My opinion on today's game..

[#TeamsLikeBarnsley]

I thought it was a proper game of football. I enjoyed it. 

 

Hourihane, Roberts, Scowen, White and Hammill have been shoe-ins in this side since before LJ left. Only Hammill was missing through choice today. It's the weakest starting XI (on paper) we've fielded this season, with a 19-year-old lad making his debut in midfield. But we put in another good performance I felt. It pleases me to see us playing the same way no matter the players selected. It shows we're doing things right on the training pitches. 

 

It was a frantic opening 20 minutes with neither side dominant. However, our wingers were having a lot of joy and it wasn't a surprise when we eventually scored. I think we deserved that lead, had chances to add to it, then fluffed a terrific chance to put the game to bed right before half-time. I was surprised at how poor Bristol City were once behind. They didn't look in the game at all as the whistle blew for the break. Tomlin went very close with a free-kick, but other than that, from 20 minutes in it was all Barnsley and the lack of another goal or two would come back to haunt us. 

 

Second half started similarly but neither fashioned much of an opportunity. Then, bizarrely, Jackson handles and Tomlin sticks home the penalty. We retaliated, Armstrong rattled the bar and Fielding made a couple of good saves. Then bang, 2-1 from nowhere. Some of our players were still hoping for a free-kick but City broke, Tomlin waltzed into the box and with everyone expecting a shot he slipped it inside for Abraham to slot home. Against the run of play perhaps, but another gift of a goal conceded, we're good at that sadly. 

 

I couldn't see anything but a 2-1 result at that point, but Hammill got himself one-on-one, did what he does, rescues a point. Fair result in my opinion. 

 

I think we played the better football. We were quicker, braver and had players who ran with the ball. City were very static and quite ponderous in approach unless Tomlin had the ball. He got 80% of things badly wrong, but he's capable of delivering in key moments. He's your Adam Hammill. I felt Bryan was a big factor in your result too. Another willing runner. 

 

I suppose I have to mention the referee and incidents etc. I saw the O'Neil and Winnall challenge, it was an elbow. I'm convinced it was un-intentional, but he definitely caught him. Then stood on him as he landed. I don't believe it was malicious at all that incident, however I have seen red cards given for less. The fact play was just allowed to go on, Winnall flat out on the grass for 30 seconds, then gets to his feet and the ref sees him covered in blood THEN stops play, I think that got the backs up of supporters. Then down to 10 for a good five minutes while he got medical attention, I can see why some were annoyed.

 

I saw the Tomlin incident too, that looked an arm rather than an elbow but was definitely intended. He got away with one basically.

 

I don't think our penalty was 100%. Not sure Winnall dives, but it didn't look a blatant foul in my opinion. I was surprised to see it given. Maybe the ref was trying to square things...?

 

Wilbraham was pulled up for a free-kick first-half, screamed (literally) in the ref's face. Wasn't booked. Morsy for us makes his first poor tackle, yellow card. The ref basically had a mare. I saw what looked an handball in our area second-half too, as well as one by Flint (I think) in your box. None seen. The lino's were useless though. They constantly waited for the ref to make a decision. Didn't have the bollocks to make their own. One of them was less than 10 yards off Winnall/O'Neil incident. Useless, as ever.

 

In summary, I felt we deserved three points in terms of the game as a whole, chances etc and the way both sides played. But for a spell in the second-half you seemed to click on in terms of working us out. Not only did you score twice in that period, Adam Davies had to pull off a world-class save to thwart you. So a draw feels fair to me.

 

If we had the missing players in, would we have fared better? Dunno, don't care. If my Aunty had balls etc.

