italian dave

Yes: I wasn't being entirely serious about the Sound of Music comparison. Although I don't think the film is anything like as dark as many of the stage productions. I was lucky enough to see the production that's currently on in London early last year and the second part of that production is really very dark - hairs standing on end dark at some points.

And yet, The Sound of Music……???

I agree. And not only up there, but pretty much the only club within touching distance of FGR. There isn’t a lot of detail about how the scoring works, but in terms of the ‘points’ we are closer to FGR than the third placed team is to us. And only 5 of the 72 EFL clubs score 15 or more - and we’re on 22. That’s impressive. Far from it - and very unfair on the club and the efforts it’s making. The article (surprisingly) doesn’t mention air travel, but it does explain some of the (other) reasons why we perform so well. And, given the nature of many of the other 72 clubs, I would imagine that the opposite to what you’re suggesting is true, and that the fact that we use air travel at all probably reduces our standing against many of the other clubs.

Showing you age? You don’t know you’re born! Mine would be thinking that Alan Dicks would never get us promoted from Division 2 ? Mind you, I was quite young at the time and probably easily swayed by the ‘Dicks Out’ chants!

Yeah fair enough. Another question then....watching that replay back, do you honestly feel that if the ref had seen it at the time Sykes would have got a red card? Given the circumstances, I'd have been amazed if the ref saw the whole sequence of events, and gave a yellow for the original trip and a red for the reaction. Although its fair to say that refs never cease to amaze me!

The bit I still don’t understand isn’t that. It’s how Cunningham gets away without a 4 game ban. Three for violent conduct. And an additional game for being the biggest a###hole in football. (OK, a three game ban then).

Makes sense…l did wonder that as I was writing! My own experience was a bit weird. I went off to Brighton anticipating lots else to do at weekends too. And resigned to giving up watching football for a while. But the first two City home games I missed were 4-0 then 6-0 wins, in the season we got promoted to Div 1. So I quickly settled instead into a routine of travelling to City matches! And then, at the same time, Brighton decided to have one of their most successful times to date - Peter Ward scoring record numbers of goals, players like Mark Lawrenson, and successive promotions. So I ended up watching more football than ever!!

Iron Sky…….Paolo Nutini

Although we’re both University towns and you’d have thought that, at the right price, there’s a market there? No idea really! They must have their rationale. I don’t know when they put their STs on sale this time last year. If it was about now maybe they didn’t expect to go up and priced them accordingly. Certainly, if the prices for next season represent a big % increase, as suggested, then they’ve been bloody cheap for the PL. Maybe they’re just looking to recoup some of that.

Extortionate? I’m not seeking to defend them (horrible club) and it’s certainly true that they don’t seem to be doing much for their fans of the future. But overall, compare them to us (our prices in brackets) - and generally speaking people didn’t seem to feel our prices were extortionate. Adult. Cheapest £465 (£385). Most expensive £660 (£675). Mid range £465 (£465) Senior. Cheapest £325 (£320). Most expensive £470 (£525). Mid range £325 (£385) 12-19. Cheapest £190 (£99). Most expensive £190 (£199). Mid range £190 (£150).

How was Cabaret ever deemed an ‘X’?

I don’t know about the % increase etc, but the prices themselves seem more than reasonable to me. Cheapest adult anywhere is a little bit more, but otherwise no more expensive than ours.

Absolutely this. Deliberately upending an opponent who’s making a break seems to have become an accepted part of the game recently. There’s always been a grey area where a defender makes a desperate, maybe rash, but genuine attempt to get the ball and misjudges it. But latterly, it seems to have become acceptable to make no attempt at all to get to the ball and to simply - and without any pretence otherwise - to trip or even to rugby tackle the attacking player. It may not always be ‘dangerous’ (although when a player is going full speed, even a trip could be) but it should be up there with ‘serious foul play’ for me - it’s the embodiment of ‘anti-football’ and it ruins the game. And (as in the Sykes case) it’s incredibly frustrating for the attacking player and almost invites a reaction.

He didn’t though. Cunningham didn’t get a yellow. (Nakhi Wells did, for reacting).

And there was me, coming onto this thread expecting to read all about how@Lanterne Rouge was going to be spending the international break weekend!

True. But neither can you rake your studs down an opponents calf. Yet Cunningham gets no punishment at all for that, while Sykes gets a four game ban. That’s the issue for me.

Not sure. I suspect most of us would not even notice, and if we did, wouldn’t care. The comments about Preston/Evans running through the thread seem to confirm that.

Maybe…..but in the context of, for example, Joe Bennett’s almost identical kick out at Joe Williams, or Cunningham’s assault on Nakhi Wells, not to mention the endless deliberate trips from behind of players running full tilt that is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence……yet this one gets a 4 game ban?

As a season ticket holder in the Dolman, can I just say that the standard of moaning there isn’t a patch on the matchday thread on OTIB ?

Ha ha! That’s very true….and Warnock’s head would have exploded! There’s a serious point there too though: with more refs like that Warnock wouldn’t be able to get away with his anti-football tactics. I’m fed up with referees at City games who do nothing about time wasting, or who speak to players and wave their watch in the air but then do nothing. I’d be very happy to have a ref who adopted his approach. I don’t think any of the bookings weren’t warranted. Yes, great win. Great first half and some really exciting football . Hanging on a bit at the end, although despite all the possession Italy had second half they had very little in the way of clear cut opportunities. It will confirm Southgate’s tendency to try to hang on to leads second half rather than to extend them. Whether that’s a good thing or not is debateable I guess!

Well, there’s a kiosk of the Pineta Sachetti in Rome that I know has them! Seriously, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one in Bristol. But you can read it here https://www.corrieredellosport.it/

5

Maybe we’re not as good at it?! Seriously, how many times this season could we have done with a ref at Ashton Gate who was serious about stopping time wasting?

I think our Harry might have buried that!

Pearson Avenue……Josephine Rock