Bristol City vs Blackburn Rovers, Sunday 1st September, 1.30pm KO

[only2garners]

29 minutes ago, renrag said:

Leeds gates are not that great for a one club city with a population one and a half the size of Liverpool or Manchester. The only competition for miles around is Huddersfield and Bradford.

Lies, damned lies and statistics. Leeds' population only looks large because it just has one metropolitan council area, like Birmingham. Both Merseyside and Greater Manchester are bigger.

Anyway, back to the game. I'll be there - my wife is from Bristol and her brother and his wife are season ticket holders at Ashton Gate, so it's an obvious one for me.

For anyone driving down I would suggest coming ff the M5 at junction 18 at Avonmouth. Follow the A4 towards Bristol and just after going past the motorway there is a Park & Ride on the right. It's free to park and there are dedicated buses running straight to Ashton Gate. The parking is very difficult round the ground so this is far and away the easiest way to get there. And if you're old enough for a bus pass it's free.

[Stuart]

3 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

If we do a root cause analysis though...a big part of why clubs have priced tickets so high and have to grab at any television money is that vast swathes of income are drained by player wages, which itself is driven partly by player greed but mostly by agent greed.

Clubs are in a peculiar position, where fan pressure to succeed and the financial structure and reality of the game means they have to take financial gambles, which means they have to recoup that money from fans and tv.

It's all a bit of a loop, with fans (armchair and hardcore alike) getting milked for their cash in a huge exploitation of their passion, and the ultimate beneficiaries being players and agents. As it worsens, the risks and debts become greater and something has to give somewhere.

Other way around mate.

Keep going with the root cause...

Player wages are so high (in the top two tiers) because their agents have demanded a huge slice of the tv deal money (including parachutes).

Tv companies are driven by advertising so they do all they can to drag people out of the stands and into their living rooms.

Companies who pay the advertisers want their product/brand seen around the world so they will invest more money to make the PL more attractive, and to help clubs to afford the best players across Europe. Aside from one or two notable big clubs in Spain and France the PL is the place for players to be. It’s the European Super League ™️ by default.

Wages have then risen steadily to match or at least pay relative the higher earners. Rather than having one or two players on top money and the rest getting an average the cost base has risen.

Another unintended consequence is that some absolute dross have managed to ride the gravy train by having a good season and a clever agent.

The root cause is corporate greed. Player (agent-driven) greed is a direct consequence of the money swashing around that they believe they have generated. This becomes self-fulfilling.

The big winners? [Some] Players, short term. Agents. PL executives. Sky executives. Corporate executives.

The big losers? Fans. Thick players, long term.

[tomphil]

The big losers ? Fans. Thick players, long term.

...and thick owners past and present who don't have a plan and stick to it.

[Mattyblue]

6 minutes ago, only2garners said:

Lies, damned lies and statistics. Leeds' population only looks large because it just has one metropolitan council area, like Birmingham. Both Merseyside and Greater Manchester are bigger.

 

Not actually the case, West Yorkshire is the Leeds equivalent to Greater Manchester. Both are metropolitan councils set up in the 70s like Tyne & Wear, South Yorkshire, West Midlands etc.

The reason Manchester itself is smaller than most think is areas that people generally think are in the city like Stretford etc. are actually outside the boundaries - as Man City fans like to point out.

[tomphil]

15 minutes ago, only2garners said:

Lies, damned lies and statistics. Leeds' population only looks large because it just has one metropolitan council area, like Birmingham. Both Merseyside and Greater Manchester are bigger.

Anyway, back to the game. I'll be there - my wife is from Bristol and her brother and his wife are season ticket holders at Ashton Gate, so it's an obvious one for me.

For anyone driving down I would suggest coming ff the M5 at junction 18 at Avonmouth. Follow the A4 towards Bristol and just after going past the motorway there is a Park & Ride on the right. It's free to park and there are dedicated buses running straight to Ashton Gate. The parking is very difficult round the ground so this is far and away the easiest way to get there. And if you're old enough for a bus pass it's free.

City of Leeds still has fair old population rammed in it though.

