WessexPest

I do agree his hands are tied to an extent, but we should be doing much, much better than we are under a manager of his pedigree.

But the CSF hate racists and nonces so they are all thoroughly nice blokes! ?

Yep - I feared the worst for us today so I skipped the game to do something less soul-destroying (mowing the lawn) and after seeing the inevitable confirmed immediately looked at how the cold sores from the Pisspoorial Mound got on. Some solace there. FTG

B******s, b******s and thrice b******s. Did anyone, hand on heart, anticipate anything other than a comprehensive defeat this afternoon? I didn’t. Cast your mind back two seasons when we were on the wrong end of a similar hiding at the Hawthorns as LJ’s stock began to plummet big style - progress since then has been negligible. We’ve too many distinctly ordinary players, too many promising but raw youngsters who lack the experience to rumble with the big boys at this level, and a coach who increasingly doesn’t seem to know how to set us up. The number of stupid errors, lapses in concentration and, of course, amateurish inability to see out a game is getting extremely tedious. And that Nathan Baker must be made of Waterford Crystal. I’m not out of patience with NP, largely because burning through managers eventually saw us go down last time, but his tenure has been deeply underwhelming on the whole. Perhaps I’m still smarting from that horrendous collapse in midweek, but it all feels pretty ominous I’m afraid.

The most galling last five minutes I can remember watching City. I had absolutely no doubt they would equalise, given our penchant for throwing away 1-0 wins this season and the fact that they forced countless corners and every time their players ran at our fullbacks we looked decidedly edgy, but to go on and lose it was a real sickener. Yes, we should have had a pen and Wells ought to have buried his shot that he struck the post with, but their spot-kick was a stonewaller and until we scored Forest had been well on top. You can argue we looked decent in patches second half but once again there was very little end product and in the context of our abysmal home run and the manner in which we capitulated last five minutes there are zero crumbs of comfort.

Every right-thinking football fan should loathe Arsenal.

Okay then - seven points from a possible 48. That’s ruddy atrocious whichever way you look at it.

We can’t rely on our away form indefinitely though. We need to start picking up points at home - can you see us getting anything at West Brom, for instance. I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t panic stations yet but just when it looks like we might be turning the corner we put in a turd of a display like that. It’s incredible that we managed to land a coach of the calibre of NP and we are still awaiting a home win under him. It’s not good enough.

No sugar-coating that - absolute sewage, City. Utterly embarrassing that we haven’t won at home in nine months. If that doesn’t change soon we could very well be part of the relegation battle this season. Pearson, I have faith in you but you need to sort this out sharpish my old son. Nothing less than three points in midweek will suffice.

P’raps it’s indicative of a midlife crisis but I’ve fallen back in love with City replica shirts these past couple of years - the white one with the retro Robin, last year’s purple, this year’s black, the one just released. Possibly it’s because nobody else within 2,000 miles of me is likely to be wearing one that I’m being bloody minded. The missus hates me wearing them though and as I’m p***y whipped I follow the strict house dress code by and large. ?

Decent. Arguably completely unnecessary to have a third kit and a bit cynical bringing it two months into the season given it’ll be obsolete by May, but nobody has a gun to their head forcing them to buy it.

You say that as if we are some anomaly - whenever there is a decent visiting turnout the home support are going to be hopelessly outsung. There’s been debates about how to improve the atmosphere at SG since time out of mind. This isn’t a phenomenon that has sprung up from refurbishing the stadium, nor even going all seater. Our ground has never been known as a cauldron of noise - the fact we remember games like Man Utd, Palace, Hartlepool, Chelsea, Liverpool, the Gash in 1991 or 1993 is because those times when the ground has been absolutely bouncing have been few and far between. Our 2000ish easily outsang Reading and Cardiff this season - what should they do to address their abysmal atmospheres - relocate to Elm Park and Ninian respectively?

I was chatting to a Boro fan a few seasons ago who was complaining about the evening kickoff for Sky given how far they had to travel for an away game. I goes, “Mate, I had a 16-hour round trip by plane to get to this home game so forgive me if I don’t have much sympathy for you.” ?

What Ultimate Warrior promo-worthy gibberish is Unhinged Joey going to come out with on the eve of tomorrow’s match? I SURROUND US IN THIS FORCEFIELD, GASHEADS! CLIMB ON MY BACK AS I TAKE BRISTOL ROVERS TO PARTS UNKNOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWNNNN!!! (King’s Lynn).

Me either - happy to focus on their pitiful league crowds instead where they’ve yet to breach the 8,000 threshold despite not being able to go for 18 months.

Attendance: 1,149 according to their webs***e. (1,148 away - probably).

Good on them. ?

I don’t really mind one way or t’other with N Ire or Wales. Scotland are the international equivalent of the Gash, though. I hope they lose every game they play.

Trouble is, more is more as far as UEFA and FIFA are concerned. They can’t help tinkering with tournaments and adding more and more teams - the quality suffers and the qualifying process becomes more and more convoluted. It makes no sense to have more than two teams progressing from a group of four.

It might be unfair but that’s life - the no-hopers have to jump through extra hoops in the European club competitions so it’s not without precedent.

I recall not too long ago the qualifying groups were genuinely exciting - it was almost knockout football because even one defeat could have disastrous consequences for a nation’s qualification prospects. Obviously the number of Uefa nations increased dramatically following the collapse of the Eastern bloc and every nation has the right to attempt to qualify. The Euro qualifiers are the worst - it’s almost an achievement not to qualify given how many strikes you can accumulate before you’re out. I know this year was a bit of an anomaly due to the multiple hosts, but ordinarily with 24 teams (it should never have been expanded to that many, but no point complaining about that now) there would be one host qualifying automatically so have a preliminary round to separate the wheat from the chaff and reduce 54 teams to 48 - maybe make the weakest nations per the coefficient compete in a preliminary group round, have the top two from each group advance to the qualifying tournament proper. Then divide the remaining 48 into 12 groups of four - top two from each group qualify for the finals apart from the weakest runners-up, who are eliminated. Six games apiece, no playoff nonsense and fewer interruptions of the club campaign for international breaks with games that are like watching paint dry.

Can’t really ask for much more than 5-0 win away on a hiding to nothing. Scary to think Andorra aren’t even the weakest team in the group. The qualifying process for WC and Euros needs a serious shake-up. Not happy that horrible lot from north of the Kielder Forest fluked a stoppage time win. Hopefully the fact they made such heavy weather of Israel (again) means they will have their hearts broken in the playoffs.

Hilarious how many of the troglodytes have changed their tune from last week on the back of one poxy victory against a very poor side. Guarantees the Barton circus stays in town a bit longer, so it’s all good. FTG.

How dare Sharton talk of being a Sherpa - the Rent Boys have never won the Sherpa Van Trophy in any of its guises.

Jesus saves…but Belshaw spills it for an easy tap-in and 3-1 Swindon.