“Maybe it’s a good thing for us to play away from home, it was a game where we really needed the fans”

[Ron W]

When the 'so-called fans' are being called out you know you're not far from the sack...

[Kingswood Robin]

1 hour ago, Chrizzler said:

I agree, whilst I’m as frustrated with Pearson as much as anyone I thought as well as the poor atmosphere from the kick off, the cheering of an injured player going off & the booing of the players as they were showing their appreciation to the supporters at the end by some of our, so called, “fans” was totally wrong. I’m not saying people shouldn’t criticise but direct it where it’s deserved.  

Not a flippant question, but who is that and what is the correct way to express our displeasure to them?

For me it's simple. Serve up something that's worth watching and people will be happy. Serve up dross week, after week, after week and they won't be. One home win since August.

[Chrizzler]

Just now, Kingswood Robin said:

Not a flippant question, but who is that and what is the correct way to express our displeasure to them?

For me it's simple. Serve up something that's worth watching and people will be happy. Serve up dross week, after week, after week and they won't be. One home win since August.

It’s not the players’ fault that the manager is getting his tactics & selections wrong though. “Supporters” cheered when Andy King went off injured today, there’s no excuse for that.  The displeasure should be directed where it’s deserved. 

[Red-Robbo]

I actually think most were cheering because Atko came on (as most of us thought he should've started) rather than cheering an injury. 

It's not the first time a substitution has been cheered.

[Kingswood Robin]

Just now, Chrizzler said:

It’s not the players’ fault that the manager is getting his tactics & selections wrong though. “Supporters” cheered when Andy King went off injured today, there’s no excuse for that.  The displeasure should be directed where it’s deserved. 

But they weren't cheering the fact that King was leaving the field, it was a message to Pearson who was forced to change the positioning and selection.  

[Ron W]

3 minutes ago, Chrizzler said:

It’s not the players’ fault that the manager is getting his tactics & selections wrong though. “Supporters” cheered when Andy King went off injured today, there’s no excuse for that.  The displeasure should be directed where it’s deserved. 

It's not right and I'm not excusing it, but there's very few clubs where things couldn't get toxic enough for the same thing to happen.

[Harry]

I’m finding it harder and harder to like Nigel. Whilst I’m not overly bothered by his comments today, I’m finding his stubbornness really hard to swallow right now. 
It’s clear he ballsed up last week with the King at CB selection. He claimed in midweek that he takes full responsibility, but he then goes and plays the exact same team which pathetically allowed Stoke to win last week. 
 

The general malaise around the ground today, in my opinion, was the disbelief from the fans that he chose the same frigging line up. I know that my opinion when I saw the team was “ah well”. 
It wasn’t the most inspiring news. 
 

Perhaps if Nigel likes to take responsibility (as he says he does), then he could take a closer inspection of his own home record, and make his own conclusions as to why the home support is currently non-existent.  
He’s managed us for 45 games at Ashton Gate. 
His record is 12-14-19. 50 points from 135. 
A win rate of 26.67%. A loss rate of 42.2%. A points per game rate of 1.11. 
 

I think for the most part of his tenure, the general atmosphere has been ok and the fans have pretty much been behind the team. But that home record is enough to test anyone’s patience. 
 

I haven’t got the time or patience to look, but I’d be amazed if there was a manager currently in charge of a pro club who has a worse home record than Pearson’s (given a decent sample size). 
 

Yes, he’s been working under ‘mitigatIng circumstances’, but we’re not the only club who is hampered. 
We’ve got the 9th most expensive squad (according to Kieran Maguire), and we’ve got a top 10 wage budget (according to our own CEO). And of the 2 summers Pearson has been here, last summer only 14 clubs spent money on a player and the summer before, only 7 clubs spent money on a player. So we’re not the only ones who have been scratching around for free transfers and we still pay a top half wage in this division. 
Yes, it’s a tough job he was given, but it ain’t the only tough job in this league. The narrative from the club seems to be that we are the only ones operating under these conditions and we should all show some respect to that fact. 
I’ve said before, if the club want to play that narrative then they should ensure the manager also adopts a ‘siege mentality’, circle the wagons and get everyone onside. But his constant singling out and ostracising of players, and his propensity to play square pegs round holes football is making it hard for me to understand what he’s actually hoping to achieve by his actions and words. 
 