 

Good point for both sides. We're both doing better than I anticipated. We have Burton away before the international break, you have Brighton (best side we've played along with Newcastle). Hoping we get a point at least from that, can't express just how chuffed I am to see us halfway up the division 15/16 games in considering the squad we have, built on £1,000,000 and a couple of loanees. Proud of my club battling among the likes of yourself and the others throwing big money at it. In fairness, you got silly money for Kodjia so I'm not lumping you in with Villa, Newcastle etc. But when you're signing players for £2,000,000+ I'm sure you can see my point when our squad as a whole costs half that.

 

A word on LJ to finish. I still like him and I hope he does well. Short but sweet. Like he is.

 

See you at AG next year. 

[BehindTheGoal]

City win 2-1 and this post doesn't happen...

 

[Up The City!]

We've seen some shocking and bizarre decisions go against us this season so pleased we may have got the rub of the green today. I am beginning to become concerned about Tomlin' being involved in incidents. Hrs got away with a few of them recently.

[Cambridge Batch Red]

Your new number 40 was good. Fast and was 15.

[Son of Fred]

4 hours ago, BehindTheGoal said:

City win 2-1 and this post doesn't happen...

 

But we didn't.

[Son of Fred]

5 hours ago, WhiteyBFC said:

I thought it was a proper game of football. I enjoyed it. 

 

Hourihane, Roberts, Scowen, White and Hammill have been shoe-ins in this side since before LJ left. Only Hammill was missing through choice today. It's the weakest starting XI (on paper) we've fielded this season, with a 19-year-old lad making his debut in midfield. But we put in another good performance I felt. It pleases me to see us playing the same way no matter the players selected. It shows we're doing things right on the training pitches. 

 

It was a frantic opening 20 minutes with neither side dominant. However, our wingers were having a lot of joy and it wasn't a surprise when we eventually scored. I think we deserved that lead, had chances to add to it, then fluffed a terrific chance to put the game to bed right before half-time. I was surprised at how poor Bristol City were once behind. They didn't look in the game at all as the whistle blew for the break. Tomlin went very close with a free-kick, but other than that, from 20 minutes in it was all Barnsley and the lack of another goal or two would come back to haunt us. 

 

Second half started similarly but neither fashioned much of an opportunity. Then, bizarrely, Jackson handles and Tomlin sticks home the penalty. We retaliated, Armstrong rattled the bar and Fielding made a couple of good saves. Then bang, 2-1 from nowhere. Some of our players were still hoping for a free-kick but City broke, Tomlin waltzed into the box and with everyone expecting a shot he slipped it inside for Abraham to slot home. Against the run of play perhaps, but another gift of a goal conceded, we're good at that sadly. 

 

I couldn't see anything but a 2-1 result at that point, but Hammill got himself one-on-one, did what he does, rescues a point. Fair result in my opinion. 

 

I think we played the better football. We were quicker, braver and had players who ran with the ball. City were very static and quite ponderous in approach unless Tomlin had the ball. He got 80% of things badly wrong, but he's capable of delivering in key moments. He's your Adam Hammill. I felt Bryan was a big factor in your result too. Another willing runner. 

 

I suppose I have to mention the referee and incidents etc. I saw the O'Neil and Winnall challenge, it was an elbow. I'm convinced it was un-intentional, but he definitely caught him. Then stood on him as he landed. I don't believe it was malicious at all that incident, however I have seen red cards given for less. The fact play was just allowed to go on, Winnall flat out on the grass for 30 seconds, then gets to his feet and the ref sees him covered in blood THEN stops play, I think that got the backs up of supporters. Then down to 10 for a good five minutes while he got medical attention, I can see why some were annoyed.

 

I saw the Tomlin incident too, that looked an arm rather than an elbow but was definitely intended. He got away with one basically.

 

I don't think our penalty was 100%. Not sure Winnall dives, but it didn't look a blatant foul in my opinion. I was surprised to see it given. Maybe the ref was trying to square things...?

