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

[davulsukur]

Should be an interesting response from both us and villa as we both got humped 4-1 away from home.

[chaddyrovers]

14 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Not up for the game?  What game were you watching he was about the only attacker in the second half who was showing for the ball and looking to create something. 

Really? 

Rothwell impress me. Ran with the ball, took players on, work hard. Palmer didnt do this. 

For me, Palmer did nothing in the game apart from miss a great chance. Ive not been impressed so far. Would prefer Rothwell to him. Palmer has shown to be show pony so far. I was expecting better. 

Edited September 2, 2018 by chaddyrovers

[bluebruce]

We lost by a hefty 4 goals to 1 today. But after reading this thread, I can now rest assured that it was only because Bradley Dack crouched down in a garden late last night.

This should be easy to remedy in future. We simply need to let our star player know that late-night garden-crouching can't happen in future, if he wants the team to win and himself to become a top-flight player.

I'm sure he will be amenable, it can't be that hard to avoid. I've heard you can earn a lot more money playing football than crouching in gardens. He will either desist, or make sure there is no photographic evidence next time, and we will therefore drub Villa.

Sorted.

[Tom]

11 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Really? 

Rothwell impress me. Ran with the ball, took players on, work hard. Palmer didnt do this. 

For me, Palmer did nothing in the game apart from miss a great chance. Ive not been impressed so far. Would prefer Rothwell to him. Palmer has shown to be show pony so far. I was expecting better. 

That show pony has scored 3 goals in 7 games, only one or two of those playing in his favoured position!

If he keeps that up he can be as equestrian as he likes! 

Edited September 2, 2018 by Tom

[blueboy3333]

@chaddyrovers. Just a word on Pulis and Boro. They get results because they don't let 4 in, even if their football isn't all that. We played some ok stuff at times today and got tonked. 

[Ewood Ace]

This biggest worry about Dack is just how bad his injury is as Mowbray doesn't seem to have a clue. Ahead of the Reading game he said “He’s been with the physios and has been in the pool, and if he trains and is back on the grass on Tuesday then I’ll imagine that he will be available for Wednesday night."

Before the Brentford game he said “Bradley’s okay. It’s just a decision to make and we have to make sure we don’t fall down a hole with him in playing him and playing him and playing him until he breaks down. We will make a call on Brad over the next day or so."

And then before today he said "Bradley will probably be ready for Bristol City". The injury is clearly more serious than Mowbray has let on (given that he hasn't even made the bench) the big question and worry is just how much more serious.

[DE.]

9 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

This biggest worry about Dack is just how bad his injury is as Mowbray doesn't seem to have a clue. Ahead of the Reading game he said “He’s been with the physios and has been in the pool, and if he trains and is back on the grass on Tuesday then I’ll imagine that he will be available for Wednesday night."

Before the Brentford game he said “Bradley’s okay. It’s just a decision to make and we have to make sure we don’t fall down a hole with him in playing him and playing him and playing him until he breaks down. We will make a call on Brad over the next day or so."

And then before today he said "Bradley will probably be ready for Bristol City". The injury is clearly more serious than Mowbray has let on (given that he hasn't even made the bench) the big question and worry is just how much more serious.

We desperately need him on the pitch. Scoring from open play is very difficult for this team without Dack around. Last season even when players like Armstrong were missing chances Dack would pop up to score. He's both a creator and a finisher which is huge for us, as most of our attackers are one or the other. A few appear to be neither. 

[Ossydave]

5 hours ago, philipl said:

I really really didn't want to post this in these circumstances but....

 

Because again, you didn't go to the game 

[Husky]

28 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Should be an interesting response from both us and villa as we both got humped 4-1 away from home.

Well we 'should have scored 3 or 4 and put the game to bed'. In a good first half.

But Villa were seemingly crap for the whole game.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45304576

[Stuart]

10 minutes ago, DE. said:

We desperately need him on the pitch. Scoring from open play is very difficult for this team without Dack around. Last season even when players like Armstrong were missing chances Dack would pop up to score. He's both a creator and a finisher which is huge for us, as most of our attackers are one or the other. A few appear to be neither. 

