1. A busy, though not entirely successful week for City, on and off the field. Out of the Cup, out of the promotion places and out of touch (morning, Ehab). 2. Arsenal. This may have been the most encouraging part of the whole week. For a time, City’s much changed XI held and even bested their Premier League opponents, and had David Meyler not had that inexplicable brainstorm shortly before half-time, we could have snuck a result. As it was, Arsenal pulled away remorselessly in the second half to deserve a win, if not a very unfair 4-0 scoreline, and we’re left with whatifs and maybes once more. 3. Nonetheless, the Cups have provided some real fun this season. Accrington, Swansea, Leicester, Bury, Arsenal (a) – that sort of enjoyment used to take about a decade to accumulate. Imagine what we could do if Steve Bruce ever took them seriously… 4. Taken seriously was Milton Keynes, and it was an unremittingly grim affair. It’s perhaps fitting that a club whose mere existence is a stain on the sport should play in such a grisly fashion. Time wasting from the very beginning, recognising quickly and capitalising upon a hopelessly weak referee’s indulgence when it came to falling over, delaying, spoiling – it was horrible. We have and always will wish them every misfortune. 5. None of that excuses City, who were dreadful. A sudden rash of injuries cannot be used to explain a baffling line-up that saw Clucas deployed centrally and Diamé out wide. Milton Keynes’ anti-football doesn’t forgive City wretchedly stumbling through the first twenty minutes without threatening to lay a glove on them, allowing a terrible side to gain confidence. 6. It was in midfield that City looked particularly weak. Without Meyler or Livermore, that area was very fragile. Hayden and Clucas rarely linked up, and when at half-time you’re beseeching the manager to put Tom Huddlestone on, it gives you an idea how disjointed the whole affair was. 7. That Steve Bruce let it go on as long as it did without making changes to personnel or formation is hard to understand. It wasn’t working. It hadn’t been working at any point. Why did he persist so long? The manager and his assistant were deep in conversation throughout of this miserable match – what were they discussing? 8. It all means that the title has probably gone. Burnley are nine points clear, and despite City possessing two games in hand, it really doesn’t feel as though they’re catchable any longer. We wanted that trophy, and its likely disappearance elsewhere hurts. Nothing in the two games between the two sides will ever persuade us that Burnley are a better side than City, and we had plenty of chances to establish a lead at the top of the table. However, they’ve gone, and you have to congratulate them on that. Barring a late surge by Derby or perhaps even Sheffield Wednesday, it seems as though three teams are contesting the second promotion place. Neither of the three are shaping up especially well at the moment. Brighton may be unbeaten in four, but they’ve drawn their last two without scoring. Middlesbrough are having a meltdown to make Derby’s turmoil earlier this season seem positively restrained. We’re suddenly struggling. It’s a bizarre promotion race, with the ludicrous Premier League riches obviously affecting everyone. 9. Meanwhile, the regrettable instance of a member of the Allam family opening his mouth irritated everyone at the end of last week, withEhab striking a peculiarly anti-supporter line. The Premier League’s proposed £30 cap on tickets for away fans is, apparently, “not in the interests of football”. Presumably, pricing thousands of fans out of the game somehow is – but on he continued, foot firmly in mouth, decrying the prospect of tickets being “over-subscribed” and darkly warning that it “will lead to an allocation process having to be set up”. Ehab, old sport, go speak to what’s left of the ticket office. There’s already an allocation process set up. 10. Meanwhile, his comments about the impact on City are just laughable. What do you check when you’re thinking of going to an away game? The cost of tickets, who’s going, train times, whether anyone will drive, etc – or Tripadvisor reviews? On Planet Ehab, it’s apparently the latter. Meanwhile, in the reality-based community, price is a huge factor. But on he ploughed, saying that clubs who aren’t at 90% capacity should be financially penalised. It’s fairly obvious that this was just something that popped into his head with no real thought, and no-one will take it seriously. It does raise one interesting question though: exactly how much does he think City should be fined this season for all of the empty seats his ridiculous pricing system has created – and how is he going to prevent this from happening in the future, given that £30 is apparently not enough? http://www.ambernectar.org/blog/2016/03/things-we-think-we-think-220/
I think it's a bit early to say that Burnley have definitely won the title. If we beat Forest and Brentford we only need them to slip up once to be right back in it. The points on the board makes it look more daunting than it is.