 

Wilbraham was pulled up for a free-kick first-half, screamed (literally) in the ref's face. Wasn't booked. Morsy for us makes his first poor tackle, yellow card. The ref basically had a mare. I saw what looked an handball in our area second-half too, as well as one by Flint (I think) in your box. None seen. The lino's were useless though. They constantly waited for the ref to make a decision. Didn't have the bollocks to make their own. One of them was less than 10 yards off Winnall/O'Neil incident. Useless, as ever.

 

In summary, I felt we deserved three points in terms of the game as a whole, chances etc and the way both sides played. But for a spell in the second-half you seemed to click on in terms of working us out. Not only did you score twice in that period, Adam Davies had to pull off a world-class save to thwart you. So a draw feels fair to me.

 

If we had the missing players in, would we have fared better? Dunno, don't care. If my Aunty had balls etc.

 

Good point for both sides. We're both doing better than I anticipated. We have Burton away before the international break, you have Brighton (best side we've played along with Newcastle). Hoping we get a point at least from that, can't express just how chuffed I am to see us halfway up the division 15/16 games in considering the squad we have, built on £1,000,000 and a couple of loanees. Proud of my club battling among the likes of yourself and the others throwing big money at it. In fairness, you got silly money for Kodjia so I'm not lumping you in with Villa, Newcastle etc. But when you're signing players for £2,000,000+ I'm sure you can see my point when our squad as a whole costs half that.

 

A word on LJ to finish. I still like him and I hope he does well. Short but sweet. Like he is.

 

See you at AG next year. 

Cheers,great summing up and pretty much on the money-think we have both surprised a few somehow(including ourselves).

Brighton for us next week slightly concerning-best side we faced last season,and IMO better this.

We haven't lost by more than the odd goal all season,and been in every game but feel they may "find us out"-and live on TV !!.....

 LJ needs to do a little less tinkering and have some idea of his "choice" eleven-im not saying 'don't mix the bag',but too much chopping/changing is working against us..

[Major Isewater]

1 hour ago, Robert the bruce said:

Cheers,great summing up and pretty much on the money-think we have both surprised a few somehow(including ourselves).

Brighton for us next week slightly concerning-best side we faced last season,and IMO better this.

We haven't lost by more than the odd goal all season,and been in every game but feel they may "find us out"-and live on TV !!.....

 LJ needs to do a little less tinkering and have some idea of his "choice" eleven-im not saying 'don't mix the bag',but too much chopping/changing is working against us..

Quite right , we would have already got promotion if he had n't chopped and changed all the time .

I sort of agree with you but the results are there , at the moment.

[TomBCFCUK]

How about the penalty we should of had with the game at 0-0? Also I've seen the GON incident numerous times and it wasn't an elbow!! 

[Red Skin]

@WhiteyBFC thanks for posting your thoughts.  Always interesting to hear the other side.  I was concerned how narrow we would be when i heard the line-up.  

Oddly, the return of our best player last season, Korey Smith, has presented one selection conundrums for LJ.  We do need some consistency either in personnel or system as you feel you have.  Still, we keep picking up point despite playing for only half a game.

[BRISTOL86]

21 minutes ago, TomBCFCUK said:

How about the penalty we should of had with the game at 0-0? Also I've seen the GON incident numerous times and it wasn't an elbow!! 

When the player himself is so annoyed at the accusation that he's replying to melts on Twitter, you know it wasn't an elbow....

[Mad Cyril]

10 minutes ago, Red Army Faction said:

@WhiteyBFC thanks for posting your thoughts.  Always interesting to hear the other side.  

Bang on. Sometimes an opposition view is very different but this one seems very fair and balanced.

One thing in this league both sets of fans will always agree on....the officials are shocking. This remains one area where the gulf to the Premier League remains a gaping chasm.

[#TeamsLikeBarnsley]

4 hours ago, BRISTOL86 said:

When the player himself is so annoyed at the accusation that he's replying to melts on Twitter, you know it wasn't an elbow....

