City V Brighton

[Bristol Boy]

After an unusually bright start, we ran out of ideas in around 15 minutes.

Regular readers will know my views on our Manager and yesterday convinced me that he should leave, even if we're lucky enough to gain promotion.

His predictable, like for like substitutions, affected nothing and Murray was far from fit, as DW admitted.

Goodfellow for Butler was to little, to late.

Perhaps he could have delayed them, but once again, we didn't create anything and our crossing and set pieces were as normal, inept and poorly delivered, apart from one excellent piece of interplay that lead, unfortunately to TB having a great chance which he bottled completely.

We are toothless in attack and our passing is poor.The pace of our game is pedantic when we don't play at high tempo and yesterday was another boring game from an unimaginative, boring manager and players who choke and refuse to accept responsibility.

"Let's all wait for somebody else to do it"

Bells' delivery of our "last chance," free kick, typified the afternoon and two of their keepers best saves were from Louis Carey.

RATINGS

Phillips: 7/10 Didn't have much to do and apart from an attack of dropsy in the first half and some dopey kicking into the wind in the second, OK.

Carey: 6/10 Tried to get forward and came as close to scoring as any of our forwards.

Hill 6/10: Defended OK but an embarrassment coming forward.Can't pass water or cross the road.

Coles: 6/10 See Hill

Butler: 6/10 See Hill

Bell: 6/10 Tried hard, but his legs have gone.Shooting scuffed, crosses looped, weak and inaccurate.

Doherty: 8/10 Best for a while and tried to get us playing

Wilkshire: 6/10 Along with Butler, fluffed our best chance

Rougier: 6/10 Started brightly but why hammer the ball from 20 yards and try and place it from 6? Still not scored and tired.

Peacock: 6/10 Usual hard work. No threat.

Roberts: 6/10 At his best when facing/running at their defence which he didn't do enough of.

Tinnion: 5/10 Didn't provide the change or a cutting edge.Up or down, it's his last season.

Murray 6/10 Not fit by a mile and has lost a yard of pace in a season.He was injured at Reading and you can see why he didn't get back in their team, at that level and why they didn't want to keep him.Had a go but his game is pace, confidence and fitness and he lacks all three at present.

Goodfellow: 3/10 Waste of space and only on for a while.

Lee Miller, our £365,000 signing, was left on the bench for the entire game.In a nutshell, that sums up Wilson.

We've lacked goals, all season and the manager did nothing to address this.

His deadline signings have not scored and one hasn't even played, when the side is crying out for creativity and set piece delivery.

NOW, DW if that means changing last seasons team OR even, heaven forefend, the formation, do it, because you're doing our heads in!!

[headhunter]

Spot on.

We have to remain hopeful but assuming we finish third that gives us the second leg at home against Brighton or Hartlepool - on current form could you see us reversing anything more than a 1 goal deficit in the 2nd leg with our current scoring record ??

[BCFC Wes]

Phillips 7/10

Carey 7/10

Butler 6/10

Hill 5/10

Coles 7/10

Bell 6/10

Rougier 7/10

Wilkshire 5/10

Doherty 8/10

Peacock 5/10

Roberts 5/10

Murray 5/10

Goodfellow 4/10

Tinnion 6/10

[SimplyRed]

We are toothless in attack and our passing is poor.The pace of our game is pedantic when we don't play at high tempo and yesterday was another boring game from an unimaginative, boring manager and players who choke and refuse to accept responsibility.

Maybe you should go and watch Premiership football, because i think with your standards, no 2nd or 1st division side is ever going to be good enough for you.

You seem to see things totally differently to me and I rarely agree with your views - too extreme.

I thought yesterday's game was entertaining, we outplayed a team that came for a draw, and we deserved to win. It didn't happen - shame. I'ts not a trigger to come out with all guns blazing, is it?

[Bristol Boy]

Spot on.

We have to remain hopeful but assuming we finish third that gives us the second leg at home against Brighton or Hartlepool - on current form could you see us reversing anything more than a 1 goal deficit in the 2nd leg with our current scoring record ??

