The Official Bristol City v Brighton & Hove Albion Match Day Thread

[EstoniaTallinnRed]

2 minutes ago, Cider_boy said:

Trying to be positive, after last season we were looking to improve this season, not necessarily expecting promotion.

May be our expectations have got too high because of the start we had to the season.

If we were still targeting a mid table finish this year, with further strengthening next summer, things look like they are going pretty much to plan.

We don't want to emulate our rugby friends and go up and be so far off the pace (albeit we'd get fantastic parachute payments!)

Don't worry about that.  There is no way this team will get promotion this season.  I think that what did for us tonight was LJ's decision to start with only Abraham up front, a relatively inexperienced young player, in the Championship,  despite his goals, against a defence that has god knows how many clean sheets this season and has not lost the last eight games, I believe.  On top of that, a lot of players are off form and have been since the last International break, God knows why again.  LJ needs to sort it out, or I see us slipping down the table rapidly.  He now has two weeks to sort something and let's hope after this break they don't come back even worse.

[lenred]

35 minutes ago, Charliesboots said:

Didn't expect a win tonight and obviously didn't get one but the performance was garbage. 

Says a lot when the best cross of the night comes from your striker. 

Brighton were fitter, faster and stronger, we were left with players blowing out of their ass and could have been totally humiliated if the numerous chances they had were converted. 

Magnusson was decent...that's my only positive thing I'll take from the game. 

Tomlin, love him to bits but he just goes missing for large parts of the game and with it goes any decent outlet we have. 

Oneill, dogshit of a game and if that's his worst performance of the season then so be it. 

Little, well god loves a trier and I applaud him for doing so but we really need a RB in January as Matthews appears to have 'Toure-itis'. 

 

Fairest assessment that I've seen. They were a bloody good team and we were complete and utter crap tonight. Could've been a disaster and a 4 or 5 nil or worse but somehow we managed to keep it to two. Shows how much we need to improve, very very rarely happens overnight but we can get there, just going to take time. Brighton have been up there for a while and are a team we need to aspire to. No shame in losing to them, just the manner in which we did, in front of the cameras, was a shame. But we will get there. May take a few seasons but we will, I have no doubt. 

Edited November 5, 2016 by lenred

[Toblerone]

Dear me, didn't enjoy that one bit. We're a 10th placed team at the moment,

I'd have started with Lucic, he'll be our first choice before long and Lee has to bite that bullet soon.

[grove park city]

Been way too easy to predict our play Tomlin is expected  to take on 2 or 3 players each time then looks up to see our 1 lone striker swamped there never seems to be the killer pass or pin point cross .

Brighton cruised through the 2nd half when not having the ball as soon as they did  they broke out much faster with crisp measured passing and some pin point through balls we just ran into a brick wall with sloppy play, weak crossing and a snails pace midfield the whole style is just plain boring.   

[Flagon]

Such a disappointment. So many of the team played well below standard. Don't think we can use that as a marker as we played nowhere near what we are capable of and it makes it even more annoying when I think Brighton's only 2 shots on target were the mistakes we made which ended up as goals. They didn't even have to try for that result. 

But that is the difference I guess. They were pretty solid and disciplined in their approach and knew their game plan so whether or not we had played well we would have found them difficult to beat. 

Johnson really needs to work out a consistent formation. So far it feels like every game we have to change tactics and players during the game to get something out of it - like we got it wrong from outset - only this time there were just too many players not on their game. 

 

[stogursey red]

What gets me tonight is how slow we where in out build up, evertime we give them all the time in the world to get into possession and have a great defensive shape we couldn't break

Our pace in our young team should be a real plus for us putting defences under pressure we really need to work at this before the next game,

 

For me Bobby has to start next time as he will try to get it forward fast most the time

[Slippin cider]

1 hour ago, Doozerchris said:

Shocker of a performance .  Shows how far away we are from a genuine challenge .

Utterly embarrassing.

[chipdawg]

Brighton were absolutely outstanding defensively tonight. Meanwhile, we huffed and puffed and created little of note. While I'm certainly not of the 'panic stations' persuasion, we are not functioning as an attacking unit at the minute. Not at all. LJ needs to do something to sort that out ASAP. In our defence though, I didn't think Brighton were that much more threatening. They scored one from the half way line and one deflected shot and other than some chances on the break that they were unlikely to have had if the score was still 0-0, they didn't create loads. Plus, Wilbs should have had an absolute, stonewall penalty. But still, not really good enough. At least we're still 3-0 better than Norwich though 

I'd also like to add that while he defended stoutly, Mark Little just doesn't have enough ability to play the way LJ wants the team to play. Flints lack of ability on the ball was also exposed a little tonight, but he brings enough else to compensate

Edited November 5, 2016 by chipdawg

[SedRA]

Funnily enough just chatting to a Brighton fan in the chippy by me and he thought we looked a decent side and the Brighton fans didn't think it was an easy ride.

Thought with a few breaks going our way we looked like we could trouble them more than most have. 

Perspectives hey? 

[redcityman]

Well that two games I have watched via Now TV (not be able to attend the Gate for health reason) this season, don't think I'll bother next time, maybe I'm a bit of a jonah, Wouldnt be so bad if we had shown a bit of urgency in attack and some defensive prowess, mind you a shot on target would be a good start.

Feel sorry for you poor sods who sat there shivering watching the lacklustre affair that was served up.

[red panda]

Not great ...... but Brighton have by far the best defence in the league (9 goals conceded in 16 games - next best is 13 - and none in the last 4), they went 2 up from a worldly and a deflection, then managed the game very well.  Everything's not rosy, but neither is it disastrous

[Fiale]

btw - when they scored and were all celebrating on the sideline in front of the camera, we had the ball, in the kick off position to restart the match - other than sportsmanship, is there any reason why we could not have started ? All Brighton's players were on the pitch, all were in their own half 

[Up The City!]

