Bristol Oil Services

1 minute ago, Ronnie Sinclair said:

Look at Fergie's face  

Lady behind over his left shoulder appears to be, er, enjoying events a bit more ....

6 hours ago, italian dave said:

Can we forget what previous managers did or didn’t do? Irrelevant - certainly in this instance.

The point is that it’s surely not asking too much of a manager to acknowledge those who’ve travelled a long way to support the team. He never does it. Even place like Middlesbrough where it’s a hell of a long way and the away end isn’t full of morons. 

Anyone who ever went to Middlesbrough ever to watch Bristol City, is a moron. 

10 minutes ago, robin_unreliant said:

Fact is, even trying to stick to the rules, without SL we actually would be bust now. 

If we'd still paid out what SL has paid out (ie what he was paying Ashton, and buying yer Kasey Palmers and yer Gustav Dionies, oh, and yer David Jameseses, for example), then, yes. We'd be bust.

5 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

It's one of the bitter ironies of this club that since it started calling the training ground the "High Performance Centre" the majority of its performances have been shit. 

Wonder if it's got "Making Bristol Proud" plastered all over it, too?

8 hours ago, Pezo said:

We have been completely overwhelmed by both Bournemouth and West brom sides putting in 3rd gear performances within a week of each other with Fulham looking considerably better than us and us only looking competitive through maximum effort.

Are parachute payments making more of a gap than ever before, are they now a guarantee of finishing in the top 6 rather than a very big helping hand?

Our record season by season over the four games v the eventual top two automatically promoted clubs in points and goal difference:

15/16: 6 points, -3 gd

16/17: 4 points, -2

17/18: 4 points, -1

18/19: 7 points, +1

19/20: 0 (nil) points, -9

20/21: 1 point, -10

So, started ok, got better, peaked, fell off a cliff.

And our record over the same period over the six games v the three relegated parachute-payment minted clubs:

15/16: 2 points, -10 gd

16/17: 5 points, -2

17/18: 11 points, +2

18/19: 12 points, +5

19/20: 10 points, +3

20/21: 1 point, -12.

So, started meekly,  improved quickly, peaked, still good, fell off a cliff.

Conclusion: it's not about them, it's all about us.

The Office of National Statistics (get a load of this @Davefevs) report that "fewer than three" baby boys have been registered with the name "Nigel" in the past year. 

Nigel=dinosaur?

5 hours ago, lukebcfc1989 said:

I feel sorry for you if you really feel we were left in a “mess” by LJ.

Nigel Pearson inherited a more than capable group of players in a mid table league position that were competing for play off positions for the last 3 seasons 

Well said, mate.

Beats me why Nige won't play Bobby Reid, Webster, Brownhill, Big Fam, Patterson, Joe Bryan, Marlon, Flinty, but I suppose he knows what he's doing 

1 minute ago, The Original OTIB said:

Just a thought.

Got any more? 

54 minutes ago, lenred said:

100%. Gave up that argument long ago though unfortunately. For reasons unbeknownst to anyone they have to stay at full flare at AG when even Wembley doesn’t have their on during the game.  

Ashton Gate has long been a ground where liveliness and crowd involvement have been swiftly pounced upon.

Watching old "Big Match" programmes from the 70s it amazes me that the fences went up at AG at either end before many others and when grounds such as Upton Park or Highbury never had them at all.

The East End was also divided up into small sections (divide and conquer?) while much larger ends such as the Kop were left as originally built decades before so that there was a seething mass of people. Never understand why this had to happen on the East End, and so reducing the capacity, but not the Kop.

While Cotts was here we had the club or Bristol Sport appealing for nice, family-orientated moderate language and so on, and Cotts urging us to get a bit revved up and maybe "influence" the ref a bit. They even thought about allowing West Ham to bring a bloody bubble machine, ffs! (Unless that was not the case?)

The whole AG experience now is about comfort and convenience and having it nice and easy, including visiting team and supporters.

On 16/10/2021 at 09:04, ashton_fan said:

I still don't understand why he lost form after we got promoted to Div 2. At the time people thought maybe he was just a great Div 3 player and couldn't make the step up but he showed at WBA he was just as good at that level, we really missed out there somehow.

On 16/10/2021 at 10:05, GrahamC said:

Been covered before, he lost his Mum around that time.

