Supersonic Robin

Dreadful penalty.

Just now, IAmNick said:

City goal (Mehmeti): https://streamin.one/v/f271362d

Great goal. Nice to have a player willing to drive into the box, and with the ability to beat 2 players. Earns a bit of fortune with the deflection from his positive play.

Mehmetiiiiiiiiiii

1 hour ago, LondonBristolian said:

I never ever want us to lose and that doesn't change tonight.

What I want is for us to produce a brilliant performance and win. However, even if that happens. I want the club to look at the pattern rather than the individual dots. A win would be great but it would only be meaningful for the long-term if it is followed by consistent improvement and a sustained period of good results. Otherwise it's great to get a result but meaningless in terms of our long-term direction.

In the past, I think we've been too easily swayed by the good result at the right time. Lee Johnson in particular had a knack of pulling a result out of nowhere when everyone had run out of patience and I can certainly see a scenario where the team play with less pressure to get a result against a team who provide opportunities to counter-attack and it results in a win or a draw, which then becomes "evidence" that the club is on the right path, only for it quickly to transpire that no lessons are learned. What I would say is that - whatever the results - if the team do not raise their performance levels tonight then I will be even more sceptical of the manager's ability to turn things round. 

This is much of my concern - I don't think the club look at these things objectively.

BT, JL, & SL, will be actively looking for evidence to "prove" that Manning was the right appointment.

Conversely, they actively looked for evidence to "prove" that Pearson should leave. 

They have a desired action then look for the information to support it, rather than looking at the information and using that to then decide upon the action.

Watching this, it makes you wonder what level of embarrassment you would accept in the Premier League.

I don't mind the idea of being promoted to the Prem, instantly relegated back to the Championship, then using the parachute payments to build towards a more sustainable crack at the Premier League.

However, I don't think I'd take that offer if it were as humiliating for us as it has been for this Sheffield United side, or Derby back in 2007/08.

So that's the question - how bad would we have to be in the Prem before you thought "Actually, I'd rather we just never got promoted"?

5 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Reaction in the ground at full time makes me think it will take quite a bit more than a coupon busting win at Ipswich to soothe doubters again.

"Dramatic overreactions??" Some can be but that is rather airy..

It wouldn't convert the doubters, I agree, but bear in mind we have many fans who aren't currently doubters. A few do genuinely seem to see Manning as a progressive coach moving us in the right direction (and though they might not admit it, I think their favourite thing about him is simply the fact he's not Pearson). After the Southampton game, some were talking about top 6 - it really doesn't take much.

And yes, dramatic overreactions. IMO, almost every mention of us potentially being promoted or relegated in the last few years has been an overreaction.

Firstly, I wouldn't be that shocked to see us pick up point(s) either tomorrow or in another of our theoretically challenging games.

Under Manning, we've actually done very well against teams above us in the table. It's our record against bottom half sides which is problematic (3 points from 30!).

In terms of forum response, it'll likely be the same dramatic overreactions as always.
If we win, we'll see posts about how we can push on for top 6.
If we lose, we'll see posts about how we won't pick up another point all season and get relegated.

Update on Manning's record against bottom half teams:

P10 W0 D3 L7

Absolutely abysmal. 

Just a point re sacking Manning.

He's on a 3.5 year contract. If we were to sack him in Summer, that would be a fairly sizable payout.

Obviously we can't let these things dictate the decision, but it would be one hell of a mess.

Dreadful result and performance.

Not going to blame individuals, as almost everyone had a bad game (no doubt some will use this as an opportunity to pin blame on their least favourite individual players).

Manning's atrocious set of results against bottom half sides continues - P9 W0 D3 L6

Lucky not to have conceded a 3rd there

Dreadful from Vyner

Just now, Ska Junkie said:

What is McCrories actual favoured position? Is he a midfielder?

Believe he said it was RB when he first joined

Quality from Mehmeti to get us up the pitch there

Bad half. Poor all round performance.

Pring struggling, not looking fit.

Defending generally a bit dodgy so far.

Struggling to get Sykes and Mehmeti in the game at all. Pinging hopeful balls into the channels for them, but not really giving them any meaningful possession at all.

1 minute ago, ExiledAjax said:

I like Naismith on Comms. He's experienced enough to not entirely toe the line. He'll be critical if he thinks we merit it. He provides good insights.

Southampton fans would have a heart attack if they saw this pitch.

Agreed, nice to have someone who can be honest about the performance, as oppose to a Bristol Sport robot telling us that we're unlucky to be losing despite having 1 shot in 80 minutes

Sounds like Kal Naismith's English has improved since he first joined 

5 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

The number of times we have failed to fill our bench this season is rather embarrassing. Manning may well have valid reasons for not promoting youth too quickly but I do feel less than 9 subs makes us look amateur and shambolic.

Given the 'Splat robin' kit and the 'We beat Leeds once' kit, I think amateur and shambolic is very much the look we're going for this season 

20 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

(Oh and FWIW even if Twine is fit I’m happy not to see him again this season. Nothing against him, and like him as a player, but considering our mid table position and finish if we are unlikely to sign him permanently then playing him would be a daft move and not benefit us long term. As I believe was said when he signed!)

Exactly my thoughts.

Though just to add to that - when we signed Twine, I made the joke that the best case scenario may be that he has a torrid time here, drops in value, and becomes a more realistic signing in Summer. Ironically, that's not too far off what's happening right now. (I still don't think we'll sign him permenantly)

1 hour ago, JP Hampton said:

I think we actually missed Mehmeti when he went off. To my mind he was the only one creating anything. 

Agreed. He was the one player who was causing them a threat, especially after moving onto the left hand side in the first half.

38 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Sorry, but he was absolutely shocking out there today, and you can only comment on what is before your eyes.  Mebude was right in front of me in the Dolman today and what I saw was a player having a horrifically bad time.  Hardly surprising that people are reflecting what they saw.  He was dreadful.

Huge difference between saying a player was poor today, and completely writing a player off.

Especially ironic given that this thread was originally made because fans wanted to comment on how incredibly promising Mebude looked vs Southampton. People overreacted to his performance then, and have U-turned to overreact to his performance today. 

Wow. 

So after a 2 brief substitute appearances we've decided Mebude is the best young player in Europe, and then U-turned to decide that he's dreadful and should be nowhere near the team.

Classic OTIB 

Can't say I'm surprised.

In the week, I warned that the Boro and Southampton games actually suited us more than the QPR game, and that this would be a truer test of our potential to push towards the top 6. Today we failed that test.

Manning's record against bottom half teams is becoming abysmal: P8 W0 D3 L5

It's all very well getting "great" results again strong teams, but if it's a waste if you're then picking up 1 point out of 6 against sides like QPR.

3 minutes ago, !james said:

So OTIB will be back to relegation topics not playoff ones after this game then? 

"I can't see us picking up another point this season" post incoming 

0-1 flattering us right now........

Cornick what on earth are you doing there......