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We played Man Utd on a Saturday three times, and midweek once in that 76 - 80 run. I was at the midweek game, my first game. Stuart Pearson scored at the Open End and made his trademark clenched fist to thousands of them. 1979 we played them on Saturday 3 March. They were taking thousands everywhere, every week, in the 70s. Ashton Gate was no exception. Not even when they were banned.

I think they were subject to a ban - some of our more senior posters might recall?

Not true, I'm afraid. Or not true based on our time at the top, at least. We played Everton midweek February '80 and there were bugger all in the Open End to my right. We played Utd midweek and there were thousands.

What did yer dad say?

Much? A Shania Twain song springs to mind here ....

And a bit of sideways now and then

Disappointing but a step on the way, with learning and positives to take home with our sticks of rock

Because we loathe/envy Diddy Bournemouth

Got to hand it to the Lansdowns with this, I believe it was Maggie actually who brought it up with Nige

He's watching sheep dog trials

Best form of that is, er, scoring two more

Looked like

£20m!

They can practice that restart manoeuvre, get it right after about 90 + 3 minutes

Man Utd have had a "lively" away following since at least 1974/75. Take a look at YouTube footage from that season and the next two or three seasons on their return to the 1st Division.

Thing is, City winning makes them feel good, and they get a buzz from that, and they love feeling that buzz, we all do; whereas City not winning makes them feel bad and they get the opposite of a "buzz" and they can't "take" feeling like that so they're not going to sit and stew in that negative emotional state. People vary in how they respond to winning and losing. Some can "take" City doing poorly and rationalise it, put it in some perspective ("the Championship is an unequal division, City don't have Parachute Payments, wages determine outcomes" etc) while some others can only cope by getting away from it, and sometimes by lashing out (booing, fighting with or getting at 'happy clappers,' slaughtering the team or manager on social media etc). For some people, City are there for them, to make them feel good, not the other way round. They're not there to "support" eleven men payed thousands a week, they are there for the well paid young men to give them their weekend 'buzz.' They have though at least "supported" by paying to attend. While many others go and will stay with the team even when they struggle. They can handle disappointment better. But the money's the same whichever group you are in. And the club needs that money.

Will never forget that. Thought exactly the same that day but kept those thoughts to myself. Heat of the moment and all that ....

A bit like us in August / September 1990 ....

That'll be cheaper than watching at home with yer heating on and yer 76" HD TV going, if you can nurse that free pint til half-time. Count me in ....

Preston were/are regularly used to "counter" the "we cannot compete" and the "we don't have Parachute Payments" argument often cited on here that we are little Bristol City and cannot begin to think or hope we can do anything at this level beyond have one half decent season then slip quietly back whence we came. We came up with Preston and so they are a very good barometer, unlike Stoke who were/are on a downward trend after a highly successful period for them. Very different, even with PP. Preston, and indeed Millwall, are excellent retorts to the notion that it is money we lack, whereas by now, surely, we can all see and understand that it was not a lack of funds but a lack of the right or good enough people making the right or good enough decisions. We wasted so much between 2016 and 2020. Preston and Millwall are pertinent to us because up until Covid they managed to do better than us with considerably less than us, thus highlighting that we did not get enough or as much out what we did have as we perhaps should have got. As I believe SL probably thought, too. Now I know you will have many thoughts in response to this and be minded to air them publicly in perhaps a forthright and some might say blunt manner on this forum but I am off out shortly and not going to take any notice.

I consider myself a "real" Bristol City fan, ie I don’t go to away games (beyond Cardiff or Reading, or Plymouth or Brum) because I can't be bloody arsed. I don't go to home games much either, unless there's a "mates rate" cheapo ticket going. I used to go more regler when me uncle used to know Les Kew and we got "complimentary" tickets. And I don’t sport any colours (too enthusiastic/cringey) or sing, unless, literally, - as in, the literal dictionary definition - we are winning. If we score and go a goal in front, I like to be sat near the away end and gesticulate at the visitors with a vulgar hand signal. I love doing that. If we're not winning, and I haven't left early, I like to let the manager and/or the overpaid prima donners not-fit-to-wear-the-shirt know that they are not fit to wear the shirt, and that they can get to ****, as well as that they are stealing a living. I like to be a bit nearer the tunnel when this happens. I was at Newport '82.

You must hear the bitterns booming - when the radio's off

It’s a good question, Dave. Maybe it's something about fear of things going pear-shaped when we do poorly is stronger than optimistic thoughts when we do well. Certainly at this moment in time. We have been poor for a couple of seasons worrying about relegation (albeit the trend over the last 10 - 15 games looks promising) and the way this season started against not the stiffest opposition we will face was disappointing. If you went back to the purple patch of 17/18 and parts of 18/19 I reckon you'd find the reverse, with wild optimism after wins and some more measured responses to set backs. I could be wrong though.

Not Arsenal, because we beat Arsenal that day.