"intangibles"

[Olé]

Obviously everyone is really nervous about Saturday and a million "what ifs" are racing through everyones head. Let's get some perspective and then focus on eliminating the only intangible dangers which remain.

Firstly, on form, incentive to win and quality of football this season we really should beat Rotherham and the bookies expect this to be the case too. If we play as we have recently played against Forest, Yeovil and Carlisle then we should get a result. If Johnson gets a reaction from his players following the Millwall defeat (as he has always managed after previous defeats) then we should be explosive on Saturday.

These are all things which are supposed to happen. Besides giving the players all the support we've got, these are things we simply have to trust in over the next four days and hope the relative merits of the sides sort the rest out, we have no other direct control over it. What we should guard against however are the 'intangibles' (a word used by a lot of American sports analysts) that could turn things upside down.

• Red Cards
• Injuries
• Conceding Penalties
• Freak Goals

These are the sorts of things we should be worried about because we don't necessarily have control over them. A huge feature of this week will be the fact that it is in our hands, yet to some extent none of these things are in our hands. And any of them could change the whole complexion of Saturday. Can you imagine what having a player sent off would do to our chances? Or if we get a disasterous referee who has a terrible game?

These are the "intangibles" that we should be worried about, and they pose the biggest uncontrolled threat. So if like most people you are worrying yourself stupid this week, please re-focus your concerns, believe in the team and the ability to beat Rotherham, have faith in those controllable factors, and simply focus your concern on the things which we may not have direct control over.

The danger of red cards and penalties we have some control over by not doing anything rash and keeping our cool and not getting into anything off the ball. But the biggest intangible will be the referee, who he is, what he thinks of City, what kind of day he is having, how he officiates matches. He has not yet been announced - it will soon be listed here. He is "intangible" number 1.

Injuries are the other thing we may not have control over, particularly if we do not have suitable cover for such eventualities. The areas where this will have most effect on our ability to win the game are loss of the keeper and on current form, loss of someone capable of putting the ball in the back of the net. So let's make sure we have a competent substitute keeper and attack-minded players on the bench. Losing key players that we can't replace is "intangible" number 2.

Freak goals. On form and standing Rotherham are a poor team and one we can beat, but it's a game of football and in football any side can score a freak goal. The chances of this are significantly enhanced if they are prepared to take speculative shots from anywhere in our half. Without a specific gameplan you imagine they probably will. We can work to close them down outside the box but you can't demoralise a demoralised team so they WILL try things. This is "intangible" number 3.

So, the bottom line: we're all worrying about whether we can win but can you imagine blowing this all simply because the ref was an idiot or because we couldn't effectively replace Basso during the match, or because Rotherham were able to score from 45 yards!?!! It doesn't bear thinking about, so please, BELIEVE in the team, have FAITH in their role in this match, and lets then simply guard and focus against these intangibles and their threat to our ability to get this job done.

[boadle]

My concern is a small earthquake located a specific location in BS3 - seismically-speaking, in our penalty area - (4.6 on the Richter would do it) that might cause a fissure in the tectonic plates, forcing Basso to lose his footing on a particularly tricky cross, a subsequent updraft of wind created by the abnormal low air pressure drifting the ball into our net.

Just kidding. Good post. You reds.

[Rocky]

Good post!

How deep are you!?

[GJ CA]

I think I agree.

[Ian M]

The referee is Mike Russell from Hertfordshire.

His record in City games in previous seasons that I can find for him are Huddersfield at home last season (we won 2-0, booked: Stewart, Orr, Carey) and Bournemouth at home in 04/05 (we lost 2-0 including a penalty against, booked: Coles, Doherty).

This season he has reffed:

BCFC 2-4 Blackpool (Booked: none, gave City a penalty)

Cheltenham 2-2 BCFC (Booked: McCombe)

Don't recall him being particularly anti-City in any of those games, just a couple of poor performances to account for the losses.

[bcfcchris2016]

The referee is Mike Russell from Hertfordshire.

His record in City games in previous seasons that I can find for him are Huddersfield at home last season (we won 2-0, booked: Stewart, Orr, Carey) and Bournemouth at home in 04/05 (we lost 2-0 including a penalty against, booked: Coles, Doherty).

This season he has reffed:

BCFC 2-4 Blackpool (Booked: none, gave City a penalty)

Cheltenham 2-2 BCFC (Booked: McCombe)

Don't recall him being particularly anti-City in any of those games, just a couple of poor performances to account for the losses.

i hate his record so much. :noexpression:

Why put that mate.