[only2garners]

You're right - Leeds is a big city and there is a huge catchment for United as there is a lack of other nearby competition. But only by using the artificial administrative boundaries can you argue that Leeds is 1.5 times the size of either Manchester or Liverpool. no one could seriously suggest that Manchester, Salford, Trafford and Stockport are not part of one conurbation. Likewise Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley and Wirral.

Anyway, all this has nowt to do with tomorrow's game. Bristol's population is c450K!

[Way down West]

20 minutes ago, only2garners said:

You're right - Leeds is a big city and there is a huge catchment for United as there is a lack of other nearby competition. But only by using the artificial administrative boundaries can you argue that Leeds is 1.5 times the size of either Manchester or Liverpool. no one could seriously suggest that Manchester, Salford, Trafford and Stockport are not part of one conurbation. Likewise Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley and Wirral.

Anyway, all this has nowt to do with tomorrow's game. Bristol's population is c450K!

A slight correction, the 'city of Bristol' has a population of 450K but it's a relatively small area. The urban area is more like 900K - 1M. It's bigger than most people realise. An example, I live on the eastern tip of the city and it's 13 miles to the furthest point.

On tomorrow, we're getting our confidence back on the back of 2 decent results and we have our main man Famara Diedhou back for the first time this season after a ludicrous 6 game suspension. I can see a tight affair but would hope, at home, we have enough to claim a narrow win, Kalas on loan from Chelsea has given us a more solid defence which Swansea couldn't penetrate.

Keep an eye out for Lloyd Kelly at left back. He's an England U20 international and the main reason we were content to sell Joe Bryan. While we've got him, we'll enjoy watching him but he's destined for bigger things. In front of him Niclas Eliasson is an absolute flying machine so he's another one to look out for. Andi Weimann has 5 in 5 but s more than just a goal scorer. He must be a total pain to play against as he never stops running and harries defenders for the entire game.

Have a great trip.

2-1 City, 20, 880.

MAENPAA

HUNT KALAS WEBSTER  KELLY

O'DOWDA / WATKINS  PACK  BROWNHILL ELIASSON

WEIMANN  TAYLOR / DIEDHOU

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, Way down West said:

A slight correction, the 'city of Bristol' has a population of 450K but it's a relatively small area. The urban area is more like 900K - 1M. It's bigger than most people realise. An example, I live on the eastern tip of the city and it's 13 miles to the furthest point.

On tomorrow, we're getting our confidence back on the back of 2 decent results and we have our main man Famara Diedhou back for the first time this season after a ludicrous 6 game suspension. I can see a tight affair but would hope, at home, we have enough to claim a narrow win, Kalas on loan from Chelsea has given us a more solid defence which Swansea couldn't penetrate.

Keep an eye out for Lloyd Kelly at left back. He's an England U20 international and the main reason we were content to sell Joe Bryan. While we've got him, we'll enjoy watching him but he's destined for bigger things. In front of him Niclas Eliasson is an absolute flying machine so he's another one to look out for. Andi Weimann has 5 in 5 but s more than just a goal scorer. He must be a total pain to play against as he never stops running and harries defenders for the entire game.

Have a great trip.

2-1 City, 20, 880.

MAENPAA

HUNT KALAS WEBSTER  KELLY

O'DOWDA / WATKINS  PACK  BROWNHILL ELIASSON

WEIMANN  TAYLOR / DIEDHOU

Who is your keeper? 

Do you also play 4-4-2 all the time?

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Bumped into the the Bristol City 'firm' a few years back when watching them play Millwall. They had been thumped and were absolutely fuming, they assumed that all Millwall fans were hooligans and so promptly stormed towards us with cider bottles in hand, I never run so quickly in my life, absolute fucking lunatics. 

Since then I've refused to go to a football game in Bristol. Good luck to anyone going today, I hope you don't bump into the lot I did. 

Going for a 1-2 Rovers win followed immediately by the belief we are going up as Champions. 

