Back from the game - Bristol

[brendywendy]

Dont see why not,we are clearly better than the bottom half now. And up to cardiff are all at our level.and if we went up jm would sell anyway.not that any of that will happen.but it could. The team does have a relentless almost 0506 feel at the mo

[Ian Royal]

I think SJM will invest as much as is necessary to retain the existing squad but no more than that, he will also be a bit meaner on wages and contracts than last time round as he'll feel we overextended last time.

So, at best, we'll have this squad plus a couple and that would be nowhere near good enough. So, yes, essentially, we'll take the money and take our chances with the squad we have and, in all probability go down - a richer side.

Which is no bad thing as it makes us healthier as other clubs get more and more in trouble and better able to fund another promotion push.

I also think you have far too little faith in how we'd behave.

I think we'd go for a few bigger buys and cut out all of the also ran mediocre shit we picked up with Coppell last time. We saw it's all about buying a few better than you've got, not just boosting the squad size. Can't see McDermott having the same concerns about loyalty and disrupting the squad.

[Terminal Boardom]

Well, wasn't that easy. I said at half time that it felt like a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. City were spectacularly ordinary.

MoM Tabb. Got through so much work.

Special mentions to the whole back 4 and Long up front.

I thought Sig could have done with a breather and given Marek a 30 minute run.

What I like most about BMcD is that he considers the oppo and selects a team to win against them. Talking to some City fans before the game in town I asked how they would line up. When they said 433 I replied that BMcD would go 451. Where he is an improvement on SSC is that he will change a winning side. At least we can say that we are no longer predictable.

And to anyone harping on about the play offs, my advice is simple. Go into the bathroom and have a long hard look in the mirror then tell yourself to stop being ridiculous. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. You will find it so much easier to handle the disappointment.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Great performance yesterday. Dominated the game and could of easily won 5 or 6 nil. My man of the match is Ryan Bertrand. Fantastic young talent and hopefully we can sign him in the summer, because he has done a fantastic job. I thought Kebe and McAnuff played quite well today, but as mentioned before, Kebe did look quite knackered towards the end. Tabb and Mills put in top performances and lets hope for more of the same on Tuesday.

Top notch atmosphere today, Bristol City didn't bring much to the table.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

Dont see why not,we are clearly better than the bottom half now. And up to cardiff are all at our level.and if we went up jm would sell anyway.not that any of that will happen.but it could. The team does have a relentless almost 0506 feel at the mo

Agreed. The team does have scary shades of the 106 season about them right now, but this is just over the course of 8 games, not a whole season unfortunately!

[Dirk Gently]

Also worth a mention of Bertrand yesterday. Defensively a class act, but he seems to be a lot happier getting forward and attacking then before Xmas.

Possible because he now has faith in his colleagues to cover for him.

[Terminal Boardom]

I must be in a very small minority as I do not rate Bertrand that highly as a defender. He certainly has his moments pushing forward but first and foremost his number 1 priority is defending. At this he is nothing more than ordinary.

[Ian Royal]

I must be in a very small minority as I do not rate Bertrand that highly as a defender. He certainly has his moments pushing forward but first and foremost his number 1 priority is defending. At this he is nothing more than ordinary.

I think his mental attributes as a defender leave a fair amount to be desired. For example positioning. But then he's young, and didn't he play a fair amount of last season on the wing?

I don't feel he's a reliable defender (yet), more than think he's a poor one.

[floyd__streete]

There is a big difference between big realistic and getting completely carried away. As several Bristol city fans said " you are deluded if you think you are going to make the play-offs" - I agree. It wasn't long ago we were being spanked by rubbish sides. Yes we have improved greatly, but we have WBA, Newcastle, Cardiff, Middlesbrough and Leicester all to come who are in and around playoff places and won't be easy games. We've had the last three league games at home which has given us 9 points..against poor opposition. Im delighted with the way BMD has us playing but stop kidding yourselves on that we are a playoff sides, we are still far closer to relegation and the re-building process is FAR, FAR from complete in terms of starting the revival.

Spot on there, Finers. Also agreed with the comments regarding the Sig who was greedy in the second half and performed poorly; you haven't your move to the Premier League in the bag quite yet, sunshine.

[Gordons Cumming]

If Sig had been less greedy and not glory seeking we may have had 2 or 3 more goals.

Showed a little immaturity in the second half.

[peterroyal76]

So what if we are ill equipped at the mo to compete in the Prem?

There is a bigger picture.
The prize money gained from promotion, and the sky revenue is an income stream that is not to be sniffed at.
So what if we were relegated again after 1 season?

Surely the lesson to be heeded is to keep a tight grip on player wages/contracts.
It is player wages that are sinking pro football clubs in this country.

A few years as a yo yo club would make the club stronger financially (with the wages proviso), and would also raise the profile to make it more of an attractive proposition to would-be buyers.

Let's be completely, brutally honest. The kind of money required to sustain Premiership status. and actually be competitive there is never going to be forthcoming with JM at the top. Let's just give it a bash, and see how we get on.

+1 from me

[Sun Tzu]

I must be in a very small minority as I do not rate Bertrand that highly as a defender. He certainly has his moments pushing forward but first and foremost his number 1 priority is defending. At this he is nothing more than ordinary.

Very much in the Nicky Shorey mold then....

[Sarah Star]

I must be in a very small minority as I do not rate Bertrand that highly as a defender. He certainly has his moments pushing forward but first and foremost his number 1 priority is defending. At this he is nothing more than ordinary.

I think his mental attributes as a defender leave a fair amount to be desired. For example positioning. But then he's young, and didn't he play a fair amount of last season on the wing?

I don't feel he's a reliable defender (yet), more than think he's a poor one.

Bertrand was my MOTM for this game.

Since his disasterous pass/clearance in the Villa match he seems to want to prove himself - hence the goal in the Derby match. In Saturday's game, he not only pushed forward, he got back and made a good job of defending as well. I thought it was the best game I've seen him play for us.

[AthleticoSpizz]

amen to that Sarah

[The Cap]

royalexile wrote

'There must be a fire drill' as they started to leave early.

Every now and again a song comes along that makes you smile. And this one definitely gave me and bruv a right chuckle.

Chuckle brothers eat your hearts out.

What's the odds it'll come along again if the Soopa Hoopsa start filing out in similar fashion.