You do wonder when on earth we became a one man team. Our reliance on Dack is a concern.

[Ewood Ace]

8 minutes ago, DE. said:

We desperately need him on the pitch. Scoring from open play is very difficult for this team without Dack around. Last season even when players like Armstrong were missing chances Dack would pop up to score. He's both a creator and a finisher which is huge for us, as most of our attackers are one or the other. A few appear to be neither. 

Take Dack out I'd say we go from a mid table side to a relegation candidate. In the 3 games he's been out you can probably count on 1 finger the amount of chances we have created from open play and our goals have been 2 pens, 1 corner and a goalkeeping error.

[Ossydave]

Not at the races second half, simple as 

Brilliant first half but for some poor finishing. 

Less said about the second half the better, but the scoreline still flattered them. 

One takeaway is that Rothwell should be first name on the team sheet next game, what a force he is driving at the opposition. 

I can't even be too annoyed at today because on the whole it was a great day, most varied away support I've ever seen which included a woman walking a dog in our end? Not a guide dog just a family pet! 

[@roverseas]

Well it had to happen one day, and today it happened with bang.  The honeymoon is over for Rovers we now need to bounce back strong against Villa after the international break.  In all honesty we have had a excellent start to the season, to lose one game from 6 is not bad form, and we should be in good spirits overall.  Hopefully after a wee break Dack will return and we can start to get some more early points on the board to keep us away from any unnecessary trouble.  Thoughts from the gaffa, and Bristol City podcast host and more. 

 

[jim mk2]

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

[Ossydave]

3 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

Have you seen dack out on the piss outside your nursing home? 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

5 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

Good question Jim. I think we all know the answer to that one. Different times now. How many guys actually play amateur football these days ?

Edited September 2, 2018 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Stuart]

2 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Good question Jim. I think we all know the answer to that one. Different times now. How many guys actually play amateur football these days ?

Certainly not for the better.

[booth]

4 hours ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Until we started losing one nil every week and we needed a proven goalscorer. 

Have we signed a proven goalscorer?

[DE.]

27 minutes ago, Stuart said:

You do wonder when on earth we became a one man team. Our reliance on Dack is a concern.

We were a one man team most of last season too in fairness. Without Dack we would have been much closer to Shrewsbury than Wigan imo. There's a lot of effort in this team and a good amount of spirit, but there is a worrying lack of creativity which means we rely on set pieces to nick goals when Dack isn't around. That in of itself isn't the end of the world - under Allardyce we thrived under that type of system. The difference there was that we could defend under Allardyce and had the likes of Samba, Nelsen and Salgado marshaling the back line. Nyambe, Lenihan, Mulgrew and Bell/Williams is far less convincing. 

27 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

Take Dack out I'd say we go from a mid table side to a relegation candidate. In the 3 games he's been out you can probably count on 1 finger the amount of chances we have created from open play and our goals have been 2 pens, 1 corner and a goalkeeping error.

This is my concern as well - but for McShane's generosity at Ewood we would have been comfortably beaten by Reading. Today's result had been coming. Defensively we're very shaky, but we looked shaky in League 1 with this defence so it's no surprise we look even more fragile a division higher. We got away with it often last season due to the poor quality of the opposition, but we've already seen this season that we'll be punished at a much higher rate. 

Again this is why the transfer window disappointed me so much. I felt we needed some significant improvements both at the back and going forward. I don't feel like we've had much if any improvements brought in. Brereton is a kid with potential who we've apparently splurged our entire budget on. Rodwell has been an utter failure for six years now. Armstrong was £1.75m for a reason and we already had him in the team last season so at best that's standing still. Palmer came in with a lot of hype but not a whole lot of substance yet. 

The division has some very poor teams in it and I don't think we're that bad, so we should be able to survive, but if Dack goes in January it's going to make things very difficult. Even if money is made available I'm no longer sure I trust whoever makes the signings at Ewood to do the right thing with it. Imo they massively screwed up this window and January is much harder to operate in.  