I for one, have had enough of the excuses now. Yes, the finances have and will continue to be a burden for him and whomever is in charge over the next 18 months, but we ain’t the only ones in that boat and the excuses, attitude and baffling selections are starting to wear very thin. 
 

Is change a-coming? Well, the tide has certainly turned in the last week. 
But we have to factor in the impending departure of Gould. I’m sure we won’t pull the plug with an outgoing CEO and it’s more likely that the new CEO will be the one responsible for making that call and to bring in his own choice. Guess it depends if we already have the new CEO lined up and he is able to make a decision now? 

[Selred]

The more I go through the squad, I just find baffling decisions in all positions from Nige. 

He makes Bentley captain, then drops him for OLeary who to be honest isn’t doing anything noticeably better than Bents. 

Right wing back, he resorts to playing Weimann our top scorer from last season. Instead of Tanner, a RB, or Sykes, both players signed under Pearson but to play where / what formation if not RWB? Or why not play Scott there who wasn’t bad last season in that position. 

Centre back he starts King again, who isn’t good enough there. Instead of Atkinson and Klose, two players he signed. 

Our midfield was over run, you could argue we have limited options there, but equally King is at CB, so why not change formation and bring him into midfield. Or yes HNM isn’t staying after the season, but he’s a decent championship player. 

Then up top, Conway and Wells have a good connection sure. But taking Wells off for unproven Bell seemed odd, especially when you were playing a bloke who scored 20 goals at RWB 9 mins before for a RB. 

Just so many baffling choices from squad selection, formations, tactics, in game management, signings.

[Kodjias Wrist]

9 minutes ago, Ron W said:

It's not right and I'm not excusing it, but there's very few clubs where things couldn't get toxic enough for the same thing to happen.

How on earth would you know how toxic every club gets in comparison with ours? Also I thought it was more the fact that Atkinson was coming on. 

Stop making out we are some toxic fan base, toxicity happens at every club. Gasheads have it, I remember Wolves players getting death threats when falling to league 1. LJ had it here, Barnsley and Sunderland when they were top 6. 

 

[NcnsBcfc]

I think the most difficult thing today for me was the substitions.

You're chasing the game at 1-0, but don't make any non-injury subs until the 71st min.

We then took off Weimann at RWB, rather than putting him up top alongside Wells & Conway.

Tanner came on at RCB, and we moved the CB (Naismith) to CM, with Sykes covering at RWB (where he has been ineffective for the last quarter of the season).

NP has Semenyeo stripped off, and warming up. He then sends him back to the naughty step, and neglects to bring any forward replacements on until we are 2-0 down (even then it took 5 mins to effect the substitutions).

Bell then took up the position that i would have expected Weimann to play in (he's some way short of Champ level, but good luck in L1).

All completely laughable in my eyes, and had little or no discernable positive effect on the game.

Awful, just awful game management.

And so it all continues.....

[Ron W]

4 minutes ago, Kodjias Wrist said:

How on earth would you know how toxic every club gets in comparison with ours? 

I think judging by the rest of your post you've misread what I wrote.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Ron W

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

I’m finding it harder and harder to like Nigel. Whilst I’m not overly bothered by his comments today, I’m finding his stubbornness really hard to swallow right now. 
It’s clear he ballsed up last week with the King at CB selection. He claimed in midweek that he takes full responsibility, but he then goes and plays the exact same team which pathetically allowed Stoke to win last week. 
 

The general malaise around the ground today, in my opinion, was the disbelief from the fans that he chose the same frigging line up. I know that my opinion when I saw the team was “ah well”. 
It wasn’t the most inspiring news. 
 

Perhaps if Nigel likes to take responsibility (as he says he does), then he could take a closer inspection of his own home record, and make his own conclusions as to why the home support is currently non-existent.  
He’s managed us for 45 games at Ashton Gate. 
His record is 12-14-19. 50 points from 135. 
A win rate of 26.67%. A loss rate of 42.2%. A points per game rate of 1.11. 
 

I think for the most part of his tenure, the general atmosphere has been ok and the fans have pretty much been behind the team. But that home record is enough to test anyone’s patience. 
 

