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Mental to think Luton weren’t even in the Football League until 2015/16. While we’ve largely stood still in the time since, their progress is insane. I hope they bottle it.

Hants are massive favs to wrap up victory. Hammond needed to go on and get a ton and it’s all on our last recognised pair of batsmen (Higgins and Lace) now. The tail is long.

Surely they’ll sell Johnson and be back within FFP? Plus they got the cash from that dirty deal with Olympiakos in January, didn’t they? If a club like Luton went up, it’d be crap for us because they’d come back down with parachute payments and have the potential to join the yo-yo clubs. Another smaller club leaving us in their wake.

Forest will be strong next season if they don’t go up in the play-offs. They rolled the dice in the January window and it’s paid off for them to date. I’d like Wycombe to come up, they should’ve stayed up last year if it wasn’t for Derby, and they’d be down there next year. All three of the other sides in the L1 play-offs would be competitive. If Everton come down, they will dominate next year much like Newcastle did IMO. Yes, they need a rebuild but they’ve got some quality youth players who could come in. Leeds, however, won’t be as strong as they were under Bielsa. Get them and their arrogant fans down. All my opinions, of course.

Back in August, I predicted we’d an 18th-placed finish so we’ve exceeded my expectations. With the earlier start than usual, it’s imperative we get the right players in the right positions in early.

I lived in Horfield, a three-wood away from the cabbage patch, and saw so many more City shirts that Gas. Loads of them were kids, too, which suggests the future is red. Your lot in Yate will soon take them off when Anderson leaves. What a signing he’s been for them, the catalyst.

Blimey! Stokes smashed Worcester all over the shop today, plundering 34 from one over to go to his ton. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/cricket/61358196

No surprise when we’ve got eight out injured. I’m not convinced on either the captain or coach, either.

Yeah, we’ve definitely hung in there today. Our batting lineup, however, looks very weak with a very long tail. What do you reckon? Harris, Bracey, Lace, Hammond, Van Burren, Higgins, Scott, tail?

Is it too early to say Glos are staring down the barrel at Hants? No Dent, no Payne, lost the toss and bowling on another road.

I don’t necessarily disagree with your point about Pring giving goals away, but since when has he ever been a CB? Never. Pring played his best football for us IMO when deployed on the left wing, enabling him to swing in quality crosses from deep. Vyner, on the other hand, is a defender. It’s his job to defend, and he’s crap at it IMO.

The only thing we can learn from this article is to get our business done as early as possible, ideally by the start of pre-season. That’s worked in the past and should always be the benchmark. Regarding loans, Nige isn’t averse to them as shown by him loaning Harry Kane, Jesse Lingard, Nick Powell etc while at Leicester. The key point he makes about loans is the loanees have to be better than we already have as well as being cost-effective.

Our club shop has been a joke IMO, possibly since we dumped Adidas. My first child arrived in 2020 and I was surprised to see they didn’t offer babygrows. I dug a little deeper and saw there was next to nothing for kids.

The ball did plenty on day one under cloud cover and if we didn’t spill five catches, we’d have probably bowled Surrey out for around 300. We didn’t and they made 600. When the clouds disappear so does the seam movement, and that’s where having a quality spinner (Zafar’s omission was odd) would come into its own. We left out Zafar, Surrey left out Virdi. It’s also worth mentioning that this track is one of the three international tracks at Bristol and they all are pretty flat.

For me, how you end the season often determines how you start the next. Get relegated and there’s often a hangover, finish the season unbeaten and there’s a bit of momentum. We’ve all seen our lot go through the motions at the end of the season in recent years, none more so than the dicking at Millwall last May. So give credit where credit’s due for today. Our front three complement each other well. Tighten up at the back and strengthen in certain positions and we will be upwardly mobile IMO.

Either way, we’re going to have to bat exceptionally well and considerably better than we have done so far this season just to avoid another innings defeat. I know there have been fine margins in our defeats this season, but I was very much in favour of keeping Harvey and Alleyne in charge after such a positive red-ball season last year. I’m not convinced on GvB as captain, either.

My best guess is that a) batting confidence is low seeing that we haven’t scored 300 in either of our three first innings so far, and b) we beat Surrey last year chasing 200 in the final two sessions, so maybe GvB — who scored a ton in that chase — fancied a repeat? I didn’t realise Surrey has De Grandhomme in their ranks. Just what we need (and he’s just been bowled first ball of a no ball!) This umpire is awful.

Wasn’t it just? He’s the leader of our attack, and we’ve missed him. I was surprised he didn’t take the new ball with the excellent Higgins. I’d have rather we had Zafar in the side ahead of the cheat as we’ve been pretty toothless after the new ball wore off, not helped by four drops in the field. Burns was hopping around like a cat on a hot tin roof earlier. Could’ve been out four times before he eventually went. His England days look done on that display.

Basso looked smaller than he actually was because he usually wore an oversized shirt! I interviewed him once and was surprised to see he was around 6”1 or 6”2 at a guess. I’m 5”11 and he was bigger than me!

Good post, and what a Elliott was in his first season. Arguably the best £100k we’ve ever spent. I’d add that the class of 07/08 was physically (LJ aside) a big side too, with the likes of Basso, McCombe, Carey, Vasko, Orr, Skuse, Elliott, Betsy, Adebola and Showumni all over 6ft. The game’s changed a lot since those days, but we don’t have the same physicality week in week out as we had back then. We’re quite a small side in that regard IMO. When Klose, Cundy and Atkinson play, that element improves a lot, though. We need more balance across the squad IMO. Full backs, wingers and a Marv. Even then I doubt we’ll be contenders, but it should improve.

I’d love to think we could be in for the likes of Ryan Nyambe or Jed Wallace, but we won’t be and for that reason Kane Wilson is a very realistic target IMO.

Spot on, and we weren’t far away last week from drawing with Yorkshire. Two more tough tests up next in Surrey and Hampshire. At least we will have the cheat and hopefully Payne back to bolster what is a threadbare attack aside from Gohar and Higgins.

Personally, I’d be content with losing any of Moore, Vyner, Baker, O’Dowda, Palmer or Wells and to a lesser extent Bentley or Kalas. Moving on Palmer and Wells would save around £60k a week and would go a long way to solving our FFP position (saving over £3m a year), especially if a windfall from Kelly or Brownhill was forthcoming. Add Moore, Vyner and O’Dowda and it could be job done. On King, he’s not on big bucks and his experience is vital and I’d keep him as a player/academy coach if he was up for that. How many times have we had a City fan who’s a PL winner and an international on our books? Don’t underestimate his experience or desire to help us.

To come back from a serious ACL injury, play numerous positions for the overall good of the team, and still net 20 league goals in a struggling team is a brilliant testament to his professionalism and a fantastic personal achievement. Good on him. Extending his deal last summer is proving to be our best bit of business. Player of the season by a country mile.

Totally agree. It was a good ball in to be fair, but naive defending from two lads playing out of position (and that’s not having a pop at Nige either as I know we don’t have any alternatives today.)