Nogbad the Bad

Ipswich are on the crest of a wave, as are Cardiff, to a lesser extent, after a 4-0 away win last night. Both teams have bigger squads, fewer injuries, and will be more rested when they face City. We'll need to battle as against Coventry to get much tonight. I've every faith these players, under Nige, will give absolutely everything, but it may not be enough to avoid defeat. Pick up a couple more injuries tonight (who'd bet against it?) and we go to Cardiff under the threat of the sort of tanking SL would feel gave him every excuse. While delighted with the manner of the Coventry win, if NP's future depends on immediate results, I can't be anything but pessimistic atm; however stoic Nige appears about the injury situation it's getting towards being insurmountable and we're 1 or 2 more unavailable in key positions from a potentially disastrous result however hard the patched team up are trying. Fingers crossed tonight then for at least a point, and no more bloody injuries!

The churn of managers in the Championship is not a route we should seek to follow if it's not necessary, such actions not only shows a lack of patience and understanding by boards and fans, but how seldom clubs clubs make the right choice in the first place, or think long term. To SL's great good fortune exactly the right man was available and willing to take on the City challenge, NP being a very experienced successful manager who found Bristol City FC fascinating, and was excited and invigorated by the prospect of using his final years in football management to not only turn the club round but, I'm sure in his view, take City to promotion. He's done everything that could be expected of him, is probably more than half way through executing that plan, and under him we are set on a course to not only be a consistently competitive Championship club but an improving one challenging for the play offs. It's a fantastic turnaround and we, and particularly SL, are very lucky to have him. For SL to risk throwing all this away is plain madness, and when lifelong fans say they will take a break from City if he is forced out,, or even give up altogether, they really are not just saying it = this would be the final straw for many who've sat through numerous nonsensical, deflating and damaging decisions by SL and are not about to be uncomplainingly taken for fools yet again. .

9 out injured then (including Knight & Naismith) from our small squad and at least 5, probably 6, would be starting today and the others either replacing any injured players or on the bench. Under the circumstances we'll do well to get a point today, and a win would be a great achievement.

Thanks for posting this on the main forum. Like many others I suspect I don't read the new offshoot forum, so wouldn't know about it otherwise.

Who cares if a couple of posters say 'he's gone who cares'? Surely these are posters to be ignored, and we just carry on as we are.

I knew the name but little else about Gordon, so really interesting to read the memories and appreciative views of a City player from just before my time following the club. RIP.

Not a bad idea to have a dedicated Spiring thread but a pity the comments on the QPR away thread are not included. @phantom is it possible to remove the string of Spiring comments from the QPR away thread and add them to this one instead?

That's true but I can't see any evidence of 'major' injury problems for Spiring at Liverpool or elsewhere which would have such a detrimental effect on him and his career. If you watched Spiring play for City you were probably as surprised as I was that Liverpool came in for him, and not surprised that he didn't thrive there. While major injury problems obviously can thwart a career there's no sign of that in Spiring's case, and of course there are equally occasions when the buying club gets a closer look at the player in training, in Spiring's case compares him with players like Keegan and Heighway, realises he'll never be in the same league, and accepts the signing was a mistake. I think that's almost certainly the case here, but agree to disagree of course!

This is where the Peter Spiring/Gerry Sharpe confusion in this thread originated. At least we didn't end up talking about daytime TV presenters!

Not so sure Haslam took a chance on him Oxo, the word used is 'rescued' , i.e. Spiring was rescued from an unsuccessful and injury hit time at Anfield - perhaps an unhappy time too - with Liverpool delighted to get an offer from relegation threatened (desperate) Luton which was more than they paid - thus saving face. Sounds like injuries may have hampered him at Liverpool, however looks to me that he simply didn't live up to expectations because he was fit to pass the medical to Luton, so doubts regarding his fitness wouldn't have been a consideration for Liverpool and they could have persevered with him had they still rated him. Bad luck with the toe injury at Luton that allowed Futcher to make his mark, but not a serious long term injury and again had Luton really rated him they would have kept him for div.2 rather than unloading him down the divisions to Hereford. Nobody higher than Hereford interested at that point (even a cut price return to AG perhaps?) suggests to me he was vastly over rated by Liverpool after maybe an eye catching month or 2 at AG, signed in desperation by Luton, and actually found his true level with Hereford. That's my take on it half a century on, and I imagine City couldn't believe their luck when the 60k Liverpool offer came in.

Yep, I can see there's been a Spiring/Sharpe mix up somewhere along the way! Real shame about Gerry Sharpe - I remember a big crowd turning up at AG for a reserve match when he attempted a comeback, but sadly his injury wasn't up to it.

He played League football with Hereford until he was 33, and Wiki has him down as still alive.

I don't remember hearing that before. He was at Liverpool for about a year, on the bench twice but no appearances, before he was moved on. I doubt he broke his leg (or certainly not badly in a Gerry Sharpe way) while at Liverpool or presumably Luton wouldn't have paid even more for him (70k) than Liverpool did to us. Also had 8 seasons at Hereford after Luton.

I thought he first became a regular after being brought in as Garland's direct replacement up front, but maybe he was thought of as a winger before that and then moved wide again after Gould was signed? Either way, somehow Liverpool were prepared to pay almost twice as much for Spiring as they had for Keegan some 18 months earlier.

Spiring must go down as one of City's best ever sales, the 60k we received from Liverpool was a fairly substantial fee in '73. Garland's replacement iirc and a career scoring rate of about a goal every 4 games for City. Can't imagine what Liverpool saw in him but he never played a first team game for them and was quickly moved on to Luton.

If it's still possible for him to represent England then Southgate should be on the case.

Nope, but I hope they all do well individually, and more importantly come out of the games unscathed.

Don't think that's likely as Meijer only scored twice in total for City. One of those I remember being early on in a home match (Brum?) when he somehow scored from what appeared from my spot in the EE to be an impossible angle near the corner flag between the Enclosure and the open End. So unless he came on as a sub. in the first few minutes in that game, scored immediately, and then scored again later in the game, I'm afraid it can't have happened.

Always going to be October, bar any setbacks, so he's a bit early but not much. McCrory's the only one we've been told definitely won't be back this side of Christmas.

The point is Bristol Live reported that Rovers have no current banning orders (compared to City's 34) Yet all those Rovers fans arrested in that one incident against FGR (inexplicably not named in the article btw) should currently be serving bans - at least one of them reportedly for 10 years. Rovers have had more arrests than City in each of the last 2 seasons for incidents of at least equal seriousness and Bristol Live have previously reported long bans for Rovers fans which would certainly still be active. Their statement that no Rovers fans are currently serving bans is contrary to their previous reporting and must be a nonsense. Very odd indeed.

On the face of it City fans are being banned for offences where Rovers fans committing the same - or worse - offences are not. Offences do sound similar for both clubs but presumably violent disorder - City 0 arrests last season, Rovers 4 arrests - is more serious than public disorder, and Rovers fans (presuming they are convicted) are apparently not facing bans for a more serious offence than City fans are being banned for.

We've got other fans from New Zealand, but particularly notable is another member of OTIB, @kiwicolin, who I believe lives in Bristol and has been a match attending City fan for some considerable time.

That's a really good number, for some reason I thought it would be less than half of that. No wonder they never seem to advertise for new members, they don't need to!

Funny how you can form a mental picture of regular posters through their posts, or sometimes their avatar, and in reality - hardly surprisingly - they could hardly look more different. Anyway, glad you and your brother had a great time PSR - if that's really you!

Yep, he's described as 'Bristol- based Martin', first line of of paragraph 5.