Were you there? I was 20 yards away, he catches him unintentionally with his elbow in an aerial duel. Then stands on his face, unintentionally. I don't consider myself a 'melt', whatever a melt is, and I wouldn't call out a footballer on twitter. However, he definitely caught him. Unintentionally. 

 

Not sure what the issue with that is. I'm not hammering your player, I'm saying it was all accidental. 

 

A fair few years ago now, I had to witness Chris Morgan blatantly elbow Iain Hume at Oakwell. A blow that fractured his skull and left him in hospital fighting for his life. There's no comparison to that and yesterday's incident. But he definitely caught him. And in many instances he'd have been red-carded and banned for three games. 

 

If O'Neil reckons he didn't intend to hurt him, I agree. But if he's telling people he didn't catch him, he's deluding himself. 

[BRISTOL86]

16 minutes ago, WhiteyBFC said:

Were you there? I was 20 yards away, he catches him unintentionally with his elbow in an aerial duel. Then stands on his face, unintentionally. I don't consider myself a 'melt', whatever a melt is, and I wouldn't call out a footballer on twitter. However, he definitely caught him. Unintentionally. 

 

Not sure what the issue with that is. I'm not hammering your player, I'm saying it was all accidental. 

 

A fair few years ago now, I had to witness Chris Morgan blatantly elbow Iain Hume at Oakwell. A blow that fractured his skull and left him in hospital fighting for his life. There's no comparison to that and yesterday's incident. But he definitely caught him. And in many instances he'd have been red-carded and banned for three games. 

 

If O'Neil reckons he didn't intend to hurt him, I agree. But if he's telling people he didn't catch him, he's deluding himself. 

To be clear, I was lambasting those on Twitter hurling abuse at O'Neil, not yourself. I wasn't there. When O'Neil says there is 'no elbow' I'm sure he's referring to no deliberate attempt to elbow your guy. Unintentionally catching someone with your elbow is not the same as 'elbowing' someone, the same as unintentionally catching someone's leg with your leg whilst running isn't the same as kicking someone.

Chris Morgan was an absolute thug who did that stuff routinely and deliberately throughout his career.

O'Neil is about as far removed from that type of player as it's possible to get. 

[Donkeeebles]

I didn't realise Barnsley had some of their best players missing 

[Esmond Million's Bung]

20 hours ago, WhiteyBFC said:

I thought it was a proper game of football. I enjoyed it. 

 

Hourihane, Roberts, Scowen, White and Hammill have been shoe-ins in this side since before LJ left. Only Hammill was missing through choice today. It's the weakest starting XI (on paper) we've fielded this season, with a 19-year-old lad making his debut in midfield. But we put in another good performance I felt. It pleases me to see us playing the same way no matter the players selected. It shows we're doing things right on the training pitches. 

 

It was a frantic opening 20 minutes with neither side dominant. However, our wingers were having a lot of joy and it wasn't a surprise when we eventually scored. I think we deserved that lead, had chances to add to it, then fluffed a terrific chance to put the game to bed right before half-time. I was surprised at how poor Bristol City were once behind. They didn't look in the game at all as the whistle blew for the break. Tomlin went very close with a free-kick, but other than that, from 20 minutes in it was all Barnsley and the lack of another goal or two would come back to haunt us. 

 

Second half started similarly but neither fashioned much of an opportunity. Then, bizarrely, Jackson handles and Tomlin sticks home the penalty. We retaliated, Armstrong rattled the bar and Fielding made a couple of good saves. Then bang, 2-1 from nowhere. Some of our players were still hoping for a free-kick but City broke, Tomlin waltzed into the box and with everyone expecting a shot he slipped it inside for Abraham to slot home. Against the run of play perhaps, but another gift of a goal conceded, we're good at that sadly. 

 

I couldn't see anything but a 2-1 result at that point, but Hammill got himself one-on-one, did what he does, rescues a point. Fair result in my opinion. 