RH put their usual negative slant on proceedings in their sports news this morning. Headlining that 'some fans are questioning the clubs promotion credentials' Are they RH? Based on what exactly? Driff Tiger's slanted view ? In the real world we are at home tomorrow in a game which IMO the local BBC radio station should be reporting on as a chance for this areas biggest professional football club to go second in the Championship as the race for the Premier League enters the final furlongs ( or something like that) A win tomorrow, at home, sets us up for a Battle Royal on Friday with Boro, live on SKY for all the world to witness, and a win there would have City breathing down the necks of Burnley for the Title, which if achieved would be the first at this level in the clubs history. But no, sod that, concentrate on 'some fans are questioning the clubs promotion credentials'
Agree, Burnsy was on twitter yesterday putting a negative slant on it, when he was pictured at the K.C. with the P.L. trophy stating he was "I'm wobbling whether we will see the PL at the KC next season"( pity he didn't put that thought to SB when he had the chance after the game on Saturday) the fact is, City are on a poor run of form, but sooner or later that will end, I think every team at the top end of the table have had a bad run at some point this season, City are having there's now, but after yesterdays result im beginning to think the dream of automatic is back on for City, if i'm honest i'm more worried about Brighton than Boro , nobody talking about them, they appear to be under the radar.
Fact is we've dropped points to decent sides, and MK Dons who have been on a good run and taken points against decent sides, so it's not the end of the world YET.
Maybe not against us, but they've been in decent form. And from the sounds of things actually tried to attack us in the first half, which is more than can be said for most sides that have come here lately.
Winning one in the last six is not decent form, they're 20th in the form table and other than beating mid-table QPR and drawing with us, they've played all bottom of the table clubs recently.
Since they were knocked out of the FA Cup they've: Drawn with a resurgent Cardiff Drawn with Middlesbrough Beaten Derby Lost to Bristol City Drawn with a decent Huddersfield Narrowly lost to Blackburn - who around that time beat Boro and Birmingham Beat QPR Drew with Charlton That's not a horrible set of results. Two losses in their last 9 now.
They might not be horrible, but they're one point outside the relegation zone having won only one of their last six games and that's not decent form.
If you say so. They're one point out of the relegation zone because they've been drab for large chunks of the season, as have most of the sides down there. That doesn't mean they haven't eked out some decent results lately against some of our competitors. Would you say Rotherham are in poor form?
As they're 7th in the form table, theirs is obviously better than Franchise MK and unless MK's form improves, they'll be overtaking them shortly. Particularly as their most recent results include wins against Wednesday, Boro and Brentford, with a very dramatic draw against Derby, in a game in which they looked dead and buried.
I'd wager MK has almost as many points as Rotherham over that 9 game stretch. EDIT: Haha well knock me down, they've actually got an identical tally. Not sure why the form table arbitrarily looks at the last 5 or 6 or whatever it is. Point being MK are hardly rubbish but everyone over there has a negative slant on them because of their history, or their lack thereof, or whatever. I was anxious going into the game and those anxieties were justified. New manager at Forest is another worry, but more confident of a win in that one. If we don't get the 3 there, then I'd be prone to a bit more panic.
The standard form table is six games and it's because that's roughly a months games and tends to give the best idea of how a team is currently performing. We're down to 9th by the way.
Fair enough. Yeah we've been atrocious lately, but as I started by saying, Brighton, Ipswich, Wednesday and Birmingham are all decent. MK Dons to me seemed to be getting decent results against the big boys lately. We still need to start a lot sharper, and I really hope Forest is one of those games where we win 3-0 and everything gets a little bit back on track.
A Dons fan would say it was a classic hard fought away performance against a club with one, if not the best, home record in the Championship. Expect more like it. As Boro found out yesterday. No club is going to get an easy ride in or out of this league. Not even Burnley.
We desperately need to beat Forest, not only to get three more points on the board, but also to pile the pressure on Boro on Friday. I think we'll either win both, or we'll win neither, that's how significant I think tomorrow's result is.
I said at the time, Ehabs comments are laughable and completely miss the point; nothing new there then! The title is definitely still there to be achieved! As the saying goes; 'until it's mathematically impossible'; can hear the words dripping out of Bruceys mouth on the training ground as we speak
'Time wasting from the very beginning, recognising quickly and capitalising upon a hopelessly weak referee’s indulgence when it came to falling over, delaying, spoiling – it was horrible.' What's new? Brighton, Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday were just as bad, if not worse given they are actually capable of playing if they want to.
