Sky Commentators.

[Redcar]

Hi

Was anyone else getting really cross with the insulting way the Sky commentators were referring to us last night. They kept saying we were in the 'third tier' of English football, true enough, but why keep mentioning it, they were almost saying we weren't good enough to be at The Riverside. They seemed to struggle to find anything positive to say about us. Commentator chappy: "They've been in the 'third tier' for a good few years now, although they've got a good chance of getting out this season". Andy Gray: "They've had a good chance for a few years though ha ha ha". Like we had no chance at all. They're just so biased against us. I felt like throwing something at the telly at half-time when they were saying Middlesbrough were treating the match like a 'testimonial'. How very dare they! There we were playing brilliantly, making Middlesbrough look like clowns, but there was no credit for us at all. It was a relief to listen to extra time and penalties on the radio. At least Radio Bristol are on our side!

[Guest mesa boogie]

Oh please get over all of this 'everyones against us' stuff.

[elhombrecito]

Oh please get over all of this 'everyones against us' stuff.

Actually, Dave, I think you'll find Radio Bristol like us. Look it says. Must be true.

[kingswood red]

Hi

Was anyone else getting really cross with the insulting way the Sky commentators were referring to us last night. They kept saying we were in the 'third tier' of English football, true enough, but why keep mentioning it, they were almost saying we weren't good enough to be at The Riverside. They seemed to struggle to find anything positive to say about us. Commentator chappy: "They've been in the 'third tier' for a good few years now, although they've got a good chance of getting out this season". Andy Gray: "They've had a good chance for a few years though ha ha ha". Like we had no chance at all. They're just so biased against us. I felt like throwing something at the telly at half-time when they were saying Middlesbrough were treating the match like a 'testimonial'. How very dare they! There we were playing brilliantly, making Middlesbrough look like clowns, but there was no credit for us at all. It was a relief to listen to extra time and penalties on the radio. At least Radio Bristol are on our side!

I agree 100% it was the same for the S****horpe game, biased commentary, only last night we stuffed it back down their throats, unlike the S****horpe game.

[Riaz]

To be fair, we probabaly did look third tier, cos we had nothing up front. The defence played brilliant....... the midfield did well at times, but to be fair to our midfield, when we had the ball they had very few options, because we had no attack...........

[kingswood red]

To be fair, we probabaly did look third tier, cos we had nothing up front. The defence played brilliant....... the midfield did well at times, but to be fair to our midfield, when we had the ball they had very few options, because we had no attack...........

Well for a third tier team Boro made ruddy hard work of beating us. So credit where credit is due!.

[Barrs Court Red]

Come of it, the Sky commentary was very good.

Can't belive someone would moan because our place in the league is pointed out. Laughable.

[Riaz]

Well for a third tier team Boro made ruddy hard work of beating us. So credit where credit is due!.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not criticising the team... it was a fantastic team effort!

I don't know what the sky commentators were saying, because i was there, but i can see how they would think there was a massive difference in quality, because we had none in the final third for much of the match............

I actually believe if we had Brooker or Showunmi it would have been a different game..

I think the difference that McCombe made when he went up front showed what might have happened if we had a big man up front, someone to aim for.............

[Markman]

Come of it, the Sky commentary was very good.

Can't belive someone would moan because our place in the league is pointed out. Laughable.

Chatting to freinds and family who were watching it they said we had a really good press so I am surprised dome think the commentary was negative? I shall re-live it all again in a minute and see for myself (appranetly the Fanzone on Sky was real entertainment)

[port marine red]

Andy Gray was definately Prem-biased. He said that City were lucky to be at The Riverside and that Middlesborough should have finished us off in the first match. I thought that in the second half at the Gate, we were unlucky not to nick another goal (McAllister's volley, Fontaines header off the line).

If Man Ure or Chelsea would've scored that first goal last night, they'd be raving over it. 13 or so passes and back of the net. BeST goal we've scored this season, I reckon

[dezgimed]

Andy Gray was definately Prem-biased. He said that City were lucky to be at The Riverside and that Middlesborough should have finished us off in the first match. I thought that in the second half at the Gate, we were unlucky not to nick another goal (McAllister's volley, Fontaines header off the line).

