Back from the game - Bristol City (H)

[tomrfcurz]

£3.5m for Mackail Smith, Sheppard, Roberts and Cywka sounds like a bargain to me and getting rid of one of our weaker strikers too. Doesn't sound too much to spend on one window with new owners

[Royal With Cheese]

8,000??

On a good day

To be honest I started watching at the start of 95, so by then we were getting closer to 7-10 thousand at Elm Park rather than the lows of the earlier nineties, helped by decent away followings.

A big LOL to the lows of the early nineties!

[FiNeRaIn]

£3.5m for Mackail Smith, Sheppard, Roberts and Cywka sounds like a bargain to me and getting rid of one of our weaker strikers too. Doesn't sound too much to spend on one window with new owners

CMS would be an awful waste of money. I'd rather we didn't spent that for the sake of spending that. He's stepped upto this divison and completely flopped after a solid start. No thanks. 27 years old 25 apps 6 goals.

Simon church is younger, fresher and probably has a better goals to minutes ratio than that.

[winchester_royal]

£3.5m for Mackail Smith, Sheppard, Roberts and Cywka sounds like a bargain to me and getting rid of one of our weaker strikers too. Doesn't sound too much to spend on one window with new owners

CMS would be an awful waste of money. I'd rather we didn't spent that for the sake of spending that. He's stepped upto this divison and completely flopped after a solid start. No thanks. 27 years old 25 apps 6 goals.

Simon church is younger, fresher and probably has a better goals to minutes ratio than that.

[FiNeRaIn]

You know that face means " neutral" right which means you don't have an opinion on it?

But anyone wanting to waste 2.5/3 million on CMS...just stop posting.

[winchester_royal]

Brighton fans love him and attribute has lack of goals to dire service.

A careers goal record of better than 1 in 3. Compared to Church's 1 in 5.

27 is just about the peak of a striker's ability, so we'd be buying someone who could contribute fully to our promotion push this season.

Probably the closest player in terms of his energy, pace, strength and jump that we could get to Long.

I agree with you that it would be a lot of money to pay, and personally I'd like to see us address out issues in the middle of the park first. Saying that, I would be delighted to see him come in as I think him and Roberts would tear up this division.

And as for suggesting that Church is a better option...well if you actually believe that then I suggest you start following a different sport, or at the very least watch a Brighton game.

[FiNeRaIn]

Simon church is 4 years younger and has more international caps for a much better country than scotland. The manager has picked him a fair bit this season ( unfortunately not consistently) so the people that matter see something in him. However, you amongst another bunch of idiots slate him every week even when he plays well...because he's the new andy hughes for the fickle fans to abuse. I put it to you that you follow another sport until you take your blinkers off. Church is hit or miss...mainly because he hasn't had a proper run in a solid team creating chances. Our style of player is get it out to the wings and launch balls into the box, thats not church's style...he makes intelligent runs down the centre. Unfortunately, the centre midfielders we have are not creative enough to provide any good balls. Thats also why alfie hardly scores..because you guessed it...central midfield's lack of creative passing. How many times this season have we played a striker through for a one on one?
Now im not over playing church...he has had some bad games and has been anonymous at times, given a full run in a team with momentum and confidence I would like to see how he does and I would be the first to say ship him on if he doesn't become more consistent.

[winchester_royal]

I don't slate him every week, I just think he's very very average.

He runs around a lot, and that's about it. Something you often criticise Jem of doing.

Oh, and FYI Scotland are one place ahead of Wales in the world rankings. This is the same Wales that has Robson-Kanu as their first back-up on the wing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Church, and if he could get some swagger in his play then maybe he'll turn into a useful striker, but CMS would be far more effective in this team IMHO.

[FiNeRaIn]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

[winchester_royal]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

So instead of referring to a Fifa approved ranking system, we should listen to who Finerain thinks is better, rightttt

And perhaps, but we don't play that kind of football, so maybe it would be best for all concerned to move on.

[FiNeRaIn]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

So instead of referring to a Fifa approved ranking system, we should listen to who Finerain thinks is better, rightttt

And perhaps, but we don't play that kind of football, so maybe it would be best for all concerned to move on.

Its not a case of who finerain thinks is better, the majority of people know what they are based on and its not an indicator of who is better. Most people accept that. If you really think England and Uruguay are better than Italy and Argentina then just

[1871 Royal]

To be fair to Uruguay they did finish 4th at the last world cup, Englands ranking is a bit off though.

[Barney]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

So if the rankings are a joke, I suggest you STOP stating Wales are a better international team than Scotland. You are, again, talking garbage. Post sensibly, or don't bother. You embarrass yourself time and time again.

