Mr Popodopolous

I forgot to add, sublime free kick by Twine today. Really nice. Winning free kicks too with his creativity, his ability to carry at times. We've missed that for a while..Scott did win them in both halves which was a major asset.

Shame if that is the last we have seen of James at Ashton Gate.

Evans reckons our penalty was a dive, make of it what you will. Certainly softer than some of the good and nailed on shouts we had waved away under NP..high boot to the head of Wells v Watford before the World Cup in late 2022 sticks in the mind.

Moving towards parity now. 11 wins, 30 games..41 points. We are doing okay. Manning has turned it round from looking under serious pressure- the intent in 4 or 5 of the last 7 has been strong, Rounding off with a win at Stoke would be excellent, give us a chance of 10th even. Rohl and Cifuentes, wow take a bow given where they were at point of takeover. *Sheffield Wednesday- 0 Wins 3 Draws 11 Games. *QPR- 2 Wins, 8 Points, 14 Games. Sunderland are of interest, after they beat Plymouth in mid February..

I've checked, dunno about dreadful- matter of opinion but he has missed some big chances earlier in the season, notably Southampton Away. 10 League Goals, 5 of them penalties..funnily enough the 2 at Rotherham especially the winner were really like the Conway who burst onto the scene IMO. I digress, 1 site says 38 League games, 1.4 shots per game. 53.2 shots, 18.89% Conversion Rate if we assume 53. Albeit he won the penalty today. 5/5 Penalties, 5 Goals, 48.2 shots.. 10.37%. 10.42% if we round down total shots. Think his ratio is quite decent for a player of his age, with two medium term injuries already, in a side who this year weren't giving the right sort of service for a while.

If at £5m, I'm not convinced. Otoh knows the coach, 24/25 ie good experience, but can grow, knows the club post his loan spell and he does seem to give us something. If we can haggle the fee down a bit..

What about James or was today his Ashton Gate swansong? It is a positive end to the season this.7 unbeaten only 2 real poor displays l. Can we aim at 10th? Preston have 2 tricky games plus a vastly inferior Goal Difference. Top half now assured I assume? Twine could he he what we need to thread it together. £5m I'd still be wary of though.

Despite my strong views on Ashton, what I will say is that a decent squad sure but nothing stellar keeping pace and then after a slump going qgain with 3 Parachute clubs, not just any but Leeds, Leicester, Southampton who are all 3 of the bigger clubs to drop ag once and finishing ahead of 1 let alone 2....very very impressive That decent but not for this level stellar group of players, it is probably a 1 in 20 type scenario to align, to strike when the iron is hot is key of course.

It was a team effort the disaster..can't solely blame Ashton of course.

I'm hoping we sell nobody or at worst Conway. If we sell Conway as we take the reluctant decision as he won't sign s new deal, we have to reinvest a decent amount of the Scott and Conway cash. Ideally James and Williams can be kept on

Did a great deal of damage to this club but again each to their own.

Strange how any City fan can wish someone with the involvement of that tosser well but each to their own.

Sooner Leeds than that ***** at Portman Road tbh.

Agreed! We were but they were in a very rich vein, winning most weeks in a dominant manner, they were for about 2 months or until start of April. The Championship has a great habit of dragging flying clubs back into the pack Agreed, but still conflicted. If QPR win this Ipswich should be odds on really in any case? Ipswich can give us hope, feels a bit of bow or never. On the flipside if Ipswich went up we would have a minimum of 4 Parachute Payments clubs in the Championship next year, possibly even 5 depending on who wins the playoffs.

In terms of going up I can't really warm to.any of them. Leicester may have breached FFP and maybe set to breach again. Ipswich well nuff said. Southampton, Russell Martin. Ironically Leeds don't fit any of those and certainly appear to be aligned to FFP e.g.

Agree with you both. Football side yeah some time and an opportunity brought. Hierarchy above.. wow lot to prove, that's being kind- perhaps damage already done and pretty damn hard to repair any time soon wirh some individuals. Marshall said a certain amount without saying a huge amount in the Podcast although it was nice to hear from him and the two majorly problematic individuals seem majorly secure and not only secure but secure in their present positions unfortunately. Another risk although I hope it isn't the case here is that in a lot of cases being run in a shoddy or a mediocre way will eventually feed into the on pitch stuff. Or at least constrain progress, not necessarily a tactical, technical ability or character of player issue, more poor governance.

IMO.. *The start was 1 part poor, 1 part good. *Then a slump albeit masked by the Cup games. *The two February wins felt like it could have been a platform but.. *Another slump, 4 losses on the bounce, become 5 in 6. *The decent run now. This latter run has got us back to par. Just par. Position inherited: P15W6D3L6F16A16Pts21GD0 40% Win Ratio, 1.4 PPG Currently on a 1.31 PPG and 11 wins from 29, that is 37 93%. Possibly 2-3 points light. Win this weekend and we are all but up to par. The intent in 3, if not 4 of the last 6 has been a welcome indicator however.

Thanks. That accounts for some Mandated by the Safety Advisory Group doesn't fully account for restricted views however. It also reduces scope to split the Atyeo say. I appreciate Restricted views mean lower prices in the relevant areas I assume, I get it on one level. That's more a Commercial rather than Safety rationale though?

Fair points, perhaps yeah. If some of this changed post redevelopment, then it could account for the change in capacity but it seems to have been designated by the Safety Advisory Group.

When we consider that the stand is separate from the other 3, a cloak and dagger cut of anything up to 800 seats...not acceptable. Certainly aligned with the lack of transparency or official announcement. Relative to other Stadia and their segregation by comparison even more so.

Thjs s a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine. *I recall the Atyeo wheb it was a Home Only stand held 4,200. I will try and find it. *That by @IAmNick adds up to 3,900. *However @JerrySLO said 3,414 said the max ae permitted by the SAG for football. That latter point I have a serious issue with, anywhere between 10-20% of capacity has been vanished away into thin air. Or I should say there is a serious transparency issue there IMO. That is 1.5-3% of stadium capacity too *How was the decision arose at? *Who made it? *What was the specific rationale? *Who were the relevant Officers in respect of it? Are wholly valid questions I would say. This bit is from a thread during the redevelopment.

In respect of NP in general..dunno if he reads this place. *All the best with your health. *Hope you flourish in next job. *I do think you merit and hope you get, a relatively cushy job such as a well resourced Parachute club next time albeit in some cases a pressure to get straight back up...but some quite undeserving or in other cases fairly unproven managers get these roles. You are neither. *The Youth development, the Profit on Disposal, the improvement in results and over time 1performance level/underlying numbers with both less players certainly senior ones depth wise and less of a wage bill- very impressive. A solid legacy bequeathed without doubt by NP and his team, and Gould also helped to set the ship in the right direction. You and youth team merited significantly better.

Agree with both, although would counter that new managers try new things..another reason why the change being made when it was in some ways ill-advised, that inevitable attempt at transition often can see points dropped- whereas an orderly handover in the summer you have less flux, less issues..can see what works, what may not work in friendlies. In some ways it wrote off the season a bit although 2-3 light and especially lacking a viable Scott replacement perhaps the die was cast in August.

I'll look forward to watching this later, sounds like the hierarchy have acted both terribly and with incompetence and a distincf lack of professionalism. NP and his team deserved much better, left a solid base.

Our support Home.and Away this year, with the usual caveats of location at times applying, has been pretty good.