If Man Ure or Chelsea would've scored that first goal last night, they'd be raving over it. 13 or so passes and back of the net. BeST goal we've scored this season, I reckon

Yeh that hacked me off, ''lucky to be here considering''

Id say it was Boro who were lucky to have the replay, it was our sloppy defending that gifted them 2 goals in the first place.

[Show Me The Money!]

I was keeping up to date with the game on sky sports news and it was hilarious

Gordan McQueen was watching the game and bet his house on Yakubu scoring the first penalty he took. Saying that he was the best penalty taker in the prem.

Queue the worst penalty he'd ever seen.

Then during the penalty shootout he then re-iterated how Yakubu was the best penalty taker in the prem and that it wasn't just him who thought that.

Queue Yakubu hitting the post.

He did have a good laugh at himself, fair play to the bloke

[madmax]

Andy Gray was definately Prem-biased. He said that City were lucky to be at The Riverside and that Middlesborough should have finished us off in the first match. I thought that in the second half at the Gate, we were unlucky not to nick another goal (McAllister's volley, Fontaines header off the line).

If Man Ure or Chelsea would've scored that first goal last night, they'd be raving over it. 13 or so passes and back of the net. BeST goal we've scored this season, I reckon

I liked Andy Gray up until that point. Stupid Scottish tw*t. Whats the point sayingn something like that? We had every right to be there and Boro were luck that game was played as we had our chanes to win it in the first tie.

MM

[Robbored]

it was our sloppy defending that gifted them 2 goals in the first place.

To be fair to Andy Gray he did mention that but by and large he is very Prem orientated.In fact I can't recall the last time I saw Gray do commentry a game outside of the Premiership.He and Tyler are pretty much the main two when it comes to Sky's top coverage.

What pissed me off is the repeated references to 'Bristol' and not Bristol City....

Maybe after watching last nights game Gray will be less patronising about lower league teams.Hopefully it was an education to him.

[RedM]

To be fair to Andy Gray he did mention that but by and large he is very Prem orientated.In fact I can't recall the last time I saw Gray do commentry a game outside of the Premiership.He and Tyler are pretty much the main two when it comes to Sky's top coverage.

What pissed me off is the repeated references to 'Bristol' and not Bristol City....

Maybe after watching last nights game Gray will be less patronising about lower league teams.Hopefully it was an education to him.

I watched the first half with the Sky commentary and then switched to fanzone at for the second half. I too was getting annoyed by them saying Bristol, but not surprised as they always do.

I did get the feeling, when we were obviously playing better than they expected, Andy Gray and co was having to back down a bit and rethink the 'script' he was using and say something positive about us.

Fanzone was very good, lots of messages of support from fans of other clubs. We did ourselves proud and the city fans sang and sang for all of the match, completely silenced the 'boro fans, this was really noticeable on the tv. I wish I had been there.

Oh, and by the way, Robbored, 'Happy birthday' a nice day to have as a birthday!

[Robbored]

Oh, and by the way, Robbored, 'Happy birthday' a nice day to have as a birthday!

Thankyou!

The postman thinks I'm wildly popular with the ladies with so many cards in th post.Sadly, thats something I've never been..

[Lordofthebling]

I watched the first half with the Sky commentary and then switched to fanzone at for the second half. I too was getting annoyed by them saying Bristol, but not surprised as they always do.

I did get the feeling, when we were obviously playing better than they expected, Andy Gray and co was having to back down a bit and rethink the 'script' he was using and say something positive about us.

Fanzone was very good, lots of messages of support from fans of other clubs. We did ourselves proud and the city fans sang and sang for all of the match, completely silenced the 'boro fans, this was really noticeable on the tv. I wish I had been there.

Oh, and by the way, Robbored, 'Happy birthday' a nice day to have as a birthday!

At least thats one person that had LOTB bellowing through their TV!

I'm just glad I didnt swear...

[RED4LIFE]

I have to admit, I never noticed a bias against us. If anything come the 2nd half and extra time, Gray was praising us quite regularly, especially after Weale saved the Yaks penalty.

Someone posted earlier that Andy Gray seemed suprised at how well we played. TBH so was I, after some of our performances this season (Cheltenham anyone?).

All in all a very good game to watch, and I for one, am extremely proud of the boys. They can hold their heads up high after that performance.

