Heroes And Zeroes...

[RedTop]

Loud applause for:

1. Dave Lloyd on finally showing how it should be done.

2. The new PA system. Very clear.

3. The Supporters' Trust for an excellent, informative and entertaining newsletter. What a great job, and I hope it helped attract new members.

4. Robbored for having a desk set up outside the R&W to accept new members and let them use the bar. Good planning, even if I disagree with the principle of forcing us all to pay to get in.

5. Both teams for producing a superb game of football. We've waited a long time for Championship football, and it's clearly been worth waiting for - the quality is far superior to what we saw in previous seasons.

Rotten fruit to be thrown at:

1. Whoever had their hands on the PA 'volume' fool.

2. The clueless stewards and police whose combined needless interference ensured a complete shambles leaving the Dolman at the end of the game. What a cracking idea: Why not lock one of the two main exits without telling anyone or announcing it over the PA, let half the fans in the stand head towards it as they usually do, before discovering it's closed and thereby needlessly creating a huge blockage of confused and frustrated supporters, including plenty of elderly and families with young kids. Order them to leave via the other end of the ground with gestures and a tone that suggests they're simpletons for being unable to have foretold the closing of the gate via some kind of psychic power, cause all sorts of delay and congestion and then belatedly realise it would be safer (and easier) to actually open the gate as they should have done in the first place. And I'm not even going to get started on the lines of police confronting us to bar our way when we left the stand nd stop us getting to our cars. All the while, the QPR fans are being forced to stay inside while Avon and Somerset's finest do their best to stop us getting away quickly! Seems they've learned nothing from the Gas debacle last year. Here's an idea: Open all the exits, stop interfering and over-complicating things, and we'll all get home a lot quicker and safer, thank you!

[Dolman Block B]

Loud applause for:

1. Dave Lloyd on finally showing how it should be done.

2. The new PA system. Very clear.

3. The Supporters' Trust for an excellent, informative and entertaining newsletter. What a great job, and I hope it helped attract new members.

4. Robbored for having a desk set up outside the R&W to accept new members and let them use the bar. Good planning, even if I disagree with the principle of forcing us all to pay to get in.

5. Both teams for producing a superb game of football. We've waited a long time for Championship football, and it's clearly been worth waiting for - the quality is far superior to what we saw in previous seasons.

Rotten fruit to be thrown at:

1. Whoever had their hands on the PA 'volume' fool.

2. The clueless stewards and police whose combined needless interference ensured a complete shambles leaving the Dolman at the end of the game. What a cracking idea: Why not lock one of the two main exits without telling anyone or announcing it over the PA, let half the fans in the stand head towards it as they usually do, before discovering it's closed and thereby needlessly creating a huge blockage of confused and frustrated supporters, including plenty of elderly and families with young kids. Order them to leave via the other end of the ground with gestures and a tone that suggests they're simpletons for being unable to have foretold the closing of the gate via some kind of psychic power, cause all sorts of delay and congestion and then belatedly realise it would be safer (and easier) to actually open the gate as they should have done in the first place. And I'm not even going to get started on the lines of police confronting us to bar our way when we left the stand nd stop us getting to our cars. All the while, the QPR fans are being forced to stay inside while Avon and Somerset's finest do their best to stop us getting away quickly! Seems they've learned nothing from the Gas debacle last year. Here's an idea: Open all the exits, stop interfering and over-complicating things, and we'll all get home a lot quicker and safer, thank you!

On your last point Redtop, how about this sat.

At half time, two burly doormen, had one of the pair of doors open, with hundreds trying to get in for refreshments.

It was nothing short of manic, and when my Mrs got shoved i lost it with one of them.

FFS mate, open the other door!!!!

He said , health and saftey mate...cant!!

I'm well into health and saftey on sites, and that is b@llocks.

Eventually they opened the other door, and everything calmed down.

I ask you, were they told to say that?

[RedTop]

On your last point Redtop, how about this sat.

At half time, two burly doormen, had one of the pair of doors open, with hundreds trying to get in for refreshments.