[FiNeRaIn]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

So if the rankings are a joke, I suggest you STOP stating Wales are a better international team than Scotland. You are, again, talking garbage. Post sensibly, or don't bother. You embarrass yourself time and time again.

What are you talking about, I never said wales were better based on rankings. Learn to read, you are the one talking rubbish embarrassing yourself.

[winchester_royal]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

So instead of referring to a Fifa approved ranking system, we should listen to who Finerain thinks is better, rightttt

And perhaps, but we don't play that kind of football, so maybe it would be best for all concerned to move on.

Its not a case of who finerain thinks is better, the majority of people know what they are based on and its not an indicator of who is better. Most people accept that. If you really think England and Uruguay are better than Italy and Argentina then just

I think that the rankings are based on results. Admittedly there are some slight anomalies, but invariably they are a good barometer for a team's ability. Therefore for Scotland to be above Wales, it would indicate that they are reasonably well matched, as opposed to Wales being massively better as you seemed to imply.

And also, Scotland beat Wales 3-1 in the Nations Cup last year, if you don't feel like trusting Fifa.

[Platypuss]

Brighton fans love him and attribute has lack of goals to dire service.

Not if last month's game is any indic8or

[Silver Fox]

Huh? Of course I can appreciate the skill you condescending git. It didn't make up for us not scoring IMO and therefore I wasn't pleased it happened. I can understand applauding an oppo team that have played incredibly well, like Liverpool did when they clapped us off at Anfield, but applauding our failed penalty attempt? Nope.

Also, you were "almost pleased" because, as you said, "Sitting 15 yards from the incident it looked a blatant dive, we were almost pleased James made such a great save." So your initial "pleasure" was all about justice apparently being done, not some purist football skill nonsense.

Will you be "almost pleased" if Watford beat us with a ghost goal one day?

LOLz, I'd ask if you don't understand hyperbole but it's clear you're all over it

[melonhead]

You know that face means " neutral" right which means you don't have an opinion on it?

But anyone wanting to waste 2.5/3 million on CMS...just stop posting.

i think the definition of that smiley has evolved into, "meh"

and if you really had no opinion on something, would you bother posting a smiley or anything at all


but agreed- i think 3 million on CMS would be a bit daft

[melonhead]

The same world rankings that have uruguay and england above italy and argentina. Jog on, everyone knows the ranking system is a joke.

But back to the main point. Church is exactly the sort of player that would go elsewhere and play with some creative mid fielders and thrive.

So instead of referring to a Fifa approved ranking system, we should listen to who Finerain thinks is better, rightttt

And perhaps, but we don't play that kind of football, so maybe it would be best for all concerned to move on.

Its not a case of who finerain thinks is better, the majority of people know what they are based on and its not an indicator of who is better. Most people accept that. If you really think England and Uruguay are better than Italy and Argentina then just

i think england are better than italy
in the last copa america uraguay beat argentina the hosts on penaltys after a 1-1 draw, and won the whole thing.
im not sure why youd want to use any other measure than that- other than some reliance on the historical greatness of argentina

[Ian Royal]

Just watched the game.

It's really easy to play against us with 10 men isn't it! You can easily pull one out of midfield and not notice given how crap we are at keeping possession and passing it around. Our central midfield in possession really is non-existant.

Federici - 7.5 good saves though relatively few were very taxing thanks to woeful Brizzle finishing.
Cummings - 6.5 pretty consistent performance from him but nothing particularly great.
Pearce - 7 turning into a real Ingimarsson in terms of consistency and reliability.
Gorkss - 7 also played solidly with few mistakes.
Griffin - 6.5 better going forward than Cummings marginly, but also made more mistakes
Tabb - 6 pretty average, harried well but not a lot else
Karacan - 6 see above. I wish he'd stop panicking so much when he picks up a loose or second ball. He has a tendency to treat it like hot potato and just hook randomly up field without looking way too often. Keep it simple, but play the ball short to someone in space or to run into space.
McAnuff - 6.5 weaker game from McAnuff but still our most consistently good quality attacking threat
Antonio - crossing 8, everything else 5.5
Hunt - 6.5 typical Hunt, lots of work, some really nice touches and crosses and a poor miss
Roberts - 7 looked a cut above although he failed to lay the ball off after doing the hard work a few too many times. Looked a little unfit but linked up well with McAnuff and Hunt.

Church - a generous 6 for doing nothing in little time
Cywka - clear penalty after a sweet turn, but that's about it... not on long enough for a mark.

So a solid display from the defence which was let down by a poor midfield. Some flashes of good stuff from a decent attack let down by a poor midfield.

We easily could and should have had another three goals + a third penalty, but then they could and should have scored at least three as well. A workmanlike performance doing just enough to grind out the result.