City oz

4 hours ago, FNQ said:

Good work JB

Watford are on an incredible run, they’ve had the same manager since May..

Hoping for a point at least..

COYR’s

3 x matches winning on the trot are overdue for us and today is the day we will achieve this.

16 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

Happy Christmas City fans wherever you are. https://youtu.be/1yetCBdy4sE

Let’s have your favourite Christmas cracker joke, to get things going….

What’s the difference between a goldfish and a goat?

A goldfish mucks about in fountains …

What do you know about Christmas steps? 15 facts can be found here: https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/features/15-things-you-didnt-know-about-christmas-ste/

Which band played Christmas Steps? Answer at the end.

Pay on the day will be available for the game. Tickets can be purchased from the Away Ticket Office located next to the Away Turnstiles and will be sold for cash only. Collections and duplicate requests will also be available to collect from here.

We lost 2-0 at Vicarage Road last season in a game which Ole summarized neatly ‘City completely controlled the Hornets. Nigel Pearson's men will play a lot worse and win and Watford surely will play better than they did today in a game they won despite City dominating in all phases.’

Highlights: https://youtu.be/OOHoToXbzAU

They are fourth in the form table with 13 points from four wins, a draw and a defeat in their last six games. We are 15th with three defeats, two wins and a draw (7 points from last six games.)

At the end of last season they announced the transfer of João Pedro to Brighton and Hove Albion for an undisclosed fee, https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65502319

They finished last season in 11th place on 63 points.

In May they appointed former Barnsley and West Brom boss Valerien Ismael as their new head coach. The 47-year-old replaced Chris Wilder, who was appointed in March on a short-term deal through to the end of the season.

Vicarage Road guide: https://footballgroundguide.com/leagues/england/championship/vicarage-road-watford.html and supporters guide: https://www.watfordfc.com/news/supporter-information-watford-v-bristol-city-1

They scored in the 83rd and 87th minute on Saturday to win away at Blackburn and are currently 7th on 34 points (two more than us.)

Head-to-head record

Won: 37

Lost: 31

Drawn: 31

Officials

Referee: John Busby

Assistants: Richard Wild and Andrew Dallison

Fourth official: Matthew Donohue

Pubs

The Oddfellows, 14 Fearnley Street, Watford, WD18 0RD, https://www.facebook.com/OddfellowsWatford Unsurprisingly, the closest pub to Vicarage Road is the most popular on match days; 'Oddfellows' on Fearnley Street can get very busy as it offers decent priced drinks, a beer garden.

The pubs on the High Street lack the atmosphere of other Watford fan pubs but are well worth checking out.

The Moon Under Water, 44 High Street, Watford, WD17 2BS (Spoons) is extremely popular so be sure to get there early otherwise you may have to wait a while to get served. The Moon Under Water welcomes well behaved home and away fans.

Watford’s exclusive away fans pub is Macs Bar, around a five minute walk to the stadium, 14 Fearnley St, Watford, WD18 0RD.

Slug and Lettuce, 66-68 The Parade, Watford, WD17 1AH offers a decent bottomless brunch.

Watford warblings

England manager Gareth Southgate was born in Watford.

Jimmy Perry teamed up with BBC comedy producer David Croft to write a sitcom about his experiences in the Watford Home Guard during World War II. The programme? Dad's Army.

The chestnut staircase, which once belonged to the now-demolished Cassiobury House, is on display in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran, was born in Watford.

Watford FC played in blue and white until 1959 when it then changed to gold/yellow shirts and black shorts.

Watford Rovers, as they were originally known, were founded way back in 1881 and their first competitive match came in the 1886 FA Cup against Swindon Town (Watford Rovers lost 1-0). The club then merged with Watford St Mary’s (who were attracting booming crowds of up to 500 supporters!) and they became officially known as Watford Football Club in 1898, as it has remained so to this day. But, what about their nickname?

In their early years, Watford weren’t known as the Hornets. Instead, they were referred to as the Brewers, in honour of local brewery, Benskin’s, who became a club benefactor after the First World War. Apparently, some fans weren’t happy with being associated with a brewer and so when the club introduced a new kit with blue shirts and white shorts in 1927, they became known by that rather unimaginative of nicknames: the Blues.

It was all-change on the kit front in 1959, however, when the club unveiled a new gold and black kit, which made their nickname somewhat illogical. Despite delving into various archives, can’t find evidence of who came up with the idea of changing the nickname to the Hornets, but it was clearly based on the resemblance of the new kit to the largest eusocial wasps.