I haven’t got the time or patience to look, but I’d be amazed if there was a manager currently in charge of a pro club who has a worse home record than Pearson’s (given a decent sample size). 
 

Yes, he’s been working under ‘mitigatIng circumstances’, but we’re not the only club who is hampered. 
We’ve got the 9th most expensive squad (according to Kieran Maguire), and we’ve got a top 10 wage budget (according to our own CEO). And of the 2 summers Pearson has been here, last summer only 14 clubs spent money on a player and the summer before, only 7 clubs spent money on a player. So we’re not the only ones who have been scratching around for free transfers and we still pay a top half wage in this division. 
Yes, it’s a tough job he was given, but it ain’t the only tough job in this league. The narrative from the club seems to be that we are the only ones operating under these conditions and we should all show some respect to that fact. 
I’ve said before, if the club want to play that narrative then they should ensure the manager also adopts a ‘siege mentality’, circle the wagons and get everyone onside. But his constant singling out and ostracising of players, and his propensity to play square pegs round holes football is making it hard for me to understand what he’s actually hoping to achieve by his actions and words. 
 

I for one, have had enough of the excuses now. Yes, the finances have and will continue to be a burden for him and whomever is in charge over the next 18 months, but we ain’t the only ones in that boat and the excuses, attitude and baffling selections are starting to wear very thin. 
 

Is change a-coming? Well, the tide has certainly turned in the last week. 
But we have to factor in the impending departure of Gould. I’m sure we won’t pull the plug with an outgoing CEO and it’s more likely that the new CEO will be the one responsible for making that call and to bring in his own choice. Guess it depends if we already have the new CEO lined up and he is able to make a decision now? 

In the summer according to Transfermarkt, there were 38 transfers paid by Championship clubs and countless “undisclosed”.

Summer 21/22 there were 42 plus a number of undisclosed.

I do agree we aren’t the only tough job.

1 hour ago, NcnsBcfc said:

I think the most difficult thing today for me was the substitions.

You're chasing the game at 1-0, but don't make any non-injury subs until the 71st min.

We then took off Weimann at RWB, rather than putting him up top alongside Wells & Conway.

Tanner came on at RCB, and we moved the CB (Naismith) to CM, with Sykes covering at RWB (where he has been ineffective for the last quarter of the season).

NP has Semenyeo stripped off, and warming up. He then sends him back to the naughty step, and neglects to bring any forward replacements on until we are 2-0 down (even then it took 5 mins to effect the substitutions).

Bell then took up the position that i would have expected Weimann to play in (he's some way short of Champ level, but good luck in L1).

All completely laughable in my eyes, and had little or no discernable positive effect on the game.

Awful, just awful game management.

And so it all continues.....

Neil - 99% of OTIB wanted Naismith in midfield, so you can’t now start using that example against him!

[Olé]

6 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Blimey, are we really up in arms about these kind of comments from Pearson?

Exactly Dave, Nigel Pearson shouldn't really need any defending at this point (and should start earning that support) but my god the number of people on Twitter and here who have allowed themselves to be taken in by the most shameless misquoting of Pearson by a second rate podcast that has consistently never had a good word to say about him or our club, and to a lesser extend by the Bristol Post clickbait mob. 

There is a lot wrong with the selection and organisation at the moment but leaving the words "and they did for the most part" off NP's quote in order to whip up some hysteria and outrage is beyond embarrassing. I mean the atmosphere was as flat as a pancake but there is not much that NP can do about O'Leary's early error, and in the full quote as above he is being more generous about the fans than he needs to be.

[oldstandrobin]

13 hours ago, Countryfile said:

I don’t think he was blaming the fans at all.

I haven’t seen the South stand so empty in a long time, and like the Stoke game the atmosphere was flat from the start.

Ashton Gate is a super venue for away fans, if they travel in any numbers they can create a great atmosphere for their team filling the Atyeo.

For what it’s worth I think Nige will be dismissed and I think we will be relegated.

 

Nailed on, we give the away teams points start. As an ex Eastender of the 60's, I cringe when I see the Atyeo  nowadays in a key match.