In a word "No"

Before Luton, we hadn't scored two goals in a game for TWO MONTHS and that two goal game was Grimsby, when "goal two," came in the 93rd Minute and could easily have been disallowed!!

If we don't gain automatic promotion, I've already decided to give the play off legs a miss.

[Bristol Boy]

Maybe you should go and watch Premiership football, because i think with your standards, no 2nd or 1st division side is ever going to be good enough for you.

You seem to see things totally differently to me and I rarely agree with your views - too extreme.

I thought yesterday's game was entertaining, we outplayed a team that came for a draw, and we deserved to win. It didn't happen - shame. I'ts not a trigger to come out with all guns blazing, is it?

It's all about views and, whilst I don't agree with you, this Forum would be as boring as Wilson if differing views, didn't exist, so thanks for your reply.

As far as being entertaining, sorry, but if that's your idea of an entertaining game, then we really don't agree.

At this juncture, it's about winning-in fact-professional football is all about winning and the fact that when you add in the clubs wish to turn the club into some kind of "sanitised, prawn sandwich munching, crochet club" you can see why we didn't sell out yesterday.

People just don't want to watch it and, like it or not, we need additional support to take our club forward.

[Guest Harry May]

Very harsh view there , BB. I will be the first to moan when we play like we did say ,against Wycombe / Oldham. But yesterday I thought we totally outplayed Brighton. We were by far the better team . Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition and I thought Brighton came with a gameplan which they stuck to very well.The central defence partnership for Brighton was excellent - Guy Butters in particular.And from where I sat in Block B of the Dolman, we were once again denied a clear penalty when a Brighton defender hand balled it in the box. We have not had a penalty all season ( in the League ) and surely that must change - just hope our players can remember how to take one.

Yes , we have been poor at times . Yes - at times the football has been sub-Pulis standard. But yesterday was not one of those times. We deserved to win and we did n't.

Caldicot Red.

[Swindon Hater]

Wilson has annoyed me all season with some puzzling decisions and I usually agree with most of your posts BB, but I think your talking rubbish now and going well OTT.

We played some great stuff yesterday and I go into the playoffs (If we miss out on top two) feeling very confident after seeing us outplay every side in the top six really.

I don't know why Wilson persists in playing Luke Wilkshire as he does nothing, whenever Tinman comes on the place lifts and the team get going, he should start every game possible.

I feel Rougier deserved to start yesterday despite Murray being fit or not, he has done superbly well and deserved a chance, he didn't do much so Murray to come on is fine and nearly worked out well.

We've needed a goalscorer all season, I can't help but think if we'd have snapped up Mark Robins we'd be celebrating now.

[Spud55]

Wilson has annoyed me all season with some puzzling decisions and I usually agree with most of your posts BB, but I think your talking rubbish now and going well OTT.

We played some great stuff yesterday and I go into the playoffs (If we miss out on top two) feeling very confident after seeing us outplay every side in the top six really.

I don't know why Wilson persists in playing Luke Wilkshire as he does nothing, whenever Tinman comes on the place lifts and the team get going, he should start every game possible.

I feel Rougier deserved to start yesterday despite Murray being fit or not, he has done superbly well and deserved a chance, he didn't do much so Murray to come on is fine and nearly worked out well.

We've needed a goalscorer all season, I can't help but think if we'd have snapped up Mark Robins we'd be celebrating now.

We did play some good stuff in the middle of the park where there wasn't a birghton player in sight, but when it came to being near their box the players froze. I haven't seen what in the name of god was going on for the free kick where Doc and Butler decided to have a little 1 - 2 with the goal seemingly at their mercy, anyone know why neither of them had a shot ?

I am relatively confident about the playoffs because we are arguably better when we turn up than all of the top 6, and unquestionable better than the other 3 sides that will end up in the playoffs should we need them. However all of those sides, Hartlepool aside have 1 thing we dont a goalscorer, We have scored so many goals from nothing this season, Swindon was a goal from a mistake, Plymouth was not a wonderful piece of play, but give us a side that come here to defend and we struggle to break them down. The problem i see with this is that it almost makes the first leg away from AG ###### or bust, because if we bring Brighton back to AG and they have a 1-0 lead then we will struggle just like we did yesturday, we will have to commit men forward and that will leave us suseptable to the break.