Now, lets hope we can carry that form into the league....

[22A]

I turned over to <Fanzone> where oddly the comments were more even handed from both the City and Boro fan.

Twas ever thus though. Go back 30 years and if City were playing some team from the North West that also play in red & white, the commentators and sumarisers would ALWAYS refer to us as <Bristol> and the oppos as <United>, never City and Manchester.

[Lordofthebling]

I turned over to <Fanzone> where oddly the comments were more even handed from both the City and Boro fan.

Twas ever thus though. Go back 30 years and if City were playing some team from the North West that also play in red & white, the commentators and sumarisers would ALWAYS refer to us as <Bristol> and the oppos as <United>, never City and Manchester.

I think, thats a compliment... But then I could be wrong. :noexpression:

It was a great laugh last night I must say and I have no voice left today. But back to the issue, I'm a City fan, as I come from Bristol, thats what I am. If people ask me who I support - its always City, not Bristol and rarely Bristol City.

I think thats just the way with citys that have two clubs - we could take it as a compliment that Gray refers to us as Bristol - meaning those down the road are insignificant.

[City_pete1]

I don't think they just do it to us. Most people tend to call Birmingham City Birmingham for example (although I know they do not have a Birmingham Rovers!).

[north red]

Hi

Was anyone else getting really cross with the insulting way the Sky commentators were referring to us last night. They kept saying we were in the 'third tier' of English football, true enough, but why keep mentioning it, they were almost saying we weren't good enough to be at The Riverside. They seemed to struggle to find anything positive to say about us. Commentator chappy: "They've been in the 'third tier' for a good few years now, although they've got a good chance of getting out this season". Andy Gray: "They've had a good chance for a few years though ha ha ha". Like we had no chance at all. They're just so biased against us. I felt like throwing something at the telly at half-time when they were saying Middlesbrough were treating the match like a 'testimonial'. How very dare they! There we were playing brilliantly, making Middlesbrough look like clowns, but there was no credit for us at all. It was a relief to listen to extra time and penalties on the radio. At least Radio Bristol are on our side!

Redcar i couldnt agree with you more.Andy Gray is a ####.

Well done to our boys, I'm always proud to be a Bristol City fan but today i feel it a whole lot more.

[somered]

I got the impression from the commentary team that they were willing Viduka to score, but I thought Paul Mersons' attitude was worse, it was that 'Boro had played badly, not that we had played extremely well.

[AtyeoRed]

Spot on Redcar, Football outside the Prem League do'es not exsist as far as Sky and Mr Gray are concerned, well the lads and all our traveling Fans proved him wrong WELL DONE EVERYONE.

[WTFiGO!?!]

I don't think they just do it to us. Most people tend to call Birmingham City Birmingham for example (although I know they do not have a Birmingham Rovers!).

Calling Birmingham 'Birmingham' is fine imo, there is no identity issue there is there? You don't get either Manchester Club's regularly referred to as 'Manchester' though, the only other Club's I can think of with the issue are the one's from Sheffield and what with 'Wednesday' being an extremely unique Sirname it's less of a problem.

I'd like to think that when we make it big time this particular gripe of mine will be pointed out to the ignorant fools nation wide.

Twas highly ironic before the first game when Southgate said ''we're going to give Bristol all the respect they deserve''. Joker.

Wasn't particularly conscious about bias commentary but did have my brother going ''yap yap yap'' in my ear hole for the entire 120 minutes + penalties so who knows !?

What I will say is is that when I've seen the likes of Chesterfield play (say) West Ham at Saltergate there seems to be massive commentary support for the underdog, we certainly didn't receive that.

Bristol City are no ordinary League 1 Club as arrogant as that sounds.

[RedM]

At least thats one person that had LOTB bellowing through their TV!

I'm just glad I didnt swear...

Blingy, I didn't realise it was you!!!

Actually I didn't realise there was a Fanzone commentry for the match or I would have listened to it all like that! We had a houseful here and were enjoying the banter between you both, really sorry I missed part of it.

Great night, the atmosphere really came across on the TV, which is unusual, it must have been electric there.

[WTFiGO!?!]

Blingy, I didn't realise it was you!!!