[TruRover]

If Dack is fit he has to start imo, especially as I feel this will be a tough game for us. Bristol city are a decent team and are coming off the back of an impressive win at Swansea and also boast one of the most inform strikers atm in Weimann. A point would be a good result for us. Would play Brereton as he will be raring to get off to a good start and will have a point to prove, he will also give us a valuable counter attacking option. 

Id go for:

Raya

Nymabe - Lenihan - Mulgrew - Bell

Bennett - Evans

Palmer - Dack - Rothwell

Brereton

Subs: Leuwitter, Smallwood, Travis, Reed, Armstrong, Conway, Graham

[Mattyblue]

Bit early for that!

[Husky]

Who is playing in Bristol today?

[Way down West]

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Who is your keeper? 

Do you also play 4-4-2 all the time?

Nicki Maenpaa, a Finnish international, signed from Brighton. He's looked decent thus far. Normally, your own Frankie Fielding would be playing but he's injured.

We line up as 4-4-2 but it's very fluid, sometimes 3-5-1-1, sometimes 4-4-1-1 etc etc, it's certainly not a Mike Bassett 4-4- ****ing 2!! 

Edited September 1, 2018 by Way down West

[AdamRochina]

Hope for a good game would take a poin, city are a decent side and feel without ouour strongest line up we might come unstuck

[sparky12]

2 hours ago, Husky said:

Who is playing in Bristol today?

This should cover it ??

[blueboy3333]

5 hours ago, Way down West said:

A slight correction, the 'city of Bristol' has a population of 450K but it's a relatively small area. The urban area is more like 900K - 1M. It's bigger than most people realise. An example, I live on the eastern tip of the city and it's 13 miles to the furthest point.

On tomorrow, we're getting our confidence back on the back of 2 decent results and we have our main man Famara Diedhou back for the first time this season after a ludicrous 6 game suspension. I can see a tight affair but would hope, at home, we have enough to claim a narrow win, Kalas on loan from Chelsea has given us a more solid defence which Swansea couldn't penetrate.

Keep an eye out for Lloyd Kelly at left back. He's an England U20 international and the main reason we were content to sell Joe Bryan. While we've got him, we'll enjoy watching him but he's destined for bigger things. In front of him Niclas Eliasson is an absolute flying machine so he's another one to look out for. Andi Weimann has 5 in 5 but s more than just a goal scorer. He must be a total pain to play against as he never stops running and harries defenders for the entire game.

Have a great trip.

2-1 City, 20, 880.

MAENPAA

HUNT KALAS WEBSTER  KELLY

O'DOWDA / WATKINS  PACK  BROWNHILL ELIASSON

WEIMANN  TAYLOR / DIEDHOU

You seem to have come good again the last couple of games after a slowish (?) start to the season and a bit of a poor end to last season. Is that fair? Are you confident of the play-offs this season? 

Your 2-1 prediction was what I was going for too. I feel we may suffer our first defeat of the season tomorrow.  One thing I would saythough is that we don't know when we're beaten and have a team spirit not seen at Ewood for a long time. A draw wouldn't surprise either. I'd be very surprised, and delighted,  if we won. This will be a tough test for us.

[JBiz]

I have a feeling we will turn them over tomorrow, which probably means we will lose  

[DeeCee]

On 29/08/2018 at 18:33, K-Hod said:

Bristol City vs Blackburn Rovers, 02/09/18, 1.30pm, Ashton Gate.

 

Following a win against Lincoln City in the League Cup last night and the unveiling of the worst kept secret in football in Ben Brereton finally signing, we take the hellishly long journey to the South West of the country and head to Bristol City for a slightly re-arranged league game.

 

Rumour has it, it has been moved due to a music festival on the Saturday. As something of a music fan myself, it’s not something I can particularly complain about, particularly as I won’t be attending the match either…..

In any event, it’s on Sunday at 1.30pm and if you’re departing from anywhere other than the South West of the country, the smart bet seems to be allowing plenty of time.

 

So, what do we know about Bristol? Apart from it being incredibly far away from our East Lancashire home?

