Baba Yaga

Looks like the new stand will be making its debut tonight... https://www.bristolrovers.co.uk/news/20242/january/club-statement-south-stand-sign-off/ Surely with all that extra support and a trip to Anfield as a reward they're going to be really up for tonight, here's hoping Norwich teach them a lesson just to round off the last day.

From the outside it looks like Vince's decision making is poor by always backing managers with no experience, maybe it has worked for him in business like that but clearly it's a disaster here. For me their best move would be to sack Deeney and bring in someone experienced in the lower leagues like Cotterill if he was interested and hope he can save them. They look doomed which is a pity as I want them to stay in the FL.

When I previously went there were a good number of stalls outside the ground selling beer/cider more than at AG and it was quite a fun vibe, probably helped by there being very little else within walking distance (they have the shopping centre but I mean to drink). Don't remember a fan park. You could also get drinks inside the stadium but that was in the home section, assuming it will be the same though.

Over the years it feels like we have suffered from more than our fair share of rubbish cup draws, this looks to be the most exciting 3rd round draw for 30 years so pleased for that and especially in midtable seasons the cup runs can be welcome distractions.

A performance like Watford tends to only happen a few times a season at the most. Would have been happy with a scrappy 1-0 tonight but in the end at least it wasn't a loss. Poor performance although Birmingham were worse. To be fair though the recent form has been great and looking forward to Millwall.

Going from the email the top 5 leagues would be... England 1/2, Spain, Germany, France. So it has the championship and French league above Italy, I think this is an error as I doubt any list has it in that order. A bit of a slip up from whoever checked it, that's assuming an email that goes out to thousands of people gets checked...

My point was about the 2nd and 3rd goals because most weeks we won't get bad goalkeeping like that for the 2nd and then a big deflection for Knight's goal. But you're right about the pen and if you factor that in then we had a big decision go against us too, having watched it back I'm with the people on the radio after the game calling it a joke decision.

Had a fair bit of luck in these last 3 home wins but it's really good to get the results so he can get to work with the pressure on him at reasonable levels. I moaned about the subs in Blackburn game but tonight his subs changed the game. Good interview with Mehmeti on radio Bristol too he is one doing better with the new boss.

Don't think having 5 games at 12.30 makes sense from a broadcasting point of view, and I would be amazed if the reason they are doing that is to be considerate of the fans. I will be interested to see if there is a stronger reaction to this when more fans realise how many of their games are due to be moved around next season? However I noticed that in the 2nd German division they have no Saturday afternoon games at all, with 2/3 early kick offs and the other 1/3 evening kick offs spread over the weekend, they still manage some very high crowds so maybe the strong reaction I expect with the EFL next season isn't going to happen.

Not that I follow the NFL or any American sports but the format of the champions league from next season reminds me very much of that with a regular season where teams play a random combination of teams then have a play offs at the end. It looks awful to me but now that the big clubs have that the next progression is to prevent relegation from european competition for themselves, and I am sure when that is achieved they will be back 5 years later to move their big ESL games to weekends rather than midweek games, and after that to move venues for some games to different countries around the world etc. For me these are all poor developments but money talks in these situations, and with thanks to a powerful media the next generation of fans plus foreign supporters will get on board to the new ways just fine. I don't think it is the end of football though, teams are still passionately supported where the quality of football is low and I think the lower levels English football would adapt if it came to that here too.

Comparing them to other non parachute clubs that season 21/22. Forest averaged 6k more than them throughout the season and got to Wembley play off final and revenue was still 1.5mn less than Stoke. Boro just missed out on the play offs but got to Old Trafford in the cup, then in next rounds had home ties against Spurs and Chelsea and Stoke still had more than 4mn revenue than them finishing 14th and no big cup ties. It will be interesting to see 22/23 comparisons but at that time it seems like Bet365 were hugely altering the competitiveness of them, personally I don't have a problem with that but a little surprised they can get away with it.

