Very good piece by one of our own. http://exiledrobin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/what-lies-ahead-for-sod-at-bristol-city.html
Firstly I must state very categorically that as soon as I heard about Derek Mcinnes being rumoured as City's next manager in October 2011, I had very good feelings about what he would bring to, develop, and finally achieve at Bristol City. I was sad that he did not live up to my expectations although I genuinely feel that some of our playing staff have a lot to answer for. However, having now seen two interviews on City's I-Player with Sean O'Driscoll and having read all of the articles referred to in the exiled robin blogs, I am warming to the appointment of a man who appears to be quite shy in front of cameras, but who obviously has an extremely strong character and deep philosophy about how football should be played. John Atyeo, and I saw both his first and last games for City, was undoubtedly City's greatest player of all time. He left a legacy at Ashton Gate that has survived almost 50 years after he retired. Firstly that at Bristol City, we, as every fan does, want to see us winning and successful. Yet John's legacy is quite simple in that Bristol City should always play football and not the hoofball that some have tried in the past to impose. And also as a player who was never booked in a fifteen year career, that we should behave in the correct way on and off the pitch. In other words, we do not want to see the deliberate cloggers that follow and are carried along by some well known managers. No names but we all know who they are! Yes we may get relegated, but I am coming round to the idea that there is a reasonable possibility that Sean O'Driscoll may be what we have been waiting for, for the last twenty years. Quality football, played in the right manner and with a degree of success that will see Bristol City held in high regard by it's own players, supporters and others in the football world.
McInnes IMO has left us with better players (some really **** ones as well, lucky enough they are on short contracts) than when he joined, shame he didn't use them but you see he was trying to get a young squad. I think a few will look back and see what he was trying to do in a few years. I still think win the game in hand, we still play Barnsley and Sheff Weds at home we could just scrape out of it, even the weather seems to be on our side at the moment with travelling tomorrow making the game in doubt. What a lot of us fail to remember is we were all told we had a fantastic manager when we signed McInnes and even though he kept us up last year. He seemed to forget to play the good players he signed and relied a lot on the ones that put us in danger last year. I know some will say you can't compare the Championship with the SPL, but at the end of the day you take your coaching badges your trained to coach. The Prem had 7 Scottish managers last season compared to hardly any English managers so it proves that they can be successful. I am excited about SoD as we might see the players that Del sign play together and create a good team. But in the back of my mind yes he done well at Donny, had good resources for the 4 months at Forest but still got sacked by both. I work for a season ticket holder Forest fan, who called me when he was announced and told me he is a brilliant coach but he is not a manager! and Forest are still not defensive, but improving under the Big Eck. Pretty much what the Donny fan said really about the defence. And this is the bit that worries me we are pretty **** already in hat department. Basically what I am saying is we have heard the plaudits before regarding having a good manager lets just take things one step at the time, and form our own ideas. I will back SoD as much as I backed Del, and fingers crossed we have got this manager that makes the team play football again. A bit like we used to sing about when Danny Wilson was here.
Here Here Rod,I think we are all singing from the same hymn sheet,I remember his Bournemouth and Donny days his Donny team was excellent under his restrictions there.
Sometimes teams need to sit back and look at themselves in the mirror and I don't think many of our current crop can in all honesty say they like what they see. This must be a turning point in our history and I think that SOD will be the man to turn things around but will it be case of too little too late? The signs of our demise have been evident for all to see since our Wembley trip and no-one has been able to ring the changes. Sean has a massive task on his hands and I wish him luck and just hope he can rescue us from the drop, but we all need to be realistic and give him our support wherever that takes us.
I'm perhaps out of step with many here because although I played football Non League as a defender I believe the way to win games is to score more than your opposition be it 1-0 or 6-5 and I also remember with pleasure games at the Gate when the chants ringing round the ground went Attack......Attack......Attack Attack Attack as fans we didn't seem to be bothered if the other team scored we believed we could out score any one and generally at the Gate we did, our achilies heel was we seemed to ditch this type of playing away from home and got routinely stuffed, the one year I remember we didn't and attacked every game home and away we romped away with the Div 3 South title in style winning something like 14 games on the road as well as the Gate being a fortress. If you think about it you can keep 46 clean sheets and still be relegated 46 points might not keep you up but if you attack you can lose lots of games but the ones you win get you more points 46 times unbeaten could just leave you with 46 points whereas 15 wins 15 draws and 16 defeats would give you 60 points and generally what do most fans want to see 46 bore draws or attacking football and goals. Sean O'Driscolls footballing philosophy won't ensure loads of clean sheets as he wants people to try and think in a positive fashion pass to your own players not the big hoof down field as he says If you try and pass to your own players and fail you just have to work harder on your passing If you consistantly just lump the ball down field hit and hope fashion you'll never improve because you can not change your mind set. If he can instill his ideas into this team we have currently at the Gate quickly enough we should get enough points to be safe this year and there will be a slow change of players over the next couple of years if not there are likely to be massive changes in the summer. I also know people who are Doncaster and Forest supporters most of the Donny supporters I know wish the board had gone and S O'D had stayed. The Forest supporters seem to be confused as to why he was sacked he had started to get the team playing well after the shambles he inherited and did it in quick time as well then got the boot seems all a bit odd to them and also to me, the owners obviously didn't think he was a big enough name for them which he was sacked and reading between the lines something very odd was/is going on in Doncaster FC it looks like an agent has more influence over who plays than the manager.
Forest have just sacked three others yesterday, unbelievable really.Many many forest say they would rather have SOD than MacLeish.our gain i say.