It was nothing short of manic, and when my Mrs got shoved i lost it with one of them.

FFS mate, open the other door!!!!

He said , health and saftey mate...cant!!

I'm well into health and saftey on sites, and that is b@llocks.

Eventually they opened the other door, and everything calmed down.

I ask you, were they told to say that?

I am putting it all down to the start of a new season and the inevitable rustiness and disorganisation this causes with so many new staff etc, along with people in charge having to get used to dealing with far larger crowds. But both the stewards and Avon and Somerset Police seriously need to raise their game because it was clear to me that at the QPR game neither of them knew what they were doing. I hope they improve as the season goes on, or it will be a long and very frustrating season for those of us who have to suffer the resultant chaos.

[Martyn Hocking]

Dave made a good start but I'm not sure about the crossbar challenge - can't see anyone winning a bike this side of 2008! Why not simply copy the real crossbar challenge and get people to try to hit the goal crossbar from, say, the edge of the penalty box? (maybe a health and safety issue if people start smacking balls into unsuspecting crowd members I guess......).

Well_red

[Nipper]

I'd just like to add, as a season ticket holder, and having read all of the moaning, bleating and whinging about the cost of entrance this season, the game was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY in terms of entertainment. Anyone that ever played this game at any sort of standard will also have been able to see that Bristol City are more than capable of making the improvements needed to go onwards and upwards in this League. Some players like Orr made the adjustment straight away, on yesterday's showing, whereas others like Basso, McCallister and Lee Johnson no doubt learned valuable lessons that will stand them in good stead as the season progresses.

Lets us now forget about the extra few bob that we have to pay and look forward to a season of superb quality and entertainment. You are not going to get a refund and I would suggest that if you want to pay peanuts then you go and watch the low quality League 1 monkeys elsewhere.

[RedTop]

having read all of the moaning, bleating and whinging about the cost of entrance this season, the game was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY in terms of entertainment.

Spot on. I thought precisely that as I was walking away from the ground afterwards.

[Eddie Hitler]

[Bristol Boy]

Agree with all that and all I would add is that at this level,lessons need to be learned quickly.I'm all for entertainment but we can't spend this season having to score three goals to win a game.

On the stands, the Dolmans main issue is that we have a stand with access & egress from the front which is bad enough without some dullard,no doubt on the grounds of safety (That's not real safety but year 2007 SAFETY which is sexy and usually in management speak) lockimg gates

As you said leave the bl00dy things open-Nobody's been killed leaving or entering that stand for the last twenty years+ before this annoying antic started.

Mind you, those people who leave early must have fantastic houses to go home to-How you could leave a game like ysterdays early is beyond me and they missed the best five minutes of the match!!!

[Dave L]

Complaints from QPR about the PA (system that is, not the announcer):

In the City programme they make a fuss about how much they have spent out on a new and very loud PA system but we certainly couldn't hear the announcer when he was reading out our team

tannoy was crap, couldnt hear teams etc, didnt know who scored their 1st & our 2nd

I suspect we'll get a lot of that. Because the East End is coming down at the end of the season, there are no new speakers in the away end, so they have to make do with the old ones.

[Eddie Hitler]

I suspect we'll get a lot of that. Because the East End is coming down at the end of the season, there are no new speakers in the away end, so they have to make do with the old ones.

Thanks Dave, I will go and tell them that.

Well done on game 1.

[Simez]

I didn't think much of the new P.A. at all to be honest. At one point I didn't have a clue what song was playing, it just sounded like noise. I could hear Dave L OK but then I had no problem last season hearing the announcer.

[RedTop]

Mind you, those people who leave early must have fantastic houses to go home to-How you could leave a game like ysterdays early is beyond me and they missed the best five minutes of the match!!!

Agreed, but just to stress that the stewards/police made a positive decision to keep one of the two exits from the Dolman locked after the final whistle, yet failed to warn anyone in the stand via an announcement or anything, hence half the Dolman head for the exit and get caught up at one end unable to get out.

Let's hope they - like our defence - learned lessons from the first day of the season.