Harry

Not sure he’d ever work here though. I can’t imagine Cotterill, one of his best mates in football, recommending working under Lansdown. But that’s a whole other argument.

I’ve been watching him for a while. Doing a fantastic job and has a great team atmosphere. Recruited well. Loaned well. Has a smattering of academy kids in the squad. I’ve been up to the ‘Johnny Rocks Stadium’ 3 times this season and I’ve been impressed. Especially as all 3 games were against vastly superior opposition in MK, Oxford & Rotherham. Duff deffo seems to have something about him.

I think the ‘moving on’ part is harder due to the excessive wage rather than lack of appearances or poor performances. I’m sure there’s plenty of teams who’d take a chance and managers who feel they can integrate such a player and turn their career around, but they ain’t prepared to pay the £20k odd per week. We don’t half pay some ludicrous salaries for chumps.

If we’re taking about a certain player who I think we’re talking about, then some people have a very strange idea of what ‘luxury’ means!! If it’s one of the ones I’m thinking of, who’s initials are also a brand of nuts, then luxury sure doesn’t describe him. What is it, 5 goals and about 3 assists in 3 seasons? I wouldn’t say that’s a luxury. And certainly not someone who ought to be shoehorned into the team. This sort of player is what Richard Gould was referring to when he said we weren’t getting the value for our pound. Multiple millions in a fee and multiple thousands per week to be moribund. Luxury? My ass. As they say.

Exactly. Many things said in jest, and all that. There’s definitely a better way of doing this. Whether that’s season ticket holders allowed through, or as I mentioned in my post, why search anyone over 80 for christ sake. I mean, to Ole’s point, an 80 year old season ticket holder must be immune to our performances over their many years, so no way they’d be potential bombers! People won’t want to hear this, but it’s much like the ‘stop and search’ argument. These searches should be targeting a specific demographic which are considered to be of a ‘risk’ category. Not 80 year old season ticket holders.

The point being they didn’t know what a shandy is.

Oh. Also. A few weeks ago I asked for a lager shandy. The staff had no idea what that was.

I usually get a coffee up in the family stand, but I prefer a decaf and they don’t do them up there. So last night, I happened across the coffee stall in the lower concourse under the Lansdown - Atyeo end. I don’t usually go that way so I thought, ooh, I might be able to grab a decaf here. Lovely. So, I get myself a decaf. Excellent. Do you have any toppers? No. So I have to carry a hot coffee all the way up the 139 steps to the top of the stand without a top on it!! Cheers then.

You mean le chérie intouchable de Villepinte?

He shouldn’t have got himself in that position (HNM). I agree that there was an element of a hair pull later in the grapple, but the grapple was instigated by HNM and LO was trying to get away, the fact HNM didn’t let go meant that LO ended up wrestling back with him and the hair pull occurred. As I say, end of the day, if that was the other way round, I’m confident everyone on here would be screaming for a penalty.

? Is Shergar with you as well?

If that was the other way round, what would you say then Mr Lucan? The fact that HNM held onto him for another 15 yards without once looking at the ball is what makes it a blatant pen.

It’s something I’ve noticed all season. The way we set up from corners. We have the 3 best headers on the 6 yard box and then we have 3 or 4 ‘blockers’. These blockers aren’t necessarily there to challenge aerially with their opponents, just to delay their arrival, allowing one of the 3 designated ‘headers’ to have the advantage to win the ball. We’re not the only ones who do it. Most teams seem to be setting up in a similar fashion this season. Stoke did as well. From what I’ve seen of it from ourselves though, our ‘blockers’ don’t tend to be very good at blocking and ultimately end up running back with their opponent, making it appear as though they are marking him - but just end up getting in the way of our designated headers. I agree re leaving a man up. And I agree, I’d let HNM do it, because he frequently loses his man at these set pieces.

I didn’t see Ostigard pull hair. What I saw was HNM grappling and then Ostigard trying to release himself, which he did by trying to get his left arm over the top of HNm’s head. You’ll see it quite clearly broken down in the pics below. Look carefully at Ostigard’s left arm. You’ll see clearly that he’s trying to get it over the head, not touching his hair at all. It’s a penalty every day of the week.

Yep. Tonnes of it goes on at every set play every week. But when a player is holding another one for about 15 yards and isn’t facing the ball, not once, it’s a penalty. If that was the other way round, I’m certain it would be unanimous on here that it was a pen.

Oh god Dave, don’t mention that Mulhern freak. I despise the maggot!

