GrahamC

Our record up there is incredible, I’m pretty sure we have won on our last 5 visits. Much more even in BS3, they are certainly one of those sides people “forget” when they say why can’t we finish above Millwall, Preston, etc, because every summer they seem to spend absolute fortunes, bring in loads of players, huge wage bill yet it never gels & their managerial merry go round continues. Neil has done well at Ashton Gate (he won here twice last season) but they have a lot of injuries (thought that only happened to us?) & are in poor form so even a pessimist (realist) like me reckons we have a decent chance tomorrow.

McClaren said subsequently that whilst with us he was consistently troubled by a hip injury that caused him to retire at Oxford not too long after we had swapped him for Gary Shelton, so it is the case that we absolutely did not ever see the Derby County player in BS3. Galliers was in my opinion a terrible footballer, a complete stranger to the ball, he had a certain reputation because he came to us from Wimbledon where he fitted in seamlessly because (like Dave Martin) he kicked anything that moved. He was awful for us but because of this Crazy Gang kicking opponents stuff, he’s looked back on more fondly than he deserves, when actually he was shit. Next stop for him was Maidstone United, that really says it all. There was a good reason we had awful results that season, that side looked far better on paper than grass.

Looking at the actual results you might change your view; We didn’t win a league game in January & it is widely believed the only one that we won in February (Gillingham at home when Big Joe scored the only goal) saved him from the sack. In March & April we lost at Bolton, 4-0 at home to Notts County (!) 2-0 at Brentford, at home to all of Southend, Brentford & Blackpool.. The longer ago it was the better players seem to appear, but the reality is we were a massively underachieving side in the third tier who had a brilliant cup run & whose fortunes were then revived by signing Super Bob. Loads of the other players here McClaren, Galliers, Pender, Milne, Shutt didn’t work out or in a couple of cases like the first two, were simply terrible.

Good luck to him. I’m never going to like anyone who manages Rovers but he doesn’t any more & reading about his personal life he’s had loads of incredibly tough times to deal with since his very early childhood, so really hope he does well.

Me too. Great appointment & I reckon a significant factor in our defensive improvement, though he’s definitely not the sort to say so himself.

People always come out with this shite- but a bit quieter on the “Plymouth will overtake us” stuff last week when we were hammering them..

So, firstly Ipswich don’t actually have an injury free squad, their first choice keeper Christian Walton hasn’t played a single game this season yet.. Secondly they have started very well, but it is 8 games, so seems a bit early to be thinking they’re racing off into the distance. They do have an excellent manager, a very shrewd choice, so whoever was responsible for that made a good decision. I still believe Ashton leaves clubs in a worse position than he inherited (Watford fans think this, as well) but it’s a free country so if you want to think he’s great, that’s your prerogative.

Absolutely, we definitely should have kept Mark Ashton- a completely sustainable model. Incredible record of availability with his mates in charge of medical & conditioning, too. Brilliant treatment of Joe Williams. No occasions where we had 12 players missing at the same time, players returning from loan spells & ruled out almost straight away for the season, never, ever happened.

Guessing this is either procedural or to ensure that it now goes through as quickly as possible. The total naivety of those on here saying that it will be refused & will have to be taken down, they have had someone on the inside with a vested interest who has been pushing this ahead of the usual queues all along. Same thing applies with the Fruit Market project, even though that appears to be dead. If they were a halfway competent outfit this stand would be in use by now.

Agree, apart from the fairing worse bit. Both are going to really struggle & are nailed on to return. If we did get there (not expecting that in my lifetime) realistically we’d probably do equally badly but it is unlikely we could do any worse than losing 8-0 at home like Sheff U did or relying on penalties & getting opposition players sent off, like Luton do.

Me too & if they weren’t being so childish about trying to pretend that these 2 have never played for us I’d be happy to say I get the logic. Martin is a clever footballer, Hunt is a steady full back, both have had very decent careers.

Martin is 35 next month, lives in Bristol & frankly wasn’t knocking back the offers. He has only got a deal until January but no idea as to whether that was their choice or his. Hunt is 33 before the year is out & was in talks with L2 Bradford this summer, if he could have got a better offer then he wouldn’t be there, but he didn’t.

Looked on their official site to see how they announced Chris Martin & just like when they signed Jack Hunt they haven’t mentioned that he previously played for us. Both these players made circa 100 appearances for us, so absolutely pathetic on their part to deliberately ignore this & try & pretend otherwise.

Bet Adrian Mariappa is programming his Sat Nav for BS7. After Jack Hunt & now Chris Martin looks like jailbird Joey is trying to collect as many of Nige’s castoffs as possible.

If anyone ever watches again the interview with Nige in the summer after he took over (the one when we signed James, King & Atkinson) he makes the specific point that he believes then we are “particularly blessed in the goalkeeping department” with Bentley & Max, so to suggest he isn’t a fan really is not based on reality. As you say if someone offered us a Prem goalie for free on wages we could afford I’m sure he wouldn’t say no, but that simply isn’t going to happen. He made it very clear this summer Max is now first choice & an injury aside I can’t see that changing.

He won’t be staying long in Burnley then, you could probably cover it in an hour..

Exactly how I saw it. 2nd goal is really poor from him, first one he probably could have done better, 3rd had no chance.

Sacked their coach today after the loss at St. Pauli last weekend.

So after a poor game v Leicester we’re back to Joe Williams not being worth a place, I see. This is despite him arguably being the equal of Knight & James prior to that. Massengo didn’t want to be here, I doubt he would have signed another contract even if he’d been playing so this is academic. He’s moved on & so have we.

Bit of a tangent but surprised no one has highlighted that young Nelson is on the bench for the first team but doesn’t ever play for the 21s. He’s not injured but I was told there is a specific reason for this. With Zak now injured & Weimann back far more logical to me to have Knight-Lebel on the bench instead as defensive cover but Nige clearly has his own reasons.

True- I’d just add two more points; We look well drilled as a side, I posted after the West Brom game that out of possession we usually have a good shape & presumably Curtis Fleming’s coaching is a big part of that. Secondly I take your point about the absence of McCrorie, Atkinson & now Vyner, but the back four that we fielded at Leicester (Tanner, Dickie, Naismith, Pring) wasn’t exactly shabby, Pearson said recently that the squad was certainly tight in terms of numbers but the difference in quality within it is now much narrower, which is spot on.

Really surprising to see that Mangan & Barton are close associates of lawyers, isn’t it? Wonder if he also represented him when he was found guilty of those betting offences? Reading the transcript this comes down to interpretation of his comments, so hardly the vindication that the jailbird suggests..

Bloody stats. “Not good enough”, apparently..

Just further evidence of how little SL understands about football. When you consider how long he’s been involved with us this is both incredible & depressing.

It’s because it a cartel. Next season these 3 will have circa £100m in parachute payments to buy the best players at our level. Really excited too to find out if Manchester City win the league or Liverpool (who have spent £500m in Klopp’s time) do. Really competitive stuff. ”Best league in the world”.