Actually I didn't realise there was a Fanzone commentry for the match or I would have listened to it all like that! We had a houseful here and were enjoying the banter between you both, really sorry I missed part of it.

Great night, the atmosphere really came across on the TV, which is unusual, it must have been electric there.

I don't go for the fanzone, there was enough fan commentary where I was as it was!

I did think when they showed the mugshot's at the start what an ugly looking bastard they'd selected for City though

Nah, fair play Bling.

Was well proud of the noise City made, cracking effort. Have had non-City fans compliment me on it today. I was proud of the entire show. Wish I'd done the personally irresponsible thing and got myself up there. *Moan*

hey-ho.

[JudgeRed]

I went on FanZone and put a msg on there. 'Paul, Catherine, Charlie, Bristol City fans. City Cider Barmy army' .

Then phoned 'Your on Sky Sports' got a call back to say they would put me on live to chat with Paul Walsh. Still waiting for the call now .

[Spud55]

Andy Gray was definately Prem-biased. He said that City were lucky to be at The Riverside and that Middlesborough should have finished us off in the first match. I thought that in the second half at the Gate, we were unlucky not to nick another goal (McAllister's volley, Fontaines header off the line).

If Man Ure or Chelsea would've scored that first goal last night, they'd be raving over it. 13 or so passes and back of the net. BeST goal we've scored this season, I reckon

What ?

Andy gray was praising us all night. He simply pointed out that at 2-0 up a Prem team should by all rights finish off teir opposition, and they did also mention that we had chances and in some ways boro were lucky to get the replay.

Boro are a good side, frankly if they were 2-0 up against man U and they pulled it back to 2-2 he would say exactly the same thing.

I thought the comentary was top notch and was balanced and fair, they could have spent all night going on about how we managed to put away our only real chance, but they gave us the first half, both agreed that we were the better side, so i'm not sure how it could be said that they were biased.

[Dolman_Dave]

Just watched the 'highlights' which were broadcast at 12.15 on Sky Sports 1 last night. (I got my mate to Sky+ them as I was in Durham at the time having a few beers and recalling a great game).

Have to say that they cut out a lot of good stuff that we played. Then again we had an awful lot of possession, quite often with little end product whereas when Boro had the ball (which was not as often as it would have looked if you had just watched the highlights), they usually ended up with a shot of some sort. So why show us pass it around for 5 mins or so when we don't't get a shot in etc....?

They had to lose around half of the footage and they chose to lose much of us playing Boro off the park in midfield, but then I realised the difference between Sky and BBC. Sky are in the pockets of the Premiership teams (just like the refs), after all they fund them and have a vested interest in the Prem being the 'finest league in the world'. Witness Gray slagging off our marking and calling it 'shambolic' when our free signing centre backs are marking as BB says £17 million worth of talent. Show some perspective man!! Keogh and McCombe were immense. We took some neutrals with us (in the away end of course) and all of them named McCombe (no 5) as man of the match and loved our performance.

If this had been on BBC then you can bet your life they would have been on our side (again just as biased but this time in favour of the underdog). Some dodgy decisions by Dowd were taken as read by Gray and Tyler (mostly Yakubu and Viduka diving) whereas old Motty woud have questioned them and shown replays etc.... 'were we hard done by?!'.

One thing that they could not do, try as they may, was to make our fans sound any less impressive, although there were a fair few songs I did not hear on the Sky highlights, namely 'your sister is your mother', does your mother know you're here, he's got bird s**t on his head, dooby dooby do etc.... I have to say that it was a pleasure to be there last night. On the face of it - 4/5 hour journey each way, time off work, when you could sit at home and watch it on Sky for sweet f.a., why would you bother?! But it was well well worth the journey. We very nearly did'nt make it in time either. 20 miles out of Middlesbrough at 7pm, punctured tyre. Managed to change the ######er in 10 mins and then cruised at 50mph (spacesaver) and got into our seats 10 seconds before kickoff. When that tyre went I knew that the game would be something special. Maybe I should give Williams F1 team a call!!!

To me the whole experience felt like a victory with the added bonus of not having to play West Brom on Sunday but to be able to get on with our season, focus on the league and beating the gas. I don't think any of us gave a s*** about the result, it was the performance and the pride that mattered. That stayed intact.