[ralphindevon]

I’m usually fairly vocal with, mainly with encouragement but yesterday because of the never ending cold that I and many others have was quiet.

Also, very unlike me, I left early as the cold air was making me cough too much.

Not making excuses but I wonder if many were in the same boat as me? That and the fact it was all pretty dire.

[Northern Red]

9 hours ago, 2015 said:

Imagine booing a player who is a supporter of this club, i'd feel like absolute **** of I was King. Absolutely embarassing by some of our so called 'fans'. It's not King's fault that he is being selected out of position.

That on top of booing a teenager on his debut a few weeks back.

Belting "support".

[mozo]

Pearson's explanation that we just came up against a better team is fine in isolation, but it was our pathetic defeat to Stoke (and our paltry points total) which then piled the pressure onto this much harder game. 

Now the pressure has risen again and we have a tough away day which is hardly ideal given where we are.

Huddersfield play Rotherham on Thursday. A home win would really change the look of the bottom 7. Not for the better if we lose. 

[italian dave]

10 hours ago, 2015 said:

Imagine booing a player who is a supporter of this club, i'd feel like absolute **** of I was King. Absolutely embarassing by some of our so called 'fans'. It's not King's fault that he is being selected out of position.

I wasn’t aware of any booing that was directed specifically at King. Maybe I missed something.

There was some discontent at the announcement of the same team that delivered such a shit performance last time out.

There was ironic cheering when King was subbed, but that wasn’t directed at King - it was directed at the (belated) arrival of a central defender to play in central defence.

There was some booing when players came over at the end - but that was directed at whoever happened to be there at the time I felt - not at any one individual. 

I think some might have been directed at Pearson, had he been there, but strangely he only ever seems to appear when we’ve won. 

[Super]

How many more times they were cheering the fact we were bringing on a recognised defender not the fact King was injured. Laughable that people are saying this.

[robin_unreliant]

3 minutes ago, Super said:

How many more times they were cheering the fact we were bringing on a recognised defender not the fact King was injured. Laughable that people are saying this.

I have been a Pearson supporter but think the poor results are getting to me. When King went down my first thought was that he and NP had set that up at HT so he could bring Atkinson on without losing face. That is probably rubbish but shows me how much faith I've lost in Nige.

[italian dave]

1 hour ago, Northern Red said:

That on top of booing a teenager on his debut a few weeks back.

Belting "support".

I’ve got some sympathy with the view that Pearson’s statements yesterday are being used in a way that suits agendas - that the individual words are being interpreted to mean what people want. 

But you’re doing exactly the same with all this talk of “booing” individual players.

There were no boos directed at King specifically yesterday - the boos were at the whole team, at particular decisions but not at an individual player.

And likewise at the Lincoln game - the generally inept and shambolic defensive performance attracted boos, especially when Lincoln were allowed to waltz through our defence at will, but it wasn’t the case that Low was singled out and that boos were directed specifically at him. 

[Red-Robbo]

The more I reflect on it, the more disrespectful Pearson's comments are.

Lansdown (and TV money) may pay most of his salary, and gate receipts only a minority, but it's fans who ARE the club, we're why the club exists.  The fact he can continue into his 60th year earning more than an oncology surgeon in order to do a job of getting men to play a game in a way that should be entertaining to the general public, is because of fans.

You might be annoyed with them; who hasn't done a job where you're not irritated by some of your customers? But you don't show it.

[Davefevs]

9 hours ago, Olé said:

Exactly Dave, Nigel Pearson shouldn't really need any defending at this point (and should start earning that support) but my god the number of people on Twitter and here who have allowed themselves to be taken in by the most shameless misquoting of Pearson by a second rate podcast that has consistently never had a good word to say about him or our club, and to a lesser extend by the Bristol Post clickbait mob. 

There is a lot wrong with the selection and organisation at the moment but leaving the words "and they did for the most part" off NP's quote in order to whip up some hysteria and outrage is beyond embarrassing. I mean the atmosphere was as flat as a pancake but there is not much that NP can do about O'Leary's early error, and in the full quote as above he is being more generous about the fans than he needs to be.