4 hours ago, ColeCiderRed said:

Anyone else see O'Donnell looking at the fireworks behind the Atyeo?

Yes he certainly was. Some fireworks started going off behind the Atyeo and for a second or two he was distracted by them as he took his eye off of the ball.

[Nogbad the Bad]

Depressing stuff from City.

No cohesion, no creativity, no real chances, no threat, no passion, no excitement, enjoyment or entertainment for the fans.

Flint and Hordur were just about OK, a couple of runs from Tomlin, but really not one single City player played well.

Paterson adds nothing and ducks out of tackles, Bryan looks strangely disinterested, and Korey Smith looks a quarter of the player he did before, and certainly shouldn't be starting in place of Pack.

We know Brighton are a strong defensive team, but what were our tactics to try and take the game to them and make a real fight of it, because frankly we looked clueless, and worryingly lacking in belief and spirit.

A really poor effort all round from City today. We seem to have been found out over recent games with no plan B, we're creating almost nothing for Tammy, and recent performances really don't augur well for the rest of the season.

 

[Fiale]

1 hour ago, Fiale said:

btw - when they scored and were all celebrating on the sideline in front of the camera, we had the ball, in the kick off position to restart the match - other than sportsmanship, is there any reason why we could not have started ? All Brighton's players were on the pitch, all were in their own half 

 

I will answer my own question - yes apparently we could have, and we would have been back to 1-1 within seconds of conceding. FFS what is wrong with our team at times, so slow.

 

 

[Fiale]

Just some random thoughts from Brighton fans

 

 

[Jerseybean]

13 hours ago, Jerseybean said:

Thank you for a well informed, interesting, thought provoking and balanced post. Today's game provides a really intriguing bench-mark of our progress and standing in the league.

Although I really do hope I'm hopelessly wrong I think we will lose today. Whatever the result it will be crucial to honestly consider the performance and potential of the team that plays against Brighton.

This is the kind of game we need to win if we are to be a top six team at the end of the season, I realistically see us finishing no higher than 8th.

 

Be interested in others reflections on a bench-mark game, mine go like this:

We were very poor, individually and collectively

Brighton were comfortable all over the park, we weren't comfortable anywhere

Fortunate to get away with a 2-0 defeat

We created no decent chances and when we ran out of ideas resorted to hopelessly optimistic long balls 

I would be absolutely delighted to be proved wrong but can not see us finishing any higher than 8th 

If we play like that many more times it will be a bottom half finish

 

 

[Offside]

Poor performance from City today. Goodness knows what ROD was doing for the first goal and for the second their player was given far too much space. Both their goals stemmed from us giving away the ball. We have become very static going forward and performance-wise we seem to have got into a bit of a rut.

Credit to Brighton, though, who were incredibly well organised in defence.

[havanatopia]

2 hours ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

Depressing stuff from City.

No cohesion, no creativity, no real chances, no threat, no passion, no excitement, enjoyment or entertainment for the fans.

Flint and Hordur were just about OK, a couple of runs from Tomlin, but really not one single City player played well.

Paterson adds nothing and ducks out of tackles, Bryan looks strangely disinterested, and Korey Smith looks a quarter of the player he did before, and certainly shouldn't be starting in place of Pack.

We know Brighton are a strong defensive team, but what were our tactics to try and take the game to them and make a real fight of it, because frankly we looked clueless, and worryingly lacking in belief and spirit.

A really poor effort all round from City today. We seem to have been found out over recent games with no plan B, we're creating almost nothing for Tammy, and recent performances really don't augur well for the rest of the season.

 

Tend to disagree on your comments on Hordur and Tomlin... thought they both played very well.. Tomlin looked frustrated at the lack of quality he was getting but his neat and deft touches and passes were a stand out for me amongst a lot of poor displays from Bryan, Smith, O'Neill and Little. Although I thought Little grew into the game. Bryan was way off his best, the worst I have seen Smith play and O'Neill gave the ball away time and again.

I think we need a new Right Back, obviously another new striker and a 26 year old O'Neill type. We have his ageing ability alone as an experienced hand and a bunch of very young players in midfield which is simply not going to be good enough if we have aspirations of finishing inside the top 10. It was disappointing to see so many players way off what I would have thought was their best. Or maybe it was a blip but 4 games now where we seem to have gone right off the boil and with Brum away coming up we could see ourselves sliding further before we can arrest it.

I did not realistically expect us to win this one however and while, as others have said, we huffed, puffed and made some quite nice passes at times we made Brighton look much better than us which i don't think they are. Still, as Lee says, they are 2 windows-ish ahead of us. 

 Be nice to see Engvall get a run out soon; about time he was fit enough and good enough.

Edited November 6, 2016 by havanatopia

[BigTone]

23 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

@BigTone synopsis please 

Apologies but I hope normal service will resume for the next game even though I shall be in Malaysia

[shelts]

Always a sign for me when we're not playing well Tomlin ends up getting the ball far too deep, he's better in our attacking third where he can hurt teams, disappointed yesterday naturally half expected it. We are having a good season. 

[Garland-sweden]

Easy to read us yesterday. A winger that can do his man and the ball into the box. Freeman not the best but missing him yesterday. He got ideas, but to slow to deliver. Hope Odowda can bee good. Brighton a solid team. We are Bristol City and we will beat Birmingham. COYR!!!

[Gert Mare]

I'm not saying anything for fear of being negative against the machine.....

[HoldenBall]

4 minutes ago, Cheesleysmate said:

I'm not saying anything for fear of being negative against the machine.....

**** the system