Looks like their real advantage compared to the rest of the division is the sponsorship money that bet365 give them, its a good business model/financial situation from a competitive view point but will be interesting to see by how much this advantage could shrink when the ban on gambling advertising comes in force. It would be a lot harder for them to get away being a poorly run club if they didn't have an extra 5-10mn (very rough guess) a year to play with.

Maybe a bigger part of the gamble was that he thought he had taken Plymouth as far as he could? Rather than the allure of Stoke which as people have already said isn't all that.

Here is a vid with Ross McCrorie where he says he hopes to be playing by turn of the year.

I don't know how it works but I imagine the 4 west london clubs never play at the same time, 2 or 3 tops. Looking at Orient since its close by they are due to have a saturday 3pm kick off in league 1 against Blackpool, but Blackpool still have a 2nd round cup tie to play. That could potentially be a problem even though it most likely won't go ahead.

I have been to a game there, think it was about row 40 which was quite near the front of the top section and the view was bad compared to other grounds but for me it was still watchable, don't like the idea of being near the back though. Stadium looks a bit cheap from the outside considering it hosted the olympics and is around 10 years old but it was a bargain for them so I guess they can't really complain.

I like to feel like I am in an old ground but I still want a decent view. Have been to less than half of championship grounds but I would say from those Hillsborough.

32 with City, 43 total.

I was looking into this last week and Everton/Luton have had better fixtures than Bournemouth/Burnley. I believe Everton have already lost at home to Fulham, Wolves and Luton and are the 1 team who drew with Sheff Utd. If Calvert Lewin gets injured then they are with problems, still look like staying up at moment but I doubt by such a big margin. Also I expect Luton to not pick up too many more pts before xmas despite them having a respectable start I would say.

I looked up Saudi Pro League and found this video that made some interesting points... On the dictatorship ruling its populace it suggests that it is one of their big considerations but there is currently a football culture in Saudi where nobody cares about any of the clubs except the 4 biggest ones.

To be fair there aren't really any great football nations at all to choose from in Asia or Oceania and every country there will have low attendances like that in their top flight. By the time this comes around the Saudi Pro League will probably become by far the biggest from that region and it could be surprising to see how far their obscene amounts of money changes the perception on them being a football nation.

Not the most exciting pick but can understand why you would go for Eustace, someone who has good knowledge of the division and has worked with a limited budget. It does look like from interviews and brum fans opinions that they had formed a strong team spirit there, hopefully that wasn't a one off. Don't remember the football being particularly great back in August but same with most champ teams and they clearly outplayed us especially 2nd half if I recall. Would be interested to know whether he played many academy players in the last year because I think he will have to here? Also hope the ownership can drop their disappearing act as well that might help the rest of the staff to have a better chance of succeeding this time around, after avoiding the last manager I hope every effort is made to make Eustace a success.

I do think Frank has taken some tough jobs, Chelsea and Everton are 2 of the biggest basket cases in the prem right now. In a way I am more excited by the prospect of a name like him or Warnock than I am about the likes of Rowett or Eustace both of which I am struggling to get enthusiastic about. Truth is I am stuggling to care because we got rid of the manager I wanted. I have heard that Lampard is a very poor man manager though, and if he started with the same run of results he had at Chelsea last year then it would be pretty embarrassing.

To be honest I think that they won't have a choice, the plan from above is for a light squad and for the numbers to be made up by the academy. I was watching an old video recently where they explain how before buying a player on a 3 year contract it will always be assessed if there is someone in his position they think is ready from the academy, and if Tins says there is someone they think is ready in 2 years then they shouldn't offer someone else a 3 year contract. The club feel that we clearly have the best academy in the south west and so we are in a great position to get the best talent in a large area but to keep attracting the talent we also need a pathway, can't see that strategy changing and if the Andy King stuff is true then if anything we are going to go further in this direction and there isn't much room for discussion.

SL has spoken about wanting to emulate Luton, but I would still be very surprised because of how badly he did at Southampton. And seeing how LJ interviews have been picked apart on here I dread to think how it would go with him as manager.