JamesBCFC

4 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

... and you still beat Man Utd!

We have been playing players out of position all season, not due to injuries half the time though sadly and we tend to prefer to keep strikers on the bench and play an either ageing defender or a loanee midfielder in attack instead.

I would hate to think what would have happened to us against Man Utd setting up the same way.. we would have been lucky to beat FC Utd of Manchester I think!..

It's probably a bit cheeky of me to still call Reid a midfielder playing as a striker as he has played there nearly all season, enforced by our injuries pre-season, and has been a revelation. But outside of a couple of youth seasons 10-12 years ago he had always been a midfielder.

With the Man City game we will probably take a similar approach, albeit a bit less attacking as Johnson aims to win every game. If we can win, draw or even hold them to just beating us by a single goal then I wouldnt write us off for the second leg at another packed out Ashton Gate.

Anyway, I'd like to thank you all for the nice words about City following that game and I'll let this thread get back to being about your promotion push.

38 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Yeah I think the two cup games could knacker you out. As great as it was for you to beat United surely the owners will prefer promotion?

 

I expect that's true, we came so close 10 years ago and then went about things totally the wrong way after losing the playoff final and it set us back years, ultimately resulting in relegation.

In the summer after relegation the club announced a new way of going about buisiness, 2 years later we have arguably our most successful season ever and 4.5 years down the line we are 3rd and in a semi final.

If I were to go completely overboard and delude myself into thinking it possible I think I'd take winning the cup over promotion (as long as we were in the mix again the next season) mainly as it would be our first major trophy, but also European football at AG is something I'd never have dreamed being something I'd witness.

I've been expecting us to drop off for a few weeks because of all the injuries we have had- on Wednesday we had 5 players out of position, one reserve player and needed 5 youth to fill the bench- somehow we have defied this but with the fixture pile up and some very tough games my worries are still there.

Our owner is a Bristolian billionaire who invested in us because of his son, so our future is pretty secure, but he wants us to become self sustainable and promotion is ultimately necessary for that to happen.

Not directly about Villa, but something that will help you indirectly as it weakens a rival is that we (Bristol City) now have 10 games before the end of January, and only 1 or 2 could be classed as "easy" (if there is such a thing as an easy game in the Championship).

We have an average of less than 3 days between games with none of our injured players due back until February. I fully expect a drop off in form over this period, though a few signings in January may ease things 

4 hours ago, S-Platt said:

Great stuff for 2 reasons.  **** Utd and 2 more big games for Bristol and players not wanting to get injured and missing out.

We had 10 players out for last nights game as it was and had Bryan playing left wing instead of left back and Magnusson who is primarily a CB playing left back as well as another CB in Wright playing right back.

I rather enjoyed that match.

59 minutes ago, peterms said:

Our points total is closer to Brentford in 13th than Cardiff in 2nd position.  It feels like quite a distance off an automatic spot to me.

It's also a more challenging task than at the start of the season - catching up 10 points on Cardiff, and 6 on Bristol City and 4 on Derby, while also not being caught by the 4 teams who are within 2 points of us.  And doing that with only half the games left in which to do it.  The quality of the play in many of the games doesn't suggest that we are going to be able to make that level of improvement.  I suppose other teams might collapse like Sheff Utd have, with 4 defeats in the last 5 games, but it's pretty unlikely.

The need for an automatic spot, as we've discussed ad nauseam, is because our pretty poor record against the teams likely to be in the playoffs doesn't inspire confidence of getting promoted via that route.

However it's not long ago we were even on points (think you were even above us) which shows just how quickly things can change.

At the moment we have so many injuries that on Wednesday against Manchester United we can only fill the bench by using about 4 youth team players, with our coming fixtures you could easily be above us come full time of our game at Villa Park.

I'm an advocate of giving managers time and we are currently reaping the rewards with Lee Johnson at the moment. But with that said, there isn't/wasn't the expectation of promotion this season.

16 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Still madness we sold him to you for as cheap as we did and a promotional rival too.

I've been under the impression that as part of the deal being cheap we have waived or lessened one of the Kodjia clauses. Only thing I know for sure is you said to us it was a limited time price on him like he was in the reduced section in a shop.

Honestly I didnt think either side would be proper promotion contenders, had you guys down as just missing the playoffs and us as having a boring midtable season. It makes everything so far so much better and the cup run with our reserves is an added bonus.

On 05/12/2017 at 09:36, AvfcRigo82 said:

  Welcome aboard!

..Hows Baker getting on these days?

Been absolutely quality, and covers up when Flint makes errors incredibly well.

But biggest difference to when he was here on loan is he no longer looks a red card waiting to happen.

1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

You're lost ain't you boy? 

It's a confidence thing with Alberto. I think switching him to the left and giving him licence to cut inside and make runs into the box has given him a huge boost too. Put simply Bruce has said here you go son, have at it. The shackles are off.

Like you say too, couldn't happen to a nicer bloke. 

Edit - for a second I thought the 'BCFC' stood for Birmingham City, now I remember you're a Bristol fan! Ignore the first part of my post. I thought it was odd you were able to type in decipherable English.

I think that happened with some people when I originally signed up too.

At the time I had completely forgotten we shared initials with them.

And I can only belatedly apologise for us losing to them on the final day last season, any other result and we'd have relegated them and while I have no strong feelings about Birmingham I'd have loved it if we had relegated old Redknapp.

Far be it for me to tell you how to approach things, but I think patience with managers does get rewarded.

It may be better with the manager after Bruce, but give them a bit of time.

When Lee Johnson came in he said he wanted 3 transfer windows to get his squad and style of play. 

