Very Encouraged, Not Carried Away

[Nibor]

There was much to be positive about tonight. We played a good mix of football, some passing and moving, some direct, some pacey counter. We pressed high up the pitch, we made some last ditch challenges and a couple of excellent saves. We scored from a set piece - a short corner no less - something I was convinced was an impossibility up until tonight. We scored early, and we followed it up. We scored from range, we scored inside the six yard box, and a penalty too. We did it all with growing confidence, epitomised by Woolford's excellent performance topped with a sublime lobbed goal, and by Ryan Taylor's man of the match show straight from two years of obscurity on the bench or in the reserves.

Tonight was great. It was the happiest I've been leaving Ashton Gate for a good couple of years, and may we have many repeats this season.

But it was one game, and one signing. For many, the optimism came back. It didn't take much - four goals and two seven figure sums spent - but there it is. For others, what was already optimism might now cross the line into silliness. We should be positive, supportive, cautiously optimistic. Not talking about top half or taking the league by storm or the dreaded p word. Fontaine said it best in his programme notes - they're keeping the targets quiet and going about it game by game. We should do the same with our ambition, and try hard not confuse it with expectation.

So well done to everyone tonight, the players, management team and the board and rest of the club that has and presumably is still helping to put together this season's squad. Very well done indeed. More of the same please. And a centre half if it's not too much trouble.

Saturday we will have a tougher test than Palace (who did look to me like league one fodder) and we'll need to defend better without sacrificing the verve going forward. I doubt we'll see an unchanged XI, McInnes isn't that naive, and I doubt we will be pushing forward with such carefree abandon. But I'm fairly sure we'll turn up, and that it will be a real contest.

We'll need everybody behind the team and positive, the players confident but not cocky and we can take three points off the famous and historic pink dwagons. It won't be easy, but then again do Cardiff really want to play us now at Ashton Gate off the back of a sketchy win against Huddersfield, a scraped draw against Brighton and our sudden resurgence in hope? Probably not.

[Strictly Obi]

Good post! I'm surprised how much we seemed to have forked out on new players, considering we are supposed to be cutting back. The board really seem to be backing McInnes....which is fantastic.

Really proud of the team tonight, but not getting carried away. Would be good just to have a season where we aren't constantly thinking about the possibility of relegation. Fingers crossed!

[BTRFTG]

There was much to be positive about tonight. We played a good mix of football, some passing and moving, some direct, some pacey counter. We pressed high up the pitch, we made some last ditch challenges and a couple of excellent saves. We scored from a set piece - a short corner no less - something I was convinced was an impossibility up until tonight. We scored early, and we followed it up. We scored from range, we scored inside the six yard box, and a penalty too. We did it all with growing confidence, epitomised by Woolford's excellent performance topped with a sublime lobbed goal, and by Ryan Taylor's man of the match show straight from two years of obscurity on the bench or in the reserves.

Tonight was great. It was the happiest I've been leaving Ashton Gate for a good couple of years, and may we have many repeats this season.

But it was one game, and one signing. For many, the optimism came back. It didn't take much - four goals and two seven figure sums spent - but there it is. For others, what was already optimism might now cross the line into silliness. We should be positive, supportive, cautiously optimistic. Not talking about top half or taking the league by storm or the dreaded p word. Fontaine said it best in his programme notes - they're keeping the targets quiet and going about it game by game. We should do the same with our ambition, and try hard not confuse it with expectation.

So well done to everyone tonight, the players, management team and the board and rest of the club that has and presumably is still helping to put together this season's squad. Very well done indeed. More of the same please. And a centre half if it's not too much trouble.

Saturday we will have a tougher test than Palace (who did look to me like league one fodder) and we'll need to defend better without sacrificing the verve going forward. I doubt we'll see an unchanged XI, McInnes isn't that naive, and I doubt we will be pushing forward with such carefree abandon. But I'm fairly sure we'll turn up, and that it will be a real contest.

We'll need everybody behind the team and positive, the players confident but not cocky and we can take three points off the famous and historic pink dwagons. It won't be easy, but then again do Cardiff really want to play us now at Ashton Gate off the back of a sketchy win against Huddersfield, a scraped draw against Brighton and our sudden resurgence in hope? Probably not.

Spot on.

In all the euphoria some are also missing the other changes from late that led to last night's performance:

Change in formation specifically, dispensing with the 'Albert Inside' experiment;

A keeper who talked (loudly) to his back four throughout the game, instructed them when to go & stay & who commands the whole of his box;

A confident Woolford (credit to Del if he's the catalyst) who's actively looking to get involved, who's work rate has gone through the roof & who's managed to acquire from somewhere a degree of 'bite';

In Cunningham a full back who at odds with the rest we've seen of late can both defend & attack;

Competition for places.