Yep. Our penalty shout was a good one. Theirs was blatant. End of the day, they were by far the better team, but we got the result. Of course their manager isn’t gonna be happy with that. Perhaps he should get his hair cut then. ?

I used to be one of the main ‘song starters’ but I’ve moved up to the family stand now. I know all the guys who are currently in and around the drum and they do a sterling job and really do try hard, but I do wish they’d get back to more of a mix of songs rather than just ‘oooh Bristol City’. We used to have numerous songs, sung numerous times each game - Drink up thee cider, Because of Saturday, Cider drinker, etc. It seems that the ‘thing’ nowadays is not to have numerous shorter songs, but to have one or two lengthy repetitive songs. They have their place, of course, but I just wish there was still much more of a mix. And timing is so important too. After a goal (and indeed at the final whistle last night), the go-to song shouldn’t be ‘oooh Bristol City’. At those times, the go-to song needs to be something that encompasses the whole stadium. The ‘lengthier’ songs also don’t allow for spontaneity. I’ve seen so many times where something ‘catalytic’ has happened on the pitch, ie a corner, a save etc, and instead of a song in reaction to that, the repetitive ‘ooh Bristol City’ or ‘Just can’t get enough’ song is continued. So, in summary, I think there needs to be a better mix of the older ‘short sharp’ songs and the new ‘lengthy repetitive’ songs. And also more reaction to what’s actually happening on the pitch.

I’m very sad. I counted. Kalas’ throw-ins last night were timed at : 30 seconds, 32 seconds, 40 seconds, 36 seconds, 29 seconds, 34 seconds. It’s a real pet-hate of mine. Not just ours, but football in general. The towel drying basically averages out a throw in to over 30 seconds. If you took that long to restart play without a towel, you’d be booked for time wasting. BAN THE TOWEL

It was as blatant a pen as you’ll see. If that was against us, I’d be livid.

Let’s be honest. It was pretty quiet for most of the game and then got loud in the last 10-15 minutes. Might help if “oooh Bristol City” isn’t sang by 50 people for about 20 minutes. That simply isn’t a song that ‘goes round the ground’ as it were. And it absolutely definitely shouldn’t be the first song sang after a goal, like it was last night. A goal should be followed by the traditional ‘la la la la la la la City’. Then maybe a ‘we love you city, we do’. The go-to song immediately after a goal absolutely shouldn’t be that bloody ‘oooh Bristol City, la la la la oooh’. That simply won’t travel round the ground. A few more ‘cmon you reds’ ‘red army’ ‘Ole ole ole’ ‘clap clap, clap clap clap, City’ would be much better at getting all of the ground joining in.

Some folk may not like this, but if they have to do this then why can they not ‘target’ certain demographics. When I entered last night I ended up in the queue next to a group of about 6 pensioners. These folks were about 85 years old and had walking sticks. They were clearly not a terrorist threat - why was it necessary to give them a full scan, front and back, for 20 seconds. Not searching this group of oap’s would’ve saved nearly 2 minutes. I’m sure there were hundreds or even thousands of similar folk who they didn’t really need to scan. Surely a more targeted approach would be better and quicker. Overall, I thought it was an utter joke last night. Talk about ‘covid’ secure as well - ha ha, jeez! How is it sensible to make hundreds of people cram up against one another waiting for a useless scan.

I thought he was very fair and realistic actually. Yes, they absolutely should’ve had a penalty when HNM wrestled Ostigard down on that corner. They hit the woodwork twice and had a couple of other very good chances and could easily have scored 3 or 4 on another night. We got pretty lucky - although we battled well - but we still kinda got away with one last night.

Yes he did make 2 errors last night. The back pass, plus a bad blind square ball on the halfway line that lost possession, but aside from that he had a good first half and made plenty of tackles and interceptions. I did wonder if we should’ve played him though. He clearly needed to be managed back gradually and I wonder if a rest last night would have been the better option and then play him again Sunday. Guess the lack of options in the middle made the decision to play him. I think he’s a crucial player for us so we shouldn’t have played him last night.

Yep. In that variant, Flint was clearly the ball winner, rather than the sweeper. This is kinda how we played it v Brum, with Vyner central and being the ball winner. For me that didn’t work with him there - as you say, he’s not aerially dominant. If we played the style which you did, you’d be happy with Kalas & Baker/Atkinson as the ones which attack the ball and Vyner sweeping, but we didn’t do that. Which I found quite strange.