Note that as well as being referred to as the Hornets, Watford are also sometimes known as the Golden Boys, Yellow Army or the ‘Orns. In recent years, however, these monikers have been used less frequently, with most knowing the club as the Hornets.

Elton John's ownership of Watford Football Club (he was born nearby in Pinner) was a transformative and influential period in the club's history. His tenure as chairman, which began in 1976 and continued until the early 1990s, saw significant changes and successes for the team. Gary Lineker in conversation with Sir Elton: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gvpqzy

Wishing all the traveling fans a great day, be loud and proud, as you, hopefully, cheer us on to three points.

The answer, Mogwai and here it is: https://youtu.be/i1HZm5KhuGk here’s the backstory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Steps_(composition)

 

Great work as always JB. I hope you are having a great xmas and all the best for the new year. Keep these match day threads going and you never know later next year in 2024 you maybe recommending pubs for our great travelling away fans to drink close by to where premiership clubs reside.

27 minutes ago, oldstandrobin said:

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all fellow Reds wherever they be scattered over the world. Soon it will be 2024 and I look back myself to my 1st Game at AG in 1958 and think ' where's that gone !!' Could 2024 be our year, I doubt it but I still believe.

My first one at Ashton Gate was around 1970 and I remember it was a night match and he put me sitting on one of the barriers in front of the east end right in the middle. I would have been around 8 or 9 years old then and I have been hooked since that night.

1 hour ago, Never to the dark side said:

I am referring to the  radio times

if you know the answer,please wait till 10:00am on Christmas day

 

6.10 pm now in OZ. Should be 10.00am your time.

38 minutes ago, marmite said:

Merry Christmas to all you Marmite lovers and haters. 

Hope you all have the best day you can with your own circumstances. 

Stay safe all.

Hi Mr. Marmite, I wish you also all the best and all the other great people that make OTIB so great. If our team are doing great or poor OTIB makes me happy.

Happy new year everyone and Coyredssss

2 hours ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

 

Honestly - SL is so bloody rich that the 200 mil or so he has spent is NOTHING to him or his family.

 

Consistently in the top 1000 of the worlds richest individuals, SL has spent roughly 1% of his entire wealth over the last 20+ years.

 

1%

 

And for that he now OWNS the stadium, land, housing, offices and stadium rights of the entire AG footprint AND all the AV land - which is being parcelled up for sale as a growing estate.

 

He will sell and get what - 120 mil back ?

 

I'd wager he keeps a significant % of AV land, plus a small holding % in BS

 

@Kid in the Riot knows more than most - he'd know the selling package, plus what's NOT included.

 

I'd honestly doubt if SL will lose much of the money he spent over the journey.

 

The losers are the fans - we have no ground or say in the running of City, and have watched SL royally screw up time and time again, with no ability to have any input to the running of BCFC.

 

Lansdown will leave with no legacy, (that he didn't write himself on the side of the stadium) and not much goodwill.

 

It could have been so different if SL had any humility.

 

He doesn't.

 

So here we are, with an owner nobody likes or admires, in a stadium that isn't ours, looking back on 20+ years of mediocrity.

 

SL could have taken us to the Prem any time he wanted, but that means giving up absolute power over his toy.

 

As the man said, 'my money my club'

 

I say - you had the opportunity to have it all, and were found wanting.

 

 

Sounds a bit like monopoly money to me. OK Mr. Lansdown is not much liked by many but did the billionaire businessman not bring in new investors to help the club progress to where they are now. OK two great players Antoine and Alex were sold but have we not recovered well since then.

50 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

There’s a thread for pet hates which would welcome your sprouts.

Madame Isewater cooks them in a frying pan with a little olive oil and an onion, absolutely delicious. 
 

Major, madame needs to also add a bit of diced bacon and if adventurous a tiny bit of garlic. You can also try this recipe with fried cabbage.  Beware though there are some windy side effects a few hours after eating.

On 23/12/2023 at 22:35, BigTone said:

Now you must appreciate the time & hardwork it takes in to doing these !!

Good an ya cobber

On 04/11/2023 at 16:07, RedReg said:

We are going to miss him

On 17/12/2023 at 16:26, Loosey Boy said:

Let’s hope we can back-up yesterdays result with another 3 points on Friday - would give the team a lot of confidence, going into the games over the Christmas/New Year period.

3 points in the bag for us should be no problem on Friday night.