As Graham says, Bob's mother died that year, 1990, possibly over the summer but I can't be sure now of exactly when that year.

Bob was 23 at the time.

He also had a six month old child, his first child, at the point we sold him.

I think he had a house in Worle (others will remember) but his child at this point was with its mother, in Newcastle. Why were mother and child in Newcastle, not in Worle? To be close to her mother/family? Don't know.

Bob was commuting Bristol - Newcastle - Bristol at the start of that season. He has said before that he was doing this commute "every day," which can only have had a negative impact, you would think.

Joe Jordan, who signed Bob, and turned his career around, left for Hearts.

So, Bob, recently bereaved, working away from his partner and first child, commuting the length of the country, then sees his mentor leave the club and the mentor's assistant, Jimmy Lumsden, appointed. That's Jimmy Lumsden who had himself lost his teenage son about 12 to 18 months prior to the start of the 90/91 season.

I think there's enough here, @ashton_fan, to understand why Bob's form dipped after a great start to 90/91, and in my view why Lumsden made the, as Graham also says elsewhere, terrible decision to sell him.

Bob is also on record as saying that when Lumsden told him about West Brom's interest/offer, he didn't want to leave.

20 minutes ago, Posset red said:

She’s hardly that beautiful she’s nice but not amazing 

No? But his automobile is large, isn't it? 

51 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Must be wondering wtf he's doing here

He does, every matchday, as he finds himself driving home behind the wheel of a large automobile, struggling to recognise his beautiful missus and his beautiful house

23 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

Allegedly Admiral Sir Tony Radakin is a big City fan: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/admiral-sir-tony-radakin-kcb-adc-appointed-new-chief-of-the-defence-staff?fbclid=IwAR2liKkkEw5h2togqca2OQ0LJeNxfD3NOPn6AOvmd7MuURMu_pmPqfzNLMM

Apparently more than happy with @HMSpisstheleague and the course she is currently steering. Full steam ahead, are the orders. My source tells me.

1 minute ago, Oh Louie louie said:

Yep the people who kept the dolman safe, be late 50s at best now.

But respect to them, cause if they wouldnt have been, there, against the likes of whu, sheff united and portsmouth.

Lets be honest, there would have been carnage.

They stopped firms running amok in the dolman.

Anybody my age knows this.

 

 

Why did firms want to run amok in the Dolman?

5 hours ago, The Gasbuster said:

Must be the first time ever they have come to AG as favourites to win a match ?

I really hope we end our poor home form against them.

They came in Feb 87 top of Div 3, with SO'D bossing their midfield. Bought 1200 which was loads for them. 14,500 crowd. We won 2:0, they went up as Champions.

On 06/10/2021 at 15:45, GrahamC said:

Look, we’re never going to agree, we have been arguing about this on & off since 1993.

I’m glad he brought you happiness, I just find the idolatry for someone who contributed so very little just baffling.

Personally I think Bob was moved on because Lumsden was struggling (well, completely out of his depth) & any decent manager might have looked at the root cause of his form, not gone for a superficial, short term fix replacement instead. Lumsden’s own possible grief to me should have made him more sympathetic to Bob, not less.

But as I said at the outset this all is pretty much pointless, we just see it completely differently & as the intervening 28 years have shown, aren’t ever going to see it the same way.

Cristiano Ronaldo (whatever we think of him, he’s a pretty decent footballer) once said “talent without working hard is nothing”, & for one I certainly can’t argue with that.

I think the element of "banter" and teasing and devil's advocate is being lost here. My opinion on DD is not what it was in 1993. Looking back on August '92, we had copies to shift and putting DD on the cover shifted copies (more than 3,000, iirc). This might've coloured opinion at the time! 

My point is lots of people liked the idea that Dziekanowski played for their club (like they once did Norman Hunter and Joe Jordan, and still would now even if they had not been the success they were), making do with the rare flashes of brilliance produced; that for many people football is about more than the pure objective. 8,500 paid to watch Osman's team of triers finish higher in the table than the ultimately disappointing  DD/Cole team that drew more than 11,000.