Some say now is not the time to experiment i say it is, because for the next 2 games we have absolutely nothing to loose, we can win both games and still not go up, the pressure is all on QPR so we should be going for broke in the next two games, if anything to see if we can bloody well do this thing called scoring goals.

[sh1t_ref_again]

BB - I think your hatred of Wilson is clouding your view of a good entertaining game that we more than deserved to win. Brighton are in the play offs (cant see why) and we played them off the park as we did against QPR and the new champions Plymouth.

Perhaps if we end up in the play offs, perhaps the team will be better off without you no doubt moaning at our manager and players at ever oppurtunity.

[Guest city slicker 71]

BB - I think your hatred of Wilson is clouding your view of a good entertaining game that we more than deserved to win. Brighton are in the play offs (cant see why) and we played them off the park as we did against QPR and the new champions Plymouth.

Perhaps if we end up in the play offs, perhaps the team will be better off without you no doubt moaning at our manager and players at ever oppurtunity.

That old chestnut of, "we wuz robbed" don't hold any currency any more the real currency plastic as it may be, is that which one that has to be very shrewed with these days. Like it or not overall in terms of value for money it's been a very poor return in terms of seeing what you want to see, I'm old Bristol City go there to see em win. The finishing is just not there I'm afraid so no I did't find it very entertaining apart from the first 20 minutes.

Their repeated gift wrapped goals from set pieces all season along with lunatic substitutions will not suffice in the higher order, and for those who repeatedly bark "well were third" are not really looking at the wider corridor, bottom six, if we are truthful.

Frankly all the front runners are not up to much, a couple of stars in each none with the powerful consistency of Wigan last season. Parting with what to me is a large sum of cash is one thing to become even more self-deluding is another; extreme did I hear?

[Bristol Boy]

Very harsh view there , BB. I will be the first to moan when we play like we did say ,against Wycombe / Oldham. But yesterday I thought we totally outplayed Brighton. We were by far the better team . Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition and I thought Brighton came with a gameplan which they stuck to very well.The central defence partnership for Brighton was excellent - Guy Butters in particular.And from where I sat in Block B of the Dolman, we were once again denied a clear penalty when a Brighton defender hand balled it in the box. We have not had a penalty all season ( in the League ) and surely that must change - just hope our players can remember how to take one.

Yes , we have been poor at times . Yes - at times the football has been sub-Pulis standard. But yesterday was not one of those times. We deserved to win and we did n't.

Caldicot Red.

I agree we outplayed Brighton and deserved to win.

That we couldn't, sums up our season and DW.

We've been crying out for a goal scorer since the end of last season and his efforts in finding one and improving the service to those we've got have been abysmall.

[Bristol Boy]

That old chestnut of, "we wuz robbed" don't hold any currency any more the real currency plastic as it may be, is that which one that has to be very shrewed with these days. Like it or not overall in terms of value for money it's been a very poor return in terms of seeing what you want to see, I'm old Bristol City go there to see em win. The finishing is just not there I'm afraid so no I did't find it very entertaining apart from the first 20 minutes.

Their repeated gift wrapped goals from set pieces all season along with lunatic substitutions will not suffice in the higher order, and for those who repeatedly bark "well were third" are not really looking at the wider corridor, bottom six, if we are truthful.

Frankly all the front runners are not up to much, a couple of stars in each none with the powerful consistency of Wigan last season. Parting with what to me is a large sum of cash is one thing to become even more self-deluding is another; extreme did I hear?

Spot on City Slicker.

Those with rose tinted specs need a reality check and, I suspect, are part of the sanitisation of Football that I want no part of.

The standard of our play has been crap on the whole and the managers refusal to see simple things until they're to late is, perhaps, the most frustrating part of it.

[Bristol Boy]

Wilson has annoyed me all season with some puzzling decisions and I usually agree with most of your posts BB, but I think your talking rubbish now and going well OTT.

We played some great stuff yesterday and I go into the playoffs (If we miss out on top two) feeling very confident after seeing us outplay every side in the top six really.