Means for me in OZ that Be in Sports which mirrors SKY would be great for me as currently WA in OZ is 8 hours in front of you guy are in the beautiful UK.

Come on you reds.

Yes, we will miss him. Nige has achieved some great memorable milestones for the club in the past few years. Over the next few months, we now need to think onwards and forwards. 

Fleming and his coaching team are going to have a difficult period now especially up to the Christmas period. I hope we are sitting around the 8th spot by end of December as Fleming needs to get a good shot at this.

In the unlikely event of 3 or 4 losses in the next 5 then the club will be in turmoil.

Any way good luck to Nige he was good for BCFC, and I hope he continues in managing and achieving some great goals.

6 minutes ago, mozo said:

In which case, per my last post, we risk lowering standards throughout the club. Can a young manager command the authority needed to keep our young, naive and sometimes rag tag squad cohesive?

Also, I can tell you the forum narrative now, which is that Lansdown wants an LJ mark 2, another yes man.

I think that you hit the nail on the head with that one Mozo,

10 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Two big games coming up. The moans and groans will only get louder if we don’t win one of them.  

We might win both. That will shut up the moaners. 4 points out of 6 will also be respectable.

Just now, Super said:

Gonna be chasing near 400 at this rate

Hendricks has gone. So run chase should come down a bit. Still though 340/350

11 minutes ago, Lew-T said:

I think it’s time we took pace off…

Need a wicket or two fairly quickly. No panic stations yet as the wicket looks good and appears that it would also suit or top six,

I remember those years well. Great years. If Cheese did not get that injury playing the Gunners those next seasons in the topflight may have eventuated in European football. We can only but dream and think back but they were glorious years for the club.

2 minutes ago, northsomersetred said:

Great start!!

 

Yes, great start. Kock could not hold back on himself, and he definitely cocked that one up.

Its a great shame there seems to be no atmospher.Looks like a great stadium.

5 minutes ago, Super said:

Looks like a long tail? We bowl first.

Tail I'm afraid may not wag long enough for a close win.

11 hours ago, BCFCGav said:

Really quite concerned about this one. If the Naismith and Knight absences come to fruition, on top of our existing injures, that’s an injury crisis with how small our squad is. Plus it’s at AG where we’ve more often than not struggled this season.

On Cov, I notice they’re also mid-table. Is that an effect of losing Hamer and Gyokeres? Both excellent players. Or are they in a bit of a false position and will probably end up higher?

Either way, I’m afraid  the lads that do start tomorrow are gonna have to be near their best to get the 3 points, and after 3 losses in 4, that has to be the aim.

Whoever starts you can be assured they will be committed. We are showing more fight this season than the past two or three seasons. The league is so tight and 3 points today. Dare I say it will go a very long way with confidence. Let's home its 3 points in the bag for us.

On 19/10/2023 at 21:29, Wanderingred said:

If I was a Coventry fan, I’d be confident of 3 points.

We will win. Be confident and support our great club.

1 hour ago, 3 Peaps In A PodCast said:

 

Where was the photo taken. It reminds me of the Legion on Stockwood lane. Happy Birthday Cheese.

On 15/10/2023 at 19:02, bcfc01 said:

Season 72/73 so Peter Spiring.

 

Yes season. 72/73. He was one of our top scorers that season. And second highest scorer the season before behind the legend John Galley. Keith Fear was also smashing in a few around those two seasons.

Jersey Bean will have all this covered but looking at the great away travel numbers already posted it should be a great day out and an emphatic away win for us. 

I remember as a young lad it was the first London away match my dad took me too and we drew 1-1and Jerry Spring scored. Great memories from that season and those early years in the 70s.

11 hours ago, Lorenzos Only Goal said:

Rashford, Phillips, Henderson & Maguire are all selections that don't equal any rational process.

Yet poor Ward-Prowse must farted in his coffee or something.

We've got a wealth of talent and I really think Southgate has started to lose the plot a bit and he's squandering talent.

There is a very big wealth of talent, and the manager did the correct thing by giving some of the potential talent a chance. OK not probably the best team he could have put out but without trying what can he compare with.

Australia will never be in the class of England for many years to come but the side they put on the park does and always will give a good work out for the opposing team either it a friendly or a potential world cup qualifier.

8 hours ago, Alex_BCFC said:

What was everyone expecting? Joke team put out against a half decent side (they beat Tunisia and Denmark 1-0 at the WC plus put up against a good fight against Argentina). The proper game is Tuesday. 

Ozzies are getting better and sometimes more entertaining than the pomms to watch.