BFTG - Bristol City (A)

[CountryRoyal]

Their number 4 was shocking in our first two goals (who was he?) - he was about half a mile away from both Kelly and Kerm - they had time to control, make a cuppa, and then place it into the bottom corner

Aden Flint.

[irrelevant rant about whoscored ratings]
looked up whoscored.com to check, and noticed it had given him a rating of 7.07. Our 4, the gloriously-composed VDB gets a rating of 7.73. Meanwhile, Liam Moore gets a rating of 6.12 and McShane 6.8. And this, ladies and gents, is why anybody who uses whoscored for ratings should be slapped about the head with a wet fish.

[/irrelevant rant about whoscored ratings]

Like a tuna? Or more of a trout.

Do different degrees of stupidity require different fish?

Asking for a friend.

[Sutekh]

[sandman]

Great result. We created our own problems against a poor Brizzle side

It seems most weeks, in some eyes, we are playing "poor" teams that we somehow manage to overcome despite our own shortcomings when my own take is the exact opposite.

In my view, the standard just keeps getting better and I seriously wonder how close Steve Coppell's team would have got to 106pts had it been playing in this season's Championship.

Not so long ago, few teams promoted to the Premiership established themselves in the top flight. Now, looking upwards, every club outside the top 7 has spent time in the 2nd tier in recent years.

Relegated Newcastle, who where supposed to be wiping the floor with the rest of us, have already lost 7 games while Aston Villa, despite an impressive start to Steve Bruce's tenure, currently occupy 12th place. Norwich, the other relegated club, having been recently on a run to rival Bristol City's, finally won again and are up to 9th.

The fact bottom 3 side Blackburn has already "doubled" Newcastle is a good indication of how many "poor" sides there are in this division; None, and that's what I love about it.

A simply fantastic result today. Time for the resident pessimists to start dreaming Thanks for all the reports.

You're correct of course.

Ali didn't give the ball away easily for the first, Blackett didn't give away a penalty and there wasn't a poor pass leading to Moore and slipping needing Ali to have to make a save to keep it at 2-0. Even the club website said "Two mistakes had handed the hosts a 2-0 advantage".

We won a game we totally controlled, that's great and everyone's is happy with that. Doesn't change the fact we got ourselves into trouble.

Rage filled response in 3,2,1...

[genome]

I believe you completely missed his point, but moving on...

[Maguire]

Their number 4 was shocking in our first two goals (who was he?) - he was about half a mile away from both Kelly and Kerm - they had time to control, make a cuppa, and then place it into the bottom corner

Exactly this TBM. What on earth was he doing for Kelly's goal? Just gifted it to him. You used to get closed down faster at Football For Fatties than in that game.

[urz13]

Superb day out.

We shot ourselves in the foot giving away two extremely cheap goals, however Bristol then shot themselves in the foot even more by parking the bus from the 46th minute, after which they had 11 men behind the ball at all times.

This limited our creativity as it was very difficult to play in behind or get crosses in etc and lead to a lot of sideways passing - but thankfully we fashioned out a few decent chances, took two of them and then finally had a go from distance which paid off. Great stuff!

Al-Habsi - 5
Gunter - 7
McShane - 5 - not his best game
Moore - 7 - two very important blocks
Blackett - 4 - very unimpressed, positionally woeful - at one point Kermogant had to play LB when they had a goal kick because Blackett was refusing to track back, quite bizarre. Obita is far better.
VDB - 5
Swift - 6 - had the beating of all their players but didn't get involved much.
Williams - 7
Beerens - 7 - great last 20mins
McCleary - 5
Kermogant - 9

Kelly - 8
Meite - 6
Obita - 7

[WestRoyal]

Gunter 5 - Showed willingness but was very poor going forward.

Really? Assist on the first, key pass for the second....

I've literally just seen the highlights and instantly knew I'd be pulled up on this.

Whatever he was still gash I hate him.

And there muirinho is the real reason behind his 5 rating despite the assist, that's why you should take ratings with a pinch of salt.
I went and IMO Beerens was lucky not to be subbed instead of mccleary who was our biggest threat during the first 45 and who along with gunter would get a 6.

[muirinho]

spot on, thank you!

[CountryRoyal]

Really? Assist on the first, key pass for the second....