 

Well, I know that some good music has prospered from a strong scene there in the past. What the media dubbed as ‘trip-hop’, with acts such as Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead (okay, they’re from the nearby town Portishead, but they made their name in Bristol, so allow it) were all pioneers of the so-called ‘Bristol Sound’, made popular in the early-mid ‘90s.

It has also been something of a hotbed for drum ‘n’ bass and jungle, with acts such as Roni Size, Bad Company UK, Loadstar, DJ Krust, DJ Die, Danny Byrd and TC all hailing from the City (or at least nearby).  Electronic music producers such as: Propellerheads, Phaeleh, Nick Warren, all come from Bristol as well.

Cider is also very popular in this region of the country, with several specialist cider bars and therefore plenty of options, should you want to wet your whistle pre-match!

Also, how could we forget, the former Lancashire Telegraph Correspondent Andy Cryer, who seemed to do a complete 180 on his feelings re Rovers, once he left the publication.

(A Rover never forgets Andrew, FYI.)

Bristol has also been well-known for its graffiti scene and it is believed to be home to Banksy. This belief was further reinforced by the opening of a Banksy theme park ‘Dismaland’ in 2015. Banksy has admitted he was heavily influenced by artist ‘3D’ aka Robert Del Naja (of Massive Attack).

In addition to this, there had been rumours that Del Naja was in fact Banksy, thanks to the loose lips of Jungle/drum ‘n’ bass pioneer Goldie. However, these rumours have never been officially confirmed.

 

A little bit about our opponents

Formed in 1894, initially as Bristol South End, once they turned professional three years later, they changed their name to Bristol City.

The club have played at Ashton Gate, since a move from their original home of St John’s Lane in 1904. In 1900, they merged with then rivals Bedminster FC and joined the Football League a year later, becoming only the third Southern team after Woolwich Arsenal, (now just Arsenal and located in Islington, North London) and Luton Town to join the competition. In their first league game, they saw off our Lancashire neighbours Blackpool 1-0 at Bloomfield Road.

Fast forward to 1905-06 and they won the Second Division Championship, becoming the first team to win 30 out of 38 games played, as well as equalling Manchester United’s record of 14 consecutive wins, a record which stood until this year.

They finished as runners up in their first season in the top flight, but by 1910-11, they suffered their first ever relegation. It would be 65 years before they eventually returned to the top flight.

City would then go on to have a long stay in the second tier, before a ‘yo-yo’ period between the second and third divisions until they ultimately made their return to the top flight in 1976.

However, between 1980 and 1982, there was a decline on and off the pitch and City ended up in the fourth division. Once the club eventually returned to the second tier in 1990, the club has been in the second and third divisions quite a lot since then. However, since 2015, the club has been in The Championship.

The club’s main rivals are Bristol Rovers and Cardiff City. With whom they contest the Bristol and Severnside Derbies, respectively.

The club are currently managed by Lee Johnson (son of former manager, Gary) and have been since 2016.

 

Average attendances

The club averages around 20,000 per week, which you’d expect from a City club, to be fair, but it’s a good number for a second-tier club in any event! The club draws support from Bristol and across the South West.

 

Famous fans

Tony Robinson

Marcus Trescothick

Jonathan Pearce

Robert Del Naja

John Cleese

Justin Lee Collins

Richard Scudamore

Jenson Button

 

Head to Head Overall

They’ve just about got the edge over us, with 17 wins to our 14, with 11 draws.

 

Played for both (A selection)

Frank Fielding

Keith Fear

Andy Cole

Bradley Orr

Derrick Williams

Elliott Bennett

Ben Gladwin

 

COYB!

Just as a bit of an aside and a ramble, Nick Warren was a bit of a mate of mine, he came down to fish our local river before he was divorced from the fishery's owners daughter. He used to be a gamekeeper, is the godfather to Fatboy Slim & Zoe Balls kid Woody and used to walk Gary Glitters dogs as a youth.

Pretty sure he's a Swindon fan lol.

Top bloke.