One tanking, however, does not a promotion make, particularly when it was against a side forecast to finish bottom three & who displayed nothing last night to dispel Old Moore.

We also need to caution the utter reliance we place on Skuse, if he's out , what then? A creative central midfielder & centre back are still required and, who knows, with them in place & the also rans disposed of some of our ugly ducklings might actually flourish into swans.

[Monkeh]

I think the most important thing thats been overlooked, is our fitness we looked like we never got out of 3rd gear for most of the night and kept running for 90 minutes with no players looking tired at all,

Credit to del for the tough pre-season he's put them through something we've not had since Johnson left, it shows how amateurish our last two managers (teflon and copout) were

[CliftonCliff]

quote

I think the most important thing thats been overlooked, is our fitness we looked like we never got out of 3rd gear for most of the night and kept running for 90 minutes with no players looking tired at all,

Credit to del for the tough pre-season he's put them through something we've not had since Johnson left,

Good point and absolutely right. Well done for picking up what most have ignored. This has been an issue for some time and it directly contributed to a number of limp capitulations against poor opposition last season. Much more energy and a higher tempo last night, and if it had been a cup game going into extra time you'd have backed them to keep on running for another 30 minutes. I hope this will prove to be an important aspect of our season, teams will find we no longer run out of steam in the last ten minutes and, above all, we don't make a habit of conceding late goals through fatigue and the associated loss of concentration.

Cardiff will give us a sterner examination: it'll be interesting to see how we stand up to it.

[054123]

Good post.

Very pleased last night and to be fair we gave a good account of ourselves at Forest, but Saturday is the test. 3 points there and maybe i will start to think that we will avoid the relegation dog fight.

As Gary always said, look at it in blocks of 10.

If we can develop this season and finsh around mid table, i will be happy.

[CliftonCliff]

Contrast the Gillingham game to last nights game and its obvious that the players need constant kicks up the arse. If they go into the Cardiff game with the same mentality as Gillingham, we'll be back to square one.

Its vital that they put in a performance if not a result to maintain the confidence - not just for themselves, but for the supporters as well.

Thats been the problem for years.

Great result and performance last night, but we've been here before. Lets hope this is the real deal.

Fair comment. I was at the Gills game, too. We were woeful, to the extent that I was actually quite angry by the end of the game and felt like asking for my money back. What a difference a week makes.

It's true this lot can let you down at times, for no obviously apparent reason. One possible difference in the light of recent signings, though, is that if someone now plays like he doesn't want the shirt, there's going to be somebody else who will want his place. There were times last season whe McInnes had little option but to pick the same players even if they had underperformed. That situation seems to be changing. Nothing to concentrate the mind quite like having hungry competition breathing down your neck.

[City Ben]

Saturday we will have a tougher test than Palace (who did look to me like league one fodder) and we'll need to defend better without sacrificing the verve going forward. I doubt we'll see an unchanged XI, McInnes isn't that naive, and I doubt we will be pushing forward with such carefree abandon.

Nice balanced post Nibor.

Just interested in the view I've quoted above. Why do you think it would be naive to start with an unchanged side? Do you just mean as Cardiff offer a lot more as an attacking threat? I'm always torn between adapting tactics to best exploit the opposition... and backing yourself to just be better than them and concentrating on your own game.

FWIW however I do tend to agree with you - not least as DMc has just said that he sees this as a squad game etc etc. Given the number of signings I'm expecting a fair bit of rotation through this season.

[Kid in the Riot]

Nice balanced post Nibor.

Just interested in the view I've quoted above. Why do you think it would be naive to start with an unchanged side? Do you just mean as Cardiff offer a lot more as an attacking threat? I'm always torn between adapting tactics to best exploit the opposition... and backing yourself to just be better than them and concentrating on your own game.

FWIW however I do tend to agree with you - not least as DMc has just said that he sees this as a squad game etc etc. Given the number of signings I'm expecting a fair bit of rotation through this season.

McInnes picks the team best suited to beat the opposition. He will not stick with a winning starting line up just for the sake of it.

[The Red Planet]

Great post Nibor. Summed up my views about last night's game precisely.

As I said on another thread, what is exciting me is that McIness is now free of the restraints he had after he came in last season namely contracts with players he did not want to use and the urgent need to avoid relegation.

Although Nibor is right to caution against getting carried away after thrashing a poor side last night, at the very least I am certain that we will not be in a relegation scrap at the end of this season.

And, if Mcinnes is as competent as I think he is (and assuming we bring in the strong CB we still need) this could be a very good season indeed.

However, despite their unimpressive start, Cardiff will be a sterner test on Saturday and they are usually well fired up for this fixture.

[Nibor]

Nice balanced post Nibor.

Just interested in the view I've quoted above. Why do you think it would be naive to start with an unchanged side? Do you just mean as Cardiff offer a lot more as an attacking threat? I'm always torn between adapting tactics to best exploit the opposition... and backing yourself to just be better than them and concentrating on your own game.