I've literally just seen the highlights and instantly knew I'd be pulled up on this.

Whatever he was still gash I hate him.

And there muirinho is the real reason behind his 5 rating despite the assist, that's why you should take ratings with a pinch of salt.
I went and IMO Beerens was lucky not to be subbed instead of mccleary who was our biggest threat during the first 45 and who along with gunter would get a 6.

Tongue in cheek WR. Interesting viewpoint though, thought Beerens did much better in the latter stages of the game and I'm guessing Stam didn't share your view. Just as well hes the manager and not you eh.

[Pepe the Horseman]

JVDB getting a lot of criticism, despite his excellent pass to set up the winner.

[MouldyRoyal]

Random thoughts:

Last 20 minutes were obviously skillz. Kelly was exactly what we needed. He provided far more energy than Swift, closed down defenders when they had the ball, ran diagonals when we had it, found space and always looked to get forward. The possession is all fine and good but if people are never willing to make a suitable run or play the ball through a channel than we get stuck passing it along the back four for ages. They sat in two banks of 5 happy for us to do that as they knew we wouldn't risk bisecting their lines. Thanksfully Kelly tried to change that.

Kermogant also played well.

Tammy Abraham looks a talent.

Their number 3 had 3 gilt edged chances that he squandered.

Looked a penalty to me in the away stand, clumsy from Blackett. Are people calling it soft going off the replay?

[Woodcote Royal]

Great result. We created our own problems against a poor Brizzle side

It seems most weeks, in some eyes, we are playing "poor" teams that we somehow manage to overcome despite our own shortcomings when my own take is the exact opposite.

In my view, the standard just keeps getting better and I seriously wonder how close Steve Coppell's team would have got to 106pts had it been playing in this season's Championship.

Not so long ago, few teams promoted to the Premiership established themselves in the top flight. Now, looking upwards, every club outside the top 7 has spent time in the 2nd tier in recent years.

Relegated Newcastle, who where supposed to be wiping the floor with the rest of us, have already lost 7 games while Aston Villa, despite an impressive start to Steve Bruce's tenure, currently occupy 12th place. Norwich, the other relegated club, having been recently on a run to rival Bristol City's, finally won again and are up to 9th.

The fact bottom 3 side Blackburn has already "doubled" Newcastle is a good indication of how many "poor" sides there are in this division; None, and that's what I love about it.

A simply fantastic result today. Time for the resident pessimists to start dreaming Thanks for all the reports.

You're correct of course.

Ali didn't give the ball away easily for the first, Blackett didn't give away a penalty and there wasn't a poor pass leading to Moore and slipping needing Ali to have to make a save to keep it at 2-0. Even the club website said "Two mistakes had handed the hosts a 2-0 advantage".

We won a game we totally controlled, that's great and everyone's is happy with that. Doesn't change the fact we got ourselves into trouble.

Rage filled response in 3,2,1...

No rage, Sunbeam, this wouldn't be Hobnob without countless missed points littering every page.

No matter how high the standard, no team plays a perfect game.

Like every side in this division, BC are a decent outfit who are more than capable of capitalising on the inevitable errors others make, just like Blackburn.

For all the stick their manager got, his was not the worst strategy and it nearly came off against one of the best sides in the division. Sit back invite us to break them down and settle for a point unless an opportunity presents itself . And it did. A poor pass intercepted just outside the box plus a soft pen..........................but it still wasn't enough.

[WestRoyal]

I've literally just seen the highlights and instantly knew I'd be pulled up on this.

Whatever he was still gash I hate him.

And there muirinho is the real reason behind his 5 rating despite the assist, that's why you should take ratings with a pinch of salt.
I went and IMO Beerens was lucky not to be subbed instead of mccleary who was our biggest threat during the first 45 and who along with gunter would get a 6.

Tongue in cheek WR. Interesting viewpoint though, thought Beerens did much better in the latter stages of the game and I'm guessing Stam didn't share your view. Just as well hes the manager and not you eh.

T&C my arse, why would someone say that about their own player and claim it was T&C, nice try.
I don't deny beerens stepped it up in the last 10, hence why i said instead of mccleary which would mean before the final substitution which was 10 from time.

ps Just as well he's the manager and not me - very original.

