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who was the best?


stephenkibby.

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Rodney Marsh for me (in Div 2). I remember going to Loftus Road in 1971 and he tore us apart although we were near the top of the table at the time. We lost 3-0, it's the only time I've come away from an away defeat thinking I'd enjoyed the match. Marsh was just unplayable that day, I think it was Geoff Merrick who had the job of marking him and he was given a torrid time, Marsh knew he could beat him at will but you could only admire his skill rather than be annoyed with our defence.

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I can just about remember watching Stanley Mathews playing for Blackpool v City in the F A Cup in 1959. Can't remember much about the match, or him, other than he was still lively even though he was over 40. 

Mike Thresher bottled him up and the star of the game was City's right winger Wally Hinshelwood who had a blinder. Only 42,000 there. Poor Gate for Sir Stanley's only appearance at Ashton Gate.

For me the greatest player I saw at Ashton Gate was John Charles of Leeds and Wales. He went from Leeds to Juventus, became a legend there. He played either as a centre back or a centre forward and was world class in either role.

Just like our Big John, he was never ccautioned (yellow) or sent off in a career lasting 16 years and 750 games.

At the end of his life when he was terminally ill while in Turin and the Juventus club chartered a plane to fly him back home to Yorkshire. That's how well respected he was by them.

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Liam Brady.

Mention of the Spurs 0-0  played on an ice hard ground...agree about Ricky Villa, superb that day oddly enough...I remember the Spurs keeper Kendall slipping backwards as he took a cross and banging the back of his head on the ice and it knocked him unconscious. After about 10 mins of treatment to revive him he continued in goal!

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Not strictly the right answer but i was bowled over by Cloughie's Forest , newly promoted to the First Division , they formed a guard of honour to welcome us on to our own Ashton Gate pitch , then completely dismantled us , 0-3 .

Different class .

Thet beat us 2-0 at the Gate in our promotion season, the two wingers were amazing (senior moment, names escape me) !

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Thet beat us 2-0 at the Gate in our promotion season, the two wingers were amazing (senior moment, names escape me) !

John Robertson would have been one. One of my favourite players as a kid.

 

As for best performances, John Salako for Swansea. Think they beat us 5-1 and he tore us a new one.

 

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best performance I can recall was Stan Collimore who single handedly blitzed us for Forest in a second tier game in perhaps 1990 . 

I remember that one, he tore us a new one.  Utterly superb.

I also remember seeing us beat Carlisle 5-0 in an FA Cup Replay in early 1981 and thinking that even though they got stuffed they had one young player that really stood out.

It was a 19 year old Peter Beardsley...

:laugh: I was at that game!  We were terrible around then so how we won 5-0 is beyond me. IIRC, when I went to Uni, the guy in charge of the Sports Centre was an ex-pro for Carlisle who'd played in that game!  Played 5-a-side against him a few times, couldn't get near him.  Anyone who says pros are crap should try playing against one!  Even at 40-odd years old he showed us young 'uns what it means to be really good...

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There was a strapping lad who played us off the pitch when O'Driscoll's Doncaster came to the Gate .

Welsh i think  , Emmanuel Thomas , whatever happened to him ?

I have been lucky to see City in the top flight and at that time every club had stand out players they were n't all bought by Man City , Chelsea or Man Utd .

The best ? Liam Brady ,good shout , Hoddle , Bowles , Worthington, Marsh, Shilton , Clémence , too difficult to say .

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I remember that one, he tore us a new one.  Utterly superb.

:laugh: I was at that game!  We were terrible around then so how we won 5-0 is beyond me. IIRC, when I went to Uni, the guy in charge of the Sports Centre was an ex-pro for Carlisle who'd played in that game!  Played 5-a-side against him a few times, couldn't get near him.  Anyone who says pros are crap should try playing against one!  Even at 40-odd years old he showed us young 'uns what it means to be really good...

That's true mate, I marked David Lee in a game after he had left Chelsea and put on loads of weight. But his first touch, general awareness and positional sense were unbelievable. I was also up against Howard Pritchard and Gerry Sweeney in a match about 10 years ago. My God, Sweeney's fitness was unbelievable and Howard still had the skills.

And I played a whole season alongside Peter Aitken for an amateur team, he just made every opposing team look very ordinary and ran the show week in week out. Outstanding.

You're spot on, ex pros can make us mere mortals look stupid on a football pitch with consummate ease!

 

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1-4, I think.

There were a group of 15ers in with the Forest fans in the open end.

They got a kicking afterwards, iirc.

They should have made a book about the FEC "falling trees", every time we've played them in god knows how many years they've always came off 2nd best, funny how things get left out of every book when it comes to City.

Sorry to deflect from the thread, back on track; I remember many a player who you could see easily why they were good enough to wear the national shirt & I don't think I'd be happy singling one out (partly because of my appalling memory), however I remember a Tuesday night v Southampton in recent times (last 15 years) towards the end of his career and probably against a crap City team but I was gobsmacked at how defensively assured, quick, hard in the tackle and what got me was how for a player at the end of his career how mobile he was, the highlight was his offensive play and how he put a cross on a stamp every time he put the ball in the box, ladies and gents- Mr G. Le-Saux.

yes I'm shocked too.

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Not strictly the right answer but i was bowled over by Cloughie's Forest , newly promoted to the First Division , they formed a guard of honour to welcome us on to our own Ashton Gate pitch , then completely dismantled us , 0-3 .

Different class .

Agree - that Forest team was different class and the best side I had have seen at Ashton Gate.

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From the old first division days I would say that Brady, Hoddle and Dalglish were the standout players as others have mentioned.

Additionally, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Trevor Francis - he was outstanding against us and his 100th goal in league football (scored against us at St Andrews) was one one of the best I've ever seen

Best defender was Kevin Beattie who would have been a world class player and a fixture in the England team had he not been crocked by injury. Bobby Robson described him as the best England player he had ever seen.

 

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