I don't know why Wilson persists in playing Luke Wilkshire as he does nothing, whenever Tinman comes on the place lifts and the team get going, he should start every game possible.

I feel Rougier deserved to start yesterday despite Murray being fit or not, he has done superbly well and deserved a chance, he didn't do much so Murray to come on is fine and nearly worked out well.

We've needed a goalscorer all season, I can't help but think if we'd have snapped up Mark Robins we'd be celebrating now.

So I'm going OTT.

Your additional comments seem to almost echo what I've said, so which bits are wrong?

Honestly, on yesterdays showing, do you fancy Hartlepool over two legs with the first one away?

Our form against the top six (other five) is excellent, but the play offs are essentially a cup competition with CURRENT, not 46 game form, being the determinning factor and our current form, in keeping with the top two, is pants.

After the first 15/20 minutes we could have played until midnight and not scored.

[TimmerD]

BB - I am in total agreement with your comments in this post.

I went to the game on Sat full of hope and optimism - in my eyes Sat was a make or break day. It was a game we HAD to win after stumbling on numerous occasions over the past two months.

We started brightly enough but after 20 mins I texted a mate at the Plymouth game saying that "This game has 0-0 all over it".

We were predicatable, lacked anyone with any imagination and when we should have shot we passed and when we should have passed we shot.

I was astounded this morning reading DW's quote that he was not interested in the events at Home Park and didn't find out the result until he got back into his office. If this is true its really very worrying.

If he had been paying attention and he heard that QPR went 2-0 down, he should have gone for broke and piled on the pressue. Imagine how it would have changed the pattern of the last two games of the season.

The striker issue is one I have written about on here before and I am disappointed nothing effective has been done to address it - surely Miller and Lita deserve a chance???

Also, I said before the game we should have started with Caskey - now I know he is probably overweight, but with him on for 45 - 60 mins his creativity may have unlocked the Brighton defence. But no, we had to put up with DW's ineptitude once again.

I could go on and on, but I wont, all I can say is that I think we missed a golden chance on Sat and if we make it up in 2nd it will be down to QPR bottling it. If we are in the play-offs I really can't see us getting out of this division this year.

I've been a City fan for too many years to remember and its a very familiar and predictable end to another disappointing season.

[bucksred]

Given that we beat Cardiff TWICE in the season, you would have thought we could do it again in the playoffs, and we didnt. I wouldnt be confident in the playoffs, because we'll probably turn out the performances similar to that at Wycombe/Stockport/Port Vale. Its amazing that we still havent caught QPR up, despite their wobble. And they are similar to us, wierd substitutions, bottling other games, Excuses etc. The best team won the league, and thats with a virtually unchanged side. What does that say bout City and QPR, then?

Playoffs are a one off, and although if we went to the Final in Cardiff, I WOULD fancy our chances, due to having played there already and winning a (Mickey Mouse) Cup final, its the first round of them I wouldnt fancy one little bit. 4 out of 6 gainst QPR, Swineden, and Brighton, and 6 out of 6 gainst the champions count for jack in this stage of the game.

We never seem capable of breaking down a defensive minded side, and I really cant see us coming back from a goal down, in a two leg game like last season. We have to push totally for automatic, and even then we HAVE to depend on QPR losing. Not good having spent so much on players is it?

Progress under Wilson eh? Who would have believed it? :@ :@

And dont even start about his ###### wierd substitutions over the last two games, let alone the season!! Does he really want promotion, or is he in a nice comfort zone, preffering to big a big fish, in a small pond, rather than a small fish in a bigger pond (Its called ambition, Danny!) :@ :@

God its so ######* frustrating this bloody season-best chance for years, and we aint taken the ######!!!!!!! :@

[Maesknoll Red]

Does he really want promotion, or is he in a nice comfort zone, preffering to big a big fish, in a small pond, rather than a small fish in a bigger pond (Its called ambition, Danny!) :@ :@

I'm sure that this was tongue in cheek, it is virtually beyond comprehension that any manager or player would not have the ambition to win promotion..........having the ability to do it is another question.