FWIW however I do tend to agree with you - not least as DMc has just said that he sees this as a squad game etc etc. Given the number of signings I'm expecting a fair bit of rotation through this season.

I think Cardiff are a different proposition and the game will be much less open. We'll probably need an extra man in the midfield as we won't dominate it with just two there like we did last night. I do believe you should try and play your own game and impose it on the opposition, but I doubt that is achievable with the same shape so a certain amount of adaptation is needed. I wouldn't be surprised (harsh though it is) to see Taylor rested in favour of someone like Morris (or maybe Anderson in the hole) to give us an extra body in the middle. Also I would expect Wilson to play over Foster if he's available.

The "never change a winning side" adage has always been wrong for me.

[Nibor]

I think the most important thing thats been overlooked, is our fitness we looked like we never got out of 3rd gear for most of the night and kept running for 90 minutes with no players looking tired at all,

Credit to del for the tough pre-season he's put them through something we've not had since Johnson left, it shows how amateurish our last two managers (teflon and copout) were

I agree, our fitness is better than I've ever seen it this early into a season and it helped a lot last night. Without that we could have let Palace back in, Zaha was definitely a problem on the rare occasion they managed to get the ball to him.

[Monkeh]

I think Stead and Taylor will be dropped saturday for elliot and Davis and we will play 4-5-1

[marmite]

Great opening post Nibor, summed up how I felt last night also. Work rate, fitness, and support for each other was a massive improvement on what I saw against Gillingham. If thats what Woolford can do at his best then we have a real hidden gem in our squad. I have to add that the half-time entertainment was first class. City winning, Rovers losing, and a great new signing on the pitch.It doesn't get much better than that. Well done to SL and the board for the investments so far. Things are looking good. Lets all help to keep it going with massive support from the stands.

[Andy Horsman]

We looked fitter, kept our shape better, and our work rate and movement has improved exponentially. Palace looked a poor side, but equally We could have had 5 or 6 goals and their goal flattered them in the end. Early days but that was the best we have played for sometime, IMO

[bearded_red]

I think Cardiff are a different proposition and the game will be much less open. We'll probably need an extra man in the midfield as we won't dominate it with just two there like we did last night. I do believe you should try and play your own game and impose it on the opposition, but I doubt that is achievable with the same shape so a certain amount of adaptation is needed. I wouldn't be surprised (harsh though it is) to see Taylor rested in favour of someone like Morris (or maybe Anderson in the hole) to give us an extra body in the middle. Also I would expect Wilson to play over Foster if he's available.

The "never change a winning side" adage has always been wrong for me.

I was saying this last night. McInnes definitely has a selection headache for Saturday as one hand I think he will want to bring in an extra man in midfield against superior opposition, but on the other Stead and Taylor both played well last night and whichever one is dropped can feel extremely hard done by.

[downendcity]

Need to keep our feet on the ground as it's going to be a long hard season ahead.

We've had a pretty sucessful pre-season, certainly when compared to the previous 2/3 seasons, so we went into the Gillingham game with realistic optimism. We came down to earth with a bump and the optimism was replaced with pesimism and sceptism and many fans questioning whether anything had changed form the last 2 seasons. In particular lots asked where were the promised/expected new signings.

The Forest game produced another defeat, albeit with a better performance but still many were critical of McInnes's tactics, selection and prowess in the transfer market.

Last night was a good performance and result and the icing on the cake was the unexpected announcement of Baldock's signing. Suddenly all the doubters and moaners seem to be reborn positivity merchants.

I would make a number of observations:

• Last night all our strikers scored - Taylor, Stead, Woolford and Adomah - and I can't think the last time that happened ( apart from when we played a lone striker!)
  
• The majority of last night's team were with us last season.
  
• While we might have played well last night, I am sure we have much tougher challenges ahead staring with Cardiff this Saturday, as Palace seem to be a poor team with a worse defence than we have.
  
• When last night's team was announced there was general incredulaty on here, and I'm sure among fans in the ground, but they did the business so perhaps our manager knows what he is doing.
  
• Does McInnes change a winning team for Saturday?
  
• Who would you leave out to make way for one or more of the new signings?
  
• How long will it take for the new signings to gel with the rest of ther team?
  
• If we get turned over on Saturday will the feelgood factor disappear in an instant?
  
• Can McInnes maintain the confidence that seems to have developed, as I think this is probably the major missing factor over the last couple of seasons?
  

There is still a long way to go. I don't think we can challenge at the top end of the table as there are other much stronger teams, but I am more optimistic that we can avoid a relegation battle than I was this time last year and am hopeful that midtable security is well within our grasp and with the wind behind we might even have a sniff of the play off positions if we can score some goals this time around.