too. Their two wingers were particular stand out performers. They're flying up through the leagues following reforming, fancy them to go all the way.

Well done lads. Gave it a good go. Pity but if you don't take your chances, can't really complain. Shame it was Bell who missed, 5 live guys were singing his praises and a great late tackle on Awoniyi. Have to turn this level of performance in in the league now - no more cup distractions. I'm sure the extra 30 mins will have taken it out of us but we really need to start picking up some results.