RedRock

Came into Bristol from Corfu in what best can be described as a tropical storm. As we descended we got hit by lightening, twice. You know you’re in trouble when the stewardesses turn white and grip their hand-rests so hard their knuckles look like they’re going to burst. The ride was like being in a lift with delinquent teenager randomly pushing the floor buttons. Enjoy your flights to Newcastle lads and lasses. All part of life’s rich tapestry…but don’t worry at least you know it’s stormy, flew over the Bermuda Triangle once and the captain said he had no idea why we were bouncing up and down like a yo-yo as their was no air turbulence showing on their radar or reported by the flights we were following!

Clearly weren’t brought up proper. Izal had 2 sides. Coarse grade sandpaper one side for the scrape, smooth side fine grade for the final polish. Very effective. To her final days my Mum denied ever supplying our household with such Neanderthal-type products, claiming use of soft tissue only. My arse knows the truth though. Only on OTIB could a football-related topic end up with discussions such as these!

Awesome. Starting to look up the table.

Nice win. Patchy performance for me, some very good, some bad. Harrison put a shift in and great crosses. Good keeping as well. Don't think we can afford many more slip-ups results wise as London looked pretty fluent and on another day could have grabbed a point, if not three.

Admit to not having any tactical rugby knowledge but kicking to the opposition in the last few minutes when you’re only a few points up seems ridiculous. Why give the opposition the initiative? Just keep the ball. Seems just an act of desperation that you’ve run out of ideas, stamina and/or just fearful of making a mistake. Didn’t Bristol do the same thing against someone recently and lost the game. Any rugby experts here to enlighten me?

A rare opportunity to complete the Bristol Sport ‘set’ with the Rugby, Basketball and Men’s Football all winning so far this weekend. We may not be up to our ‘Boca’ neighbour’s standards, but good effort.

The funniest thing about their tweet was that it was accompanied by a picture of the MK Dons fans adjusting their plastic picnic chairs in a tent. I don’t think the Sags Admin realise just how Tinpot their Club looks.

Brilliant, great win City. Another couple of wins on the bounce and we can start looking upwards rather than down. Momentum building, now just don’t let us drop off from current performance levels. Excellent start though to 2023!

Yes, it is a long time. Was having my second ‘wobble’ at the end of last year, while still remaining a Pearson Loyal. Just thought ‘The Project’ was coming off the rails. That Sam Pearson at full back, King at Centre Back, the ‘disappeared’ - Klose, Martin, Atkinson, Tanner et al, the fitness, injuries, tactics that had 7 forwards to chase a game, formations that had round pegs in square holes and stubbornly sticking to failed formations, the lack of impact of new signings. It was all a bit we’ve been here before. There was something though with Pearson that made me stick with him. Still far from out of the woods, but green shoots appearing.

One of my life’s great achievements was ‘my’ toilet roll featured on MOTD vs Man Utd, and can remember a direct hit on the Hull goalkeeper from the Park End once. The toilet block at the entrance to the park was never a good place to have a c**p on a Saturday.

Think we need to work more on the distribution from Max. Atkinson has been identified by the opposition as a weak link and will operate a fast press targeting him. He’s got the turning circle of a supertanker, so any ball our goal side of him is a death wish. He needs to be side on, closer to the keeper with space in front of him.

I think after ‘that’ recent Cardiff U21 team performance debacle, I said something to the effect that Bell was light years off the first team. I also seriously questioned Tins judgement for saying he was ‘ready’. Wow, a couple of weeks in football is, indeed, a long time! Never been more happy to have been proven wrong..and then some. Truly a revelation. Congratulations, a real talent, performances as sharp as they come . As Tins would say, the hard work start from here. Keep it up Sam.

I think for where we’re at and Semenyo is, it’s a good deal all round. Everyone is taking a bit of a gamble, and I’d say it’s about 50:50, maybe 60:40 in favour, as to whether he kicks on in the Premier. Semenyo’s assets are his pace and power. Those are the two attributes that sets you apart from the average in football nowadays. The key thing now for us is that we don’t flush the money down the drain on more mediocre squad players that don’t improve us, as has been our habit. We need to find a couple of gems in the market place to push us on. If we s****k the money away again on sub-average ‘has beens’ or the ‘never will be’, we will never progress as a Club.

No point saying don’t sell them off while we’re in the current league/financial position. The only way we will ever keep our talent is to develop a TEAM that can challenge for promotion with every squad member contributing at roughly the same level with no weak links. Difficult ask. Our Academy is now producing, our recruitment for the first team squad has been generally pretty poor in recent years. We have got to up our recruitment game significantly otherwise we remain on the hamster wheel going nowhere.

Not just that but a few million in today’s transfer market should enable us to strengthen our squad with a couple of desperately needed ‘oven ready’ players rather than the normal ‘one’s for the future’. I just hope we buy players that don’t just have power and pace but are experts in their roles and then, importantly, Nige needs to be told not to try converting them into something they aren’t by playing them out of position. I still can’t quite get over the Bell at full-back punt.

Struck me as odd too. Maybe the ‘add ons’ are better.

Painful watch … assume we’re playing a lot of inexperienced youth for whatever reason. Pity after the game was promoted. Off to WinterWatch to see some real robins.

As much as I disliked Mark Ashton he did, in the most part, know when to sell a player to maximise value. The fact he then spiffed the money away on overpriced, overpaid players and left LJ in the lurch sometimes due to timing of sales in the transfer window is another matter. I hope that Mr Gould hasn’t missed peak value on Semenyo. Could be a very expensive mistake.

At £10mill, it’s a SELL from me.

A win’s a win, but struth one-way traffic or what! Assume we left some first teamers out for the big game over the weekend.

The Women appear to be on FA Player at 6:00pm tonight, assuming the game hasn’t been postponed. Could be a nice warm up for Leeds vs Cardiff game later on ITV4, although - aside from supporting the ref if he sends off loads of Cardiff players - a little undecided who to back. May be Leeds but just for being English.

Splendid. Well done everyone, particularly Belly, and Tins for having the belief and confidence in him that I lacked.

Told you he wasn’t ready and was ‘miles off’.

I did that, and feel quite ‘prowd’ of my Chernobyl Model Village creation.

Ditto. Really used to enjoy a couple of pints at the Cricket Club too. Nice atmosphere and great when there was some cricket to watch. Saw the land to the side acquired by someone else and fenced off. The reduced capacity, and increased prices, at the Cricket Club then saw me off. Actually, there does seem a bit of a trend for me. Ship and Castle ..closed & demolished….transferred to The Wedlock’s…closed and demolished ..transferred to the Cricket Club .. main parking area sold off. Moved out travelling up by car mostly now and come up by train - so head to the Docks area.