[CountryRoyal]

And there muirinho is the real reason behind his 5 rating despite the assist, that's why you should take ratings with a pinch of salt.
I went and IMO Beerens was lucky not to be subbed instead of mccleary who was our biggest threat during the first 45 and who along with gunter would get a 6.

Tongue in cheek WR. Interesting viewpoint though, thought Beerens did much better in the latter stages of the game and I'm guessing Stam didn't share your view. Just as well hes the manager and not you eh.

T&C my arse, why would someone say that about their own player and claim it was T&C, nice try.
I don't deny beerens stepped it up in the last 10, hence why i said instead of mccleary which would mean before the final substitution which was 10 from time.

ps Just as well he's the manager and not me - very original.

Wtf is T&C?

Toungue AND cheek?

Is that a thing?

[WoodleyRoyal]

It's like foot and mouth

[WestRoyal]

Tongue in cheek WR. Interesting viewpoint though, thought Beerens did much better in the latter stages of the game and I'm guessing Stam didn't share your view. Just as well hes the manager and not you eh.

T&C my arse, why would someone say that about their own player and claim it was T&C, nice try.
I don't deny beerens stepped it up in the last 10, hence why i said instead of mccleary which would mean before the final substitution which was 10 from time.

ps Just as well he's the manager and not me - very original.

Wtf is T&C?

Toungue AND cheek?

Is that a thing?

Stick to the argument and stop diverting, i'm not familiar with the saying but you know what i meant.
If you are going to go there at least spell tongue properly

[sandman]

I believe you completely missed his point, but moving on...

Well I know what my initial point was so if he's changed the point then there was really no need to reply to my point. Pointless really.

[genome]

I believe you completely missed his point, but moving on...

Well I know what my initial point was so if he's changed the point then there was really no need to reply to my point. Pointless really.

[Brum Royal]

Agree with the majority of comments on here re the game yesterday:

The goals were mainly of our own making - certainly the first. In real time the penalty looked nothing more than a coming together, the replay makes it look a bit more clumsy and more understandable for the award, especially given that was the angle the ref was running from.

AAH didn't have his greatest of games, and was a major contributing factor in the first (McShane not blameless either) with both the pass out and also not doing enough with the save to get the ball away from danger, but did redeem himself with what turned out to be a key save in the second half after Moore's slip as we certainly wouldn't have come back from 3-0 down.

I'm still not overly convinced by Blackett.

Beerens wasn't particularly effective going forward for a good 80 odd minutes, but looked a lot more lively when paired with Obita.

I'm assuming it was game plan that meant we hardly used the right wing at all to attack for the majority for the opening 70 minutes, virtually everything went down the left.

I thought Jaap got his subs spot on yesterday, and really changed the focus of our attacking play. As mentioned above, I'd have maybe taken Beerens off earlier if I'd been in charge.

Not sure whether it was a change in tactic or just that they got knackered, but City pressed us high up the pitch in the first half and stopped us playing, second half at 2-0 up they didn't do it and combined with Jaap's subs allowed us to turn the game round.

Thought the ref should have produced at least a couple of yellows for the City players after some fairly industrial tackles in the first half - especially the one that clattered Williams. Some of the yellows second half seemed soft by comparison, but at least he got on top of the City players trying to time waste second half.

I've not seen a game for a couple of months, but that's the best game I've seen from Kermit - linked well with GMac and the wingers, good hold up play and two great finishes. Looks to be developing into the forward we hoped he would be.

[Ian Royal]

Their number 4 was shocking in our first two goals (who was he?) - he was about half a mile away from both Kelly and Kerm - they had time to control, make a cuppa, and then place it into the bottom corner

Aden Flint.

[irrelevant rant about whoscored ratings]
looked up whoscored.com to check, and noticed it had given him a rating of 7.07. Our 4, the gloriously-composed VDB gets a rating of 7.73. Meanwhile, Liam Moore gets a rating of 6.12 and McShane 6.8. And this, ladies and gents, is why anybody who uses whoscored for ratings should be slapped about the head with a wet fish.

[/irrelevant rant about whoscored ratings]

As long as you understand the context that it's a calculation based on a set of statistics which are far from the whole picture, they're reasonable useful as an indicator.