We saw glimpses of what he wanted last season, and started well before a desperately awful run of form which would have seen most managers sacked. But now we have started this season just as well as we did last year.

But the crucial difference between this season and the start of last year is that the results are more deserved than what we had last year.

I'm not getting carried away and expect we will just be mid table, and of course, things could take a terrible turn again, and if we have a run like last years then he should go as it would show he hasnt learnt from last time.

1 hour ago, KHV said:

I think the squad is weak. The defence is weak, the midfield has no pace or creativity and the only decent forward we have is injured.

You've definitely got some good midfield players (counting wingers too)

Adomah, Grealish (if he gets his head down), Snodgrass, Hourihane, Onomah are all decent players for the Championship.

I'd definitely like Hourihane at Ashton Gate.

Dont particularly rate your defence though.

On 27/08/2017 at 19:22, AntrimBlack said:

Disagree, James. I thought we were extremely lucky to get a draw there. Good luck for the season.

Only just been back on

Best of luck to Villa too, assuming neither club goes up or down I will be aiming to go the game at VP next season (finances mean it almost certainly wont be this year). A ground I have always wanted to go to.

Forgot I had an account on here!

I thought a draw was a fair result, missed our goal, but apparently there was an offside shout wen we scored.

With the deflection for yours, we both had a slice of luck.

Felt we perhaps should have had a pen for a handball by Terry, but as before. A draw was the fair result.

Bamba was stopping everything first half, was happy to see him subbed.

A better overall performance by Villa than in this game last season.

Thanks for the responses.

Sounds like another typical performance from us, don't think we have played well for the full 90 minutes yet this season, often just good patches during the game.

Though I wouldnt say we are normally particularly physical, Johnson does change his plans to cater for the opposition so he may well have gone for physicality to try and stop Kodjia

Glad our fans were good as well, wanted to go to Villa Park but just didnt have the money, maybe next season (if we stay up). Our fans to travel reasonably well to grounds like yourselves, Brum and Wolves because they are some of our nearest games.

What was our performance like?

On the radio from commentary it sounded like an even first half (our commentary suggested we shaded it, but could be down to bias) but that you were the better side in the second half.

My reaction- Gutted at yet another loss.

5 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Is it a personnel issue (ie, players not good enough) or is it down to the manager not setting them up well enough, or a bit of both? I can't say I recognised the names of any of your defenders at that game, but then I don't know much really. 

An element of both, Johnson is a bit of a tinkerer and we haven't had a settled side. We've used 4 different goalkeepers this season and now our best CB (IMO) is only making the bench.

At the same time our RB position is absolutely woeful. We got Adam Matthews on loan who is great for this division when fit, but he hasn't been fit all season and seems to have an attitude issue, then there is Mark Little who is a mid-table League 1 quality RB, after that we're looking to our development squad. At left back we got Golbourne who is a lower end LB, Joe Bryan who is a Midfielder being converted to a full back or Magnusson who is normally a CB for us.

I'd like Johnson to focus on our strengths, rather than setting up to counter our opposition, but also realise we don't have the quality to focus only on our strengths.

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I saw your loss to Wolves. You just look really open defensively. Unfortunately we can't score so we might not be able to exploit it. 

That is pretty much our problem.

We are good going forward, but terrible at the back.

Haven't double checked to verify, but I read earlier than under Lee Johnson we have had only one game that ended 0-0. You can guarantee someone scoring in midweek.

Enjoy your win on Tuesday.

Failing that you are guaranteed a point as we cannot defend a lead if our lives depended on it.

Points thrown away against Wolves, Reading, Cardiff, Derby and Newcastle in the last 11 games and 4 wins in 5 months.

Performances against Derby and Newcastle have been decent, but against Fulham was absolutely dire. Our win against Rotherham looked like 2 lower League 1 sides.

Brighton along with Newcastle the most impressive side I've seen this season, but unlike against Brighton we actually gave Newcastle a game.

Think Newcastle and Brighton will be top 2, squad depth will be the main factor between the two.

Can't stand the bloke but Barton is very good in this division. Probably wouldn't cut it in the Premiership any more, but at Burnley he got his head down and ran games.

Wouldn't want him at City though (not that he would come or even be approached.)

On 29/10/2016 at 11:24, striker said:

Haven't seen those Bristol City supporters around here in a while. 

Was here a couple of weeks ago, but only check in sporadically.

Glad to see him doing well. Though I see he still has disdain for the offside rule.

1 minute ago, TrentVilla said:

New manager bounce has been proven to be a myth.

If we win our next three games we won't be mid table.

If you win your next 3 you will be a few points & positions short of playoffs putting you at the top end of mid table.

This league is ridiculous because anyone can beat anyone.

Burton are struggling but have shown they are no pushovers with wins against Brum, Wednesday and Derby. Cardiff have been dog turd and beat us and today Blackburn can feel hard done by for not taking a point from us. Obviously I don't see much of your games and can't comment on performances or anything like that. I do wonder how much of the form change is down to the "new manager bounce" but at the same time if you win your next 3 you will be midtable with over half the season left in what is a very tight league meaning a playoff push wouldn't be out the question.

On 15/10/2016 at 23:21, VillaChris said:

Well the Bristol Fan on here said he was better than Bolaise when they played together at Bristol City...

That said I gave him the big build up when he signed and he's been really disappointing. 3 minutes to go tonight, we have a free kick in a good position....and he's tying his shoelaces. All about priorities...

Albert was by far better than Bolasie when they were both in Bristol. But he also recommended Bolasie to our scouts saying that Yannick was better than him.