WessexPest

The one straw I’m clutching is that in our last three relegations from this level (1995, 1999, 2013) it’s been obvious to anyone who had eyes to see that we were doomed to relegation from very, very early in the season. This year we made a steady if unspectacular start (in terms of results if not performances). That’s not to say teams haven’t gone down after a better start than we’ve had (Millwall topped the Old First Division in Sept ‘89 and finished bottom) but I’m hoping it’s a pattern. Just trying to keep it light!

Just saw my Facebook memory from precisely three years ago today: “Cast your mind back to Boxing Day - City 2 Reading 0, nicely nestled behind Wolves in the promotion places and on the back of a League Cup quarter-final defeat of Man United. There's no denying that we have gone backwards in a big way since. How do we steady the ship?” That season actually turned out to be our best since ‘08, albeit we were never really serious promotion contenders after a bad spell in the February. But I think the question still very much stands.Things have clearly degenerated from fizzling out to mid table from a good position.

Is this a bad time to mention I got my Johnson & Johnson booster yesterday?

Even in the five games we won we only looked at best decent in patches. Could’ve drawn them all. Just one clean sheet all season. We’ll get marmalised at Coventry Saturday.

That was absolute, unadulterated, chromium-plated toilet. Think this shower are too good to go down? Give your head a wobble. We are a team on the slide. Nobody looked like they gave half a s***.

Alright, with another 10,000 gas giants locked out.

Get in. I hate Platini with the heat of 10,000 suns. Going to enjoy this.

Quite amusing that they are now the ones who have a decent run on the road but cannot win at home (Lost at least their last two).

I have a major problem with the four Welsh clubs being part of the English set-up. They’re here on sufferance. I don’t dislike the Welsh, far from it, but they should really compete in their own country’s league. After Heysel the ban only applied to English clubs yet lo and behold Cardiff’s yob element ran amok in Liege a few years later. Meanwhile English clubs with no history of hooliganism - Oxford, Wimbledon, Norwich, Luton were robbed of the chance to play in Europe and now probably never will. It really gets my hackles up.

That fanzine has some terrific writers. There has always been a bit of banter, for want of a better word, between the various stands at AG. I remember I was queuing for the train to Cardiff for the LDV Final in ‘03 - the only time I’ve actually been to a match (I’m kidding, honest!) and the bloke in front of me referred to “The T**tyeo Stand.” Charming. And back in the late 90s the band resident at the back of H Block of the Atyeo would occasionally sing “Dolman Stand, **** off home” as a small but steady stream of patrons would sneak off early to avoid the FT congestion.

Haha! Falmouth - was not a fully-blown university at that time, just a humble art college. Floella was great, really nice woman. Incidentally, I wanted to wear my City shirt under my graduation gown, the Sanderson centenary one made out of that weird material, but my parents talked me out of it - so I ended up wearing a shirt and the most god-awful tie you’ve ever seen.

I thought so too - slightly more than for the Forest game which I find surprising because a) Forest brought more fans and b) I wouldn’t blame City fans for not wanting to go again for a very long time after that horror show. Wasn’t so very long ago that would have been a full house at AG and we’d have no chance of getting that many for a midseason game against a poor side with low numbers following them away.

18,347.

True story - she presented me with my degree. Stelling is a consummate broadcaster and whoever gets the nod to replace him I’m certain they’ll be compared unfavourably to him. I just hope it’s not the awful Kelly Cates. Cannot stand her.

As pleased as I was with our victory, the fact Barnsley fans are so unhappy with their lot really puts that performance in perspective. I can stomach being taken apart by Bournemouth and WBA but not dominated by Barnsley at home, and for periods yesterday that’s exactly what happened. Pearson needs to sort this shower out double quick because we may have ended that embarrassing winless run but turned the corner we have not.

Exciting times for WHUFC. Enjoyed seeing Villa get stuffed - have a keen dislike of them going back to when they were in our division.

I don’t blame the fans one iota for the boos and catcalls halfway through the first half - it was unacceptable. Their support got us over the line in the end - were truly our twelfth man today. Kudos to everyone there from this poor exile.

Holy Toledo! That was sphincter-clenching stuff at the end. I was convinced their keeper was going to score. And how that chance at the end stayed out is beyond me. Spent two years in Barnsley as a student in the 90s so after propping up the local hospitality economy the beggars owed me a favour. Another underwhelming performance against a side on a wretched run of form, but that’s for another day. For now let’s just savour the first home win since trilobites swam in the Avon. Credit to the fans, tremendous backing - you were our 12th man today. ?

Since it’s Halloween weekend I decided the bastardize the Addams Family Theme. Doo do do doo *click click* Doo do do doo *click click* Spend their giro up the Welly They’re dirty and they’re smelly Babestation on the Telly The Gastard Family Their ground is a museum No people come to see 'em Their boss is a category B con The Gastard Family So come and play Boob Cricket We’ll give you a free season ticket Darrell Clarke loves a whippet The Gastard Family They punch contenders at Aintree Got ****ed 2-0 at Braintree Garner’s bald and culpable ain’t ‘ee? The Gastard Family

If ever a club needed a new ground… I’ve never heard anyone have a good word to say about Loftus Rd, QPR fan or visitor. Even if it is out of necessity I think moving out of the borough would be a bad move for them, all of London is not their catchment area and the club would risk losing its identity. It wasn’t all that long ago that QPR were able to hold their own with the bigger London clubs - if memory serves they were the highest-placed team based in the capital at the conclusion of the inaugural Premier League season. Now look at them - the fourth best team in West London arguably!

Yes, and before long Mrs Gap will be nagging him to weed the garden, wash the car, go shopping or take the nippers to the park on a Saturday, which means he won’t be able to attend games. So no change there then…

21 years, blimey. That means eight generations of Gasheads have not known anything other than City being above Rovers.

Happy Gap Day, my red fellows. Now that the Gap is old enough to drink here in the States I’m going to take him out to a bar tonight called, “The Snake and Barrow” and treat him to some chewing tobacco and a bottle of Jack “Colin” Daniel. Might even hire him a 1920s themed stripper, Phillips the Flapper - she comes highly recommended by all accounts.

Personally I wouldn’t use that term in a footballing sense, but I don’t think it’s worth losing our s*** over.

I hate the muppet as much as the next man but I don’t see too much reason to get up in arms here. Some Stoke fans refer to their dreadful 84/85 campaign as their Holocaust season. There’s plenty of things to skewer Sharton over more than an arguably iffy choice of words.