[DeeCee]

8 hours ago, Ossydave said:

Pretty much every postcode in the UK is populated by a fair share of Leeds fans, read some daft stat about it a while back

My next door neighbour (recently bereaved) in Cornwall is a Leeds fan, he was born and lived in Portsmouth till he was 35 , trying to get him up in October for the game for our joint 60th, and the Scouse guy down the lane for the EFC V Palace game the day after ( we are all 60 within 2 months of each other).

Leeds brought about 700 for a pre season game against Bodmin Town last year, mostly holiday makers already down here.

[philipl]

Bristol City have won their last two games and given the way Swansea have just beaten Millwall, the Bristol City win at Swansea is looking even more impressive.

On the other hand,  of the two current bottom clubs, 2 of their combined 4 points and 4 of their combined 9 goals have come against us.

Puts our bright start into perspective.

Assuming Dack is out, sticking with 70% probability on our unbeaten start ending tomorrow and we could lose by a few too.

Bumping back down to earth unless we give it everything and take our few chances.

[Way down West]

1 hour ago, blueboy3333 said:

You seem to have come good again the last couple of games after a slowish (?) start to the season and a bit of a poor end to last season. Is that fair? Certainly is blueboy. It looked like the players were struggling with what Lee J was asking for in the first couple of games but they're getting there now. We were good against Swansea, who looked a poor side on the day, so we'll see if that and the QPR (awful team) results were a false dawn or not. We should have won at Bolton (missed numerous chances) yet our performance against 'Boro was dreadful. 

Are you confident of the play-offs this season? In all honesty, no, we'll see where we end up. We have a terrible habit of superb winning streaks followed by long runs of defeats. Personally, I'll be happy with the top 10 as this is a great league.

Your 2-1 prediction was what I was going for too. I feel we may suffer our first defeat of the season tomorrow.  One thing I would saythough is that we don't know when we're beaten and have a team spirit not seen at Ewood for a long time. A draw wouldn't surprise either. I'd be very surprised, and delighted,  if we won. This will be a tough test for us. It will be tough for sure, as it will be for us. I'm expecting a good game to be fair as your team spirit sounds similar to ours. 

 

Edited September 1, 2018 by Way down West

[Ossydave]

14 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

My next door neighbour (recently bereaved) in Cornwall is a Leeds fan, he was born and lived in Portsmouth till he was 35 , trying to get him up in October for the game for our joint 60th, and the Scouse guy down the lane for the EFC V Palace game the day after ( we are all 60 within 2 months of each other).

Leeds brought about 700 for a pre season game against Bodmin Town last year, mostly holiday makers already down here.

Yeah pretty much everywhere you go there's a Leeds fan! Can't really call them glory hunters either so fair play to them. I do have a slight soft spot for them whereas most people seem to hate them 

[roversfan99]

57 minutes ago, philipl said:

Bristol City have won their last two games and given the way Swansea have just beaten Millwall, the Bristol City win at Swansea is looking even more impressive.

On the other hand,  of the two current bottom clubs, 2 of their combined 4 points and 4 of their combined 9 goals have come against us.

Puts our bright start into perspective.

Assuming Dack is out, sticking with 70% probability on our unbeaten start ending tomorrow and we could lose by a few too.

Bumping back down to earth unless we give it everything and take our few chances.

Why do you predict that we could lose by a few, what have we done to suggest that a comfortable defeat/thrashing could be on the cards soon?

In the last game we played, v one of the early front runners and highly fancied teams, missing Dack, Armstrong, Graham as only a sub and the likes of Brereton and Reed also yet to sign, we won 1 nil. We've yet to lose and are a point ahead of our opponents. A loss will come at some point but theres no reason to suspect a thrashing is on the cards.

Going into the international break, if we win tomorrow weve had a terrific start, draw and its a decent/pretty good start, lose and its an average one.

@Way down West what do you make of Johnson as a manager? And what do you make of your summer business?

Think you may be stretching the truth describing this as a "great league!"

 

[blueboy3333]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Think you may be stretching the truth describing this as a "great league!"

It's a very competitive league, which makes it a great league to me. 

[roversfan99]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

It's a very competitive league, which makes it a great league to me. 

Certainly much better than the one we were in last year.