I knew that I'd be at a loose end this afternoon, so a week ago I entered the Bristol Post's/SkyBet's free ticket offer. There can't have been many takers as I found myself in William's Block D at kick off time today.................................. I needn't have worried about legroom, there were empty seats to the left and right of me. You looked neat and tidy in the first half, but throughout the match you failed to work two of their weaknesses. Their LB was booked early on and was often out of position, but you did not exploit that. Their 'keeper was still as bad as he was when he was on loan to us. A flapper and rooted to his line. He was never put under pressure. I thought your best three early on were Wagstaffe, Reid and JET. I was really surprised when Reid was subbed. Colchester were nothing special. They had virtually a reserve side out, we've bought O'Toole and have Bond on loan. Former wunderkid Spears is quickly going nowhere. Yet for all the nice passing you couldn't get through. Almost all your noise was coming from the EE (Shiny?); but I suppose if you're in the Dolman and going for a pie/wee/leaving early it's hard to get involved. I thought the crowd as a whole was supportive considering your position. Nice pitch, and it was good to see strong blue piping down the sides of the 'keeper's kit Listening to O'Driscoll on the way home I fail to see how you can have any enthusiasm for him. Deliberately confrontational at times, and the BBC should put out a compilation of his interviews as a cure for insomnia.
"Listening to O'Driscoll on the way home I fail to see how you can have any enthusiasm for him. Deliberately confrontational at times, and the BBC should put out a compilation of his interviews as a cure for insomnia. " Quite agree, dull as dish water and comes across as someone very thick, has been like that since day one though. Absolutely no idea how he got the job after an interview.
Not sure he comes across as thick but I think he reckons everyone else is. Personally, I can't stand the dour and patronising man and wish he would f*** off!
I dont have a problem with his entertainment value (he is a football manager not a stand up comedian), or his dour northern patronising dryness. Sometimes footballers need that approach. Where it falls down for me is, when he joined us we were near the bottom of the Championship. Now we are near the bottom of League 1. How many wins, draws and defeats ? I realise there are very effective statisticians here on this board, so if any have those stats handy it will illustrate how my rapidly evaporating enthusiasm for the man has been weakened considerably. 2 more defeats in the next 3 and I can see his position becoming decidedly shakey
I think his his time is coming to an end a few more games without a win and we will have to get rid of him as we will be adrift, plus the fact clough has become available now has done well on limited resources at derby, and they have steadily improved year on year was very suprised by his sacking
Agree with Prem, Nigel is a jumped up Conference/League 2 manager in my book. I'd rather sit scratching my head trying to work out what the hell SOD is on about half the time, rather than want to punch the manager of the team I support in the face!
There is no "magic bullet" to fire that will fix our problems - it's going to take more than a couple of months. All this SoD out stuff is a distraction - he's the poor sod (pun there!) trying to sort things out Let's stick to the plan - give SoD a chance to fundamentally sort things out - keep supporting our team
After several weeks of packing and unpacking a house and country move, a week of searching for our cat who went AWOL two days after we moved in to the house in Bristol, and a visits to the vet with a dog with the runs, I set off for Ashton Gate yesterday hoping for some sort of performance to cheer me up. After 35 minutes of a turgid first half, the guy sat next to me dug his elbow in my ribs to WAKE me up. A typical City performance of a passionless first half and a 0-1 deficit, followed by some real effort all the second half. But as Pirate said we hardly bothered the keeper until Sam scored. The plusses in my opinion; Williams looks a good prospect, Bobbie Reid works so hard and has something about him that I like. Joe Bryan continues to impress, but I wish he would stop getting will bookings in the opposition half. Parish showed much more composure than Fielding and Sam scored one goal out of only two chances he had all game. Pack works hard and will improve as he gets more experience at this level Wagstaff promises much but mostly fails to deliver. Both full backs competent in defends but no threat going forward. JET is a luxury, that I personally think we cannot afford. Good effort from all those who got on the pitch but unless we get a win very soon, I find it difficult to believe that O'Driscoll is the saviour many City fans believe him to be. And no I don't want Clough jnr!
I can't add much more to the above but why is our football so complicated that we mistake possession with controlling the ball and moving forward, for god sake, early release and running in to space to receive is just as important, just passing it along the line and backwards all of the time achieves little and I think Bobby Reid is a real little diamond...