Am I reading this wrong, as we have QPR home, ( Sheffield a Cup game away) , Stoke away, Norwich at home, Rotherham at home, Boro away, but you are right its not an easy list and its important to win a game as soon as possible. 5 points from the first 5 games would be acceptable before we face Boro, and that looks more than doable to me. OaU.
Cheers RTB as always, another belting preview. Bristol City seem to have an opposite approach to us in terms of squad age. They have loads of experienced lads at this level. I have always been a fan of Chris Martin. He isnt a goal scoring forward, but his ability to play with his back to goal, hold up the play and bring others in is excellent. He will be backing into our centre halves all day and they will need to learn not to wrap their arms around him, particularly Ballard, as we dont want free kicks piling pressure on us. It was a weakness last weekend for me. Weimann is always a goal threat at this level and is a good player. Tim Klose at the back is ageing now but I always thought he was very good at Norwich. I think this is a game to setup aggressively and pressure them across the pitch with pace and early balls in to the box. Stewart needs to get in behind as much as possible and use that pace against Klose. Embleton and Clarke need give us width with Pritchard and Neil forcing them back in the middle. It was a clear tactic in the first half last week that Pritchard went a bit wider, Embo dropped in and Neil pressed really high on the centre halves. It looked really good at times and I would say Bristol City may find it harder than Coventry to cope with that sort of agression and fluidity. Coventry looked a good side to me when they made the changes and we became too negative, and the subs were poor. Can Bristol City do that? I am not so sure they have the quality Coventry do so this is a chance for 3 points on the road IMO, but it is no easy game. We just need to play front foot agressive football, defend with our brains not our brawn, and we can get the job done.
You probably aren't. I went in blind. Thought we had Sheff Utd. Must be getting confused, again. I go from thinking the league doesn't look too bad to thinking every game looks hard.
Partly that, and partly the first home game with COVID well in the rearview mirror, hopefully... I doubt we gave you any more tickets than we gave Leeds 3 seasons ago for our opener, how many did you get 3,500-4,000? Also, there will be a lot of your younger fans who won't remember Championship football, so will be soaking it up early in the season.
We had a horrible home record at the start of last season and the end of the season before. Hoping for a better start against a newly promoted side this season. We will see!
SOLD OUT Ashton Gate is set for its largest opening match attendance in 44 years with a sell-out crowd for the first home game of the season against Sunderland tomorrow (August 6th, 3pm).
Great thread RTB as always. Difficult game 1st home game for them, sell out crowd should be a cracking atmosphere. Got to keep it tight and frustrate them early doors and work our way into the game. I’d take a draw right now and move on and think we will get that at least. Early start for me for this one and a long day ahead. Hopefully trains run according to plan. Keep the faith lads and lasses.
Sold out guys going to be a corker -wellcome to the new and revamped Ashton Gate Stadium. You won’t recognise it from the last time you were in Town.
Expecting a defeat tomorrow. Think August is going to be tough and we need to win our homes games to keep some momentum going
My only train journey to Bristol is one I will never forget, early 1960,s left Sunderland 10.00 pm on a Saturday to do my first standby, arrived in Avonmouth 7.00 pm on the Sunday, and the clocks had gone back an hour. . I enjoyed my visit to Bristol though its a great place, and hope you and all our fans making the trip do the same.