Thanks Rob…I think it shows a number of posters on OTIB / pods / twitter are really ingrained in their dislike of Nige, want him gone, and will pick up on any snippet to whip it up further.  That is fine, that’s the nature of some folk, doesn’t make them wrong and me right, or whatever, but it does highlight their thoughts.

[italian dave]

9 hours ago, Olé said:

Exactly Dave, Nigel Pearson shouldn't really need any defending at this point (and should start earning that support) but my god the number of people on Twitter and here who have allowed themselves to be taken in by the most shameless misquoting of Pearson by a second rate podcast that has consistently never had a good word to say about him or our club, and to a lesser extend by the Bristol Post clickbait mob. 

There is a lot wrong with the selection and organisation at the moment but leaving the words "and they did for the most part" off NP's quote in order to whip up some hysteria and outrage is beyond embarrassing. I mean the atmosphere was as flat as a pancake but there is not much that NP can do about O'Leary's early error, and in the full quote as above he is being more generous about the fans than he needs to be.

 

25 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Thanks Rob…I think it shows a number of posters on OTIB / pods / twitter are really ingrained in their dislike of Nige, want him gone, and will pick up on any snippet to whip it up further.  That is fine, that’s the nature of some folk, doesn’t make them wrong and me right, or whatever, but it does highlight their thoughts.

You’re right of course…but it kind of goes with the territory, doesn’t it? Especially relegation territory.

And if ‘misquoting’ is the worst he gets then it suggests he’s still getting away fairly lightly! Others have had to deal with the bedsheets, the personal insults and worse.

[Andy082005]

12 hours ago, NcnsBcfc said:

I think the most difficult thing today for me was the substitions.

You're chasing the game at 1-0, but don't make any non-injury subs until the 71st min.

We then took off Weimann at RWB, rather than putting him up top alongside Wells & Conway.

Tanner came on at RCB, and we moved the CB (Naismith) to CM, with Sykes covering at RWB (where he has been ineffective for the last quarter of the season).

NP has Semenyeo stripped off, and warming up. He then sends him back to the naughty step, and neglects to bring any forward replacements on until we are 2-0 down (even then it took 5 mins to effect the substitutions).

Bell then took up the position that i would have expected Weimann to play in (he's some way short of Champ level, but good luck in L1).

All completely laughable in my eyes, and had little or no discernable positive effect on the game.

Awful, just awful game management.

And so it all continues.....

Yet there are still many on here who lap up his press conferences and will try to make you believe we are lucky to have a ‘top manager’ 

 

[Simon79]

Have now seen the interview, don’t really get the reaction in all honesty. I think Pearson knows he’s had a fairly patient fan base & he has often commented on it. Nothing to see for me. COYR 

[Davefevs]

29 minutes ago, italian dave said:

 

You’re right of course…but it kind of goes with the territory, doesn’t it? Especially relegation territory.

And if ‘misquoting’ is the worst he gets then it suggests he’s still getting away fairly lightly! Others have had to deal with the bedsheets, the personal insults and worse.

It does indeed.

We’ve had Nige is an alcoholic, bully, etc stuff also.

Don’t get me wrong we all have our little bias one way or the other and that influences our ramblings on here.

25 minutes ago, Andy082005 said:

Yet there are still many on here who lap up his press conferences and will try to make you believe we are lucky to have a ‘top manager’ 

 

I really enjoy them.  I used to enjoy LJ’s pre-match /general stuff too.  Post-match not so.

[Top Robin]

This is just one out of a catalogue of NP errors and misjudgements over the past 2 years which have got him into this position and given good reason for many fans to want him gone. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

15 hours ago, Offside said:

The atmosphere at AG was very flat today and has been for a while. A depressed malaise seems to have set in. But there is also the context of some poor results and performances. There was precious little to give fans something to cheer today. Our play from the start was so slow with no urgency, we even took an age with goal kicks and throw-ins.

We are being beaten so easily, today without a whimper. 

To be fair, 1st 10 mins some good chants of "Red Army" and we had a couple of good attacks, they had a couple of good attacks.

When they scored the atmosphere seemed to collapse but first half performance wise didn't seem too bad, 2nd half they stepped up and we shrunk.

The last real decent combination of performance and atmosphere I remember however was v Watford in November IMO.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Mr Popodopolous