[JeffRover]

My take on it: 

Thought that for the first 10 minutes, Bristol had the better of it, and had a couple of chances to take the lead. We then scored a real freak goal in all honesty, direct from a corner. After that I thought Bristol were shaken, and we should have capitalised on 2 or 3 good situations. I’m thinking about Palmer hitting the bar, Armstrong scuffing that shot and Bennett cocking up a 3 on 3. Bristol didn’t really lay a glove on us until just before half time when the referee gives a silly free-kick. Obviously the result is an equaliser and we go into half time a bit unlucky to be only level. First 10 minutes of the second period we looked a bit lost and Bristol went 2 - 1 up after a period of dominance. That resulted in Mogga ditching the “2 and a half attackers” rule to try and get back into the game. This left the defence horribly exposed and we then concede the third and fourth goals trying to get back into the game. 4 - 1 flattered Bristol in the end but we got taught a harsh lesson at this level - we must take our chances! 

Raya 6/10 - A couple of good saves as usual but I thought could have done better for their third goal, but there could have been a deflection.

Nyambe 7/10 - One of the better performers. Was left horribly exposed by Bennett all game and was unlucky to concede the free kick for their first.

Mulgrew 6/10 - Left exposed but didn’t really make any glaring errors. Scored a goal let’s not forget!

Lenihan 5/10 - Exposed again but should have done better for their second goal.

Bell 5/10 - Couple of good offensive moments but generally very poor today.

Smallwood 4/10 - Did he find any of our players with a pass in the second half?

Evans 5/10 - Busy in the first half but contributed to the exposed defense in the second half. Didn’t reach the heights of previous weeks.

Palmer 7/10 - Was busy down the left and did the hard work for his big chance, unlucky to hit the bar.

Bennett 4/10 - Had an absolute stinker today.

Graham 6/10 - Didn’t get any chances today but tried to put himself around.

Armstrong 5/10 - Missed his big chance. Didn’t look fit to me.

Thought Brereton was unlucky not to score right at the very end, would have been nice for him to get off the mark. Think going forward Reed has to replace Smallwood and we need Dack back sharpish. One of those days where if we had preserved a 2 - 1 scoreline we would’ve been angry that we showed no ambition. Today we showed naivety of this division and got a big slap on the arse for it. Think it gives us all a reality check that we are far from the dogs bollocks and need to keep going. Fans are most vital to give teams lifts at the low points. As Tony says let’s take this on the chin and move on. Villa will be smarting as well from yesterday so it will be an intriguing game that’s for sure. COYB!

[Parsonblue]

A game of two halves.  First half we dominated, created chances but didn't take them.  Second half Bristol dominated possession and took their chances.  Bristol are a pretty decent Championship outfit with a superb stadium and sizeable fanbase.  They ought to do well this season with Taylor and Weimann who ran our centre-backs ragged.  We are a solid mid-table Championship team and when we don't take our chances we will be punished at this level.  This was a good wake-up call for anyone who thinks that we will simply walk out of this League.  We've made a solid start for a promoted team but have some tough games coming up and will need to make the most of the chances we create.  One or two didn't perform as well as they can today but it's certainly not a reason to panic - every player has an off day now and again.

[Pedro]

41 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

I used to create makeshift splints and place them behind my knees to keep my legs rigid because a mate of mine suffered a career ending injury after he crouched down a bit too fast for a photograph.  

Edited September 2, 2018 by Pedro

[den9112]

45 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

I bought a sports car and spend time and money restoring it...I also  had to wait for the sports pink to get the results

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, Tom said:

That show pony has scored 3 goals in 7 games, only one or two of those playing in his favoured position!

If he keeps that up he can be as equestrian as he likes! 

1 goal in the league and missed 2 great chances that cost us points. 

[Tom]

4 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

1 goal in the league and missed 2 great chances that cost us points. 

You’ve decided he’s useless and won’t be swayed but 1 in 5 in the league is pretty good still.

You can’t pin today’s result on him for not finishing a chance that most may have given up on rather than forcing an opportunity.

As I said earlier if his finishing was perfect he wouldn’t be on Loan here! 

I’d be tempted to give Rothwell a start next time out but on current form they both should be ahead of Armstrong.