 

I think we played the better football. We were quicker, braver and had players who ran with the ball. City were very static and quite ponderous in approach unless Tomlin had the ball. He got 80% of things badly wrong, but he's capable of delivering in key moments. He's your Adam Hammill. I felt Bryan was a big factor in your result too. Another willing runner. 

 

I suppose I have to mention the referee and incidents etc. I saw the O'Neil and Winnall challenge, it was an elbow. I'm convinced it was un-intentional, but he definitely caught him. Then stood on him as he landed. I don't believe it was malicious at all that incident, however I have seen red cards given for less. The fact play was just allowed to go on, Winnall flat out on the grass for 30 seconds, then gets to his feet and the ref sees him covered in blood THEN stops play, I think that got the backs up of supporters. Then down to 10 for a good five minutes while he got medical attention, I can see why some were annoyed.

 

I saw the Tomlin incident too, that looked an arm rather than an elbow but was definitely intended. He got away with one basically.

 

I don't think our penalty was 100%. Not sure Winnall dives, but it didn't look a blatant foul in my opinion. I was surprised to see it given. Maybe the ref was trying to square things...?

 

Wilbraham was pulled up for a free-kick first-half, screamed (literally) in the ref's face. Wasn't booked. Morsy for us makes his first poor tackle, yellow card. The ref basically had a mare. I saw what looked an handball in our area second-half too, as well as one by Flint (I think) in your box. None seen. The lino's were useless though. They constantly waited for the ref to make a decision. Didn't have the bollocks to make their own. One of them was less than 10 yards off Winnall/O'Neil incident. Useless, as ever.

 

In summary, I felt we deserved three points in terms of the game as a whole, chances etc and the way both sides played. But for a spell in the second-half you seemed to click on in terms of working us out. Not only did you score twice in that period, Adam Davies had to pull off a world-class save to thwart you. So a draw feels fair to me.

 

If we had the missing players in, would we have fared better? Dunno, don't care. If my Aunty had balls etc.

 

Good point for both sides. We're both doing better than I anticipated. We have Burton away before the international break, you have Brighton (best side we've played along with Newcastle). Hoping we get a point at least from that, can't express just how chuffed I am to see us halfway up the division 15/16 games in considering the squad we have, built on £1,000,000 and a couple of loanees. Proud of my club battling among the likes of yourself and the others throwing big money at it. In fairness, you got silly money for Kodjia so I'm not lumping you in with Villa, Newcastle etc. But when you're signing players for £2,000,000+ I'm sure you can see my point when our squad as a whole costs half that.

 

A word on LJ to finish. I still like him and I hope he does well. Short but sweet. Like he is.

 

See you at AG next year. 

My question has to be why wasn't Jackson sent off?, it was as deliberate a handball as you will ever see in a game for starters and it denied Abraham a clear goalscoring opportunity.

 

[redfieldred]

16 hours ago, Red Army Faction said:

@WhiteyBFC thanks for posting your thoughts.  Always interesting to hear the other side.  I was concerned how narrow we would be when i heard the line-up.  

Oddly, the return of our best player last season, Korey Smith, has presented one selection conundrums for LJ.  We do need some consistency either in personnel or system as you feel you have.  Still, we keep picking up point despite playing for only half a game.

Smith plays better at home than away as a rule, maybe that's why he is so rated. I thought he was ok Saturday but has a habit of slowing down play. Controversially I think pack is a better choice than either smith or o'neil for away games, as he defends brilliantly and gets  the ball moved quicker and plays the ball simply to the more attacking players, partly because he isn't as skilful on the ball as either of the others. Basically that means we play more direct and this certainly worked v Fulham, when o'neil and smith weren't playing and we haven't played that well since. 

[havanatopia]

An interesting point there FieldRed; on Saying City have not played as well since GON and Smith were both last out of the side. 

Things of course are not usually so black and white and anyway it is probably doubtful the situation will happen again anytime soon even if there is a curiosity that it will!