2 hours ago, TonyTonyTony said:

Had a Rovers supporter in my house the other day cleaning my oven. Nice enough, but totally thick tbh. Said Barton is doing a "root and branch" overhaul of the club and he predicted championship football in 3 years. Still a "big fanbase" blah blah. Totally deluded. At times i had to disappear into another room as i didnt want to get hysterical, but **** me. I asked him if Barton being in Jail would mess up the 3 year plan and he kind of froze, like the Windows blue screen of death. Once he rebooted he shrugged it off and claimed it was probably made up, and if true "he would be inside already". Clearly misunderstanding the law and order process there mate.

Did a good job on the oven mind

root and branch? Won't work with gash dieback. 

2 hours ago, B1ackbird said:

I was there on the Saturday, but not on the Sunday....

Morning, or afternoon? 

5 hours ago, CyderInACan said:

Has to be a place in your squad @Moments of Pleasure for Tony Hancock (toe-knee-hand-cock) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hancock_(footballer)

If you want. Billy Woof is captain, mind ....

Anyone over 50 remember Billy Woof? Played for Middlesbrough, early 80s. You think I make this up, but it's true: Mr and Mrs Woof of Gateshead had a boy in the 50s and they called him William.

Anyway, he's in my Great Name X1 along with Steve DEATH, Reading keeper in the 70s.

1. Steve DEATH

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. Billy WOOF

10.

11.

I could use some more (come on, it's another tedious international break, with not enough to moan about with the City as we speak), help me out here ....

14 hours ago, GrahamC said:

No.

I’d like to imagine us in the top flight, employing a waster who had 5 good games for us then moved to the German second division won’t be the way to ever get us there.

Selling a bloke who went on to score over 100 goals for West Brom to fund the purchase only compounds the stupidity and short term nature of it.

 

So it's Bristol City FC you're cross/upset with, more so than Dziekanowski. The people that replaced Joe Jordan with Jimmy Lumsden, amongst other things. Dziekanowski is the symptom of a poorly run club, not the cause.

Lumsden, by the way, moved Bob on because Bob was struggling with the loss of his mother (and so the loss of his form) and Jimmy, with his own unresolved grief, was coming to work to get away from all that. He couldn't be doing with it, not at home and at work, understandably. Is my speculative opinion. 

We did replace Dziekanowski with lots of "effort" and it worked for one season (but shaved a fifth off the average attendance). Then we were relegated.

31 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

As if to prove the point, it was Neil Harris who had him playing by far his best football at Cardiff. Warnock couldn't get him going and it sounds like McCarthy has barely tried to.

How far in to his contact was Tomlin when he was managed by Harris, though? Just had a look and Cardiff extended Tomlin's contract on 10 Jan this year, and Harris was fired eleven days later. It's worth noting that Tomlin would've seen LJ fired at any other club than this one with this owner, on the run we were on in winter 16/17. 

35 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

I still remember all those on here telling us that Warnock will get a tune out of him and show Johnson how to use a player like him. A succession of all old school Managers have all failed equally to do any better than LJ did with him.

True, but where Warnock differed from LJ was he got him out of the squad and out of the way much sooner, and so Tomlin did not de-rail their season, like he did here in 16/17. It's a subtle difference but a substantial one.

Cardiff with Tomlin managed by Warnock finished 2nd and went up; City with Tomlin managed by LJ finished 17th and only were certain of staying up after the 45th game. 

It wasn't until April and the 41st game, and after a nonsense of a press conference in which we were told there was no problem just supporter "noise," that LJ was ready to accept he couldn't "manage" Tomlin like every other manager, and he dropped him from even the bench and picked Taylor and team unity instead.

Then the record signing was sold that summer, one year into his contract.

2 hours ago, Oh Louie louie said:

Going back a few years ago, 2 kids up west street, spotted him in a hotel in poland.

 

Here you are @GrahamC - here's some Bristol City imagination! Amazing what you can "see" in BS3 when you put yer mind to it. Marvellous stuff

10 hours ago, GrahamC said:

We don’t agree on much, but this, every day of the week.

Absolute myth, he had about 5 good games for us.

Watched him on several occasions stand around for 90 minutes & contribute absolutely nothing, especially in a 4-0 hammering at Twerton.

Probably the most overrated player in the club’s history, I’m convinced many of those who rave on about him never saw him play.

As for the comparison with Adomah, truly hilarious, Albert never stopped working for the team, Dziekanowski never started.

I would say that, to follow Bristol City, myth is pretty vital. The reality is somewhat grey, and disappointing. And Russell Osman.

Allow your imagination to run free a little, every now and again ....