Forever Bristol City Podcast

Scott must start, a review of Aston Villa at Ashton Gate

In over 50 years of supporting City there hasn't been barely a handful of occasions when an under-21 player has broken into the first team and you think, bloody hell... he's really good!

I'll give you a few names: Gerry Gow, Clive Whitehead, Rob Newman, Andy Cole [21 when signed on loan].

I think in Alex Scott we have someone who can add to that list. 

Ian and Dave P give their thoughts on the Villa action including assessing individual performances and trying to predict what the line up might be for the Season 21/22 opener vs. Blackpool next Saturday

Season 21/22 Preview with Angus Scott

Angus and DaveP reflect on the past 15 months at BCFC as well as look forward to the upcoming season and trying to assess what the best line up & formation is with the players currently available.

Angus, brother of ITV's Steve, now runs his own media company as well as being a lecturer in journalism and appearing in front of the camera for BT Sport & Amazon Prime.

This is the first of a number of season previews we have recorded and will be available in the run up to the big kick off next weekend

"You'll never win anything with kids" - last half hour vs Celtic offered hope

Those words were uttered by Alan Hansen in the mid-90s when Man Utd had a young side bristling with the talent of Beckham, Scholes,  and the Neville brothers and whilst the likes of Pring, Massengo, Bakinson and Conway are not quite in the same league ability wise I saw enough in that last 30 minutes against Celtic to invigorate my enthusiasm for the coming season. 

For me the more experienced line up that featured for the first hour brought back memories of last season and who would argue that the game in its later stages was played at a pace that had been lacking early on.

In this episode Headhunter, DaveFevs, Ian & Mark review the performances of individuals and formation whilst assessing who would or would not be a loss if they were no longer here by the end of the transfer window. What we did agree on is the need for a prolific goalscorer but how that is funded, who knows?

Final we give a view on England in Euro 2020 and how they can progress from here.

Summer on the City ... DaveFevs and DaveP talk Euros, squad rebuild and fixtures

DaveFevs and I spent an hour talking about variety of topics being discussed on OTIB & Twitter

On the Euros we looked at the form of Nagy, Kalas & former player Joe Morrell.

On squad rebuild we rate how its going and speculate on a predicted line up for August 7th

We give a cursory glance over the fixture list and note the skewing of home games towards the first half : after the NYD game against Millwall there are only 9 games between then and the end of the season

In Conversation with ... Shaun Taylor

At age 23 Shaun was a late entrant in the world of professional football when joining Exeter City in 1986. He played 200 games there winning the [then] 4th Division Championship before a move to Swindon Town.

He was an ever present in 92/93 season scoring a Flintesque 13 goals as that lot down the M4 secured promotion to the Premier League. Again an ever present in that one season in the top flight, two successive relegations followed before he led the side back to the Championship.

Shaun's move to City for £50k came in September 1996 and although missing the last 10 games of the season through injury he'd already established himself as a firm favourite with the fans with his tough uncompromising style.

97/98 is the season he will be remembered for as he captained the side to promotion under John Ward. Had Goater not been sold and Shaun not suffered injury in the top of the table clash with Watford with 3 games remaining City probably would have gone up as Champions rather than runners-up.

That injury against Watford perhaps more than anything contributed to that single season [98/99] in the Championship as he did not play until 8 games from the end and by then City's relegation was all but secured.

Shaun hung up his boots in 2000 but stayed on the coaching staff until 2005 then followed spells with FGR ,Exeter and Torquay.

Still living in his native Devon, Shaun is now a Maintenance Manager for a local care home group.

How we could have done with someone possessing his character and commitment in recent years!

 

 

Midweek musings ....

Ian & DaveP chewed the cud at the weekend on all matters relating to Bristol City.

There is no doubt it will be a busy close season.

 

In conversation with ..... John Ward: Manager BCFC 1997-98

John Ward's managerial record at City for me, as a fan looking back, is defined by three things: a marvellous season that brought about promotion back to the [now] Championship after a 3 year absence, a questionable summer '98 transfer window and asking for help after a 9 game winless run at the start of the 98/99 season.

Wardy is a top man and to my mind should have been here longer than 84 games. He would have won the league as opposed to being runners up to Watford had top scorer Shaun Goater not been sold with 8 games remaining. As you'll hear in the interview, the summer transfer dealings were, in part, not down to him and no one would have argued with Ray Harford coming in to provide the help he perhaps naively admitted he needed. 

John made his name in football as a player with Lincoln City [91 goals, 240 appearances] which is where he met the late Graham Taylor whom he later served under and enjoyed considerable success with at both Watford and Villa. 

Prior to City he managed the Gas for a period and again 16 years later. In between he took Cheltenham from League 2 to League 1.

He turned 70 last month and his involvement in the game sees him act as a mentor to young coaches through the LMA.

One of football's nice guys, I can't think why anyone would disagree with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No more excuses

City closed the door to the 2020-21 season with the not unexpected defeat against high flying Brentford going down 3-1 with the visitors Ivan Toney grabbing one of the goals to achieve a Championship record.

Ian, DaveFevs, Mark & DaveP discuss the action from a match where for the opening half they matched their opponents in every department but in the second, particularly with goals 2 & 3 the Bees displayed a standard of forward play that City should be aiming for.

We debate that although only 17 Alex Scott has the ability to be a player for the present and perhaps too goalscorer Louis Britton and that means staying in Bristol rather than going out on loan next season.

Who will be shown the door in the coming days and who might be retained are other topics we discuss along with speculation that Dave Rennie might reunite with Nigel Pearson within days to sort the medical shambles at the club and cast his eye over the players before they go on holiday.

No wins in the last 10 and although 25 defeats fell short of the record [27] set in 2012-13 a paltry 51 points just isn't good enough.

It's down to you Nige going forward - we know you can do it and accept it may take a while!!

 

 

 

Where was the hope for next season?

A fine first goal at senior level for rookie striker Tommy Conway was the only bright spot from another dreadful showing by City at the New Den.

Confirmed in his position as manager this week, Nigel Pearson made a number of changes including a start for Nathan Baker on the left of a back three with Mariappa in for the injured Zak Vyner on the right. This allowed captain Tomas Kalas to play in his preferred central position.

Millwall just seemed to want it more than City even though this was a dead rubber game. All four Millwall goals summed up City's defensive frailties this season: poor communication, weak on crosses, caught on the break from attacking positions, individual errors [Kalas].

If, say, Michael Appleton or any other of the names touted, had been appointed back in February and had the run of results that Nige has had there would be calls for their head already but he has the confidence of most of the fans and, importantly, the Lansdown family.

Ian, Mark, Lezz and Headhunter discuss the game, Pearson's appointment and further speculation on what next in off the field action but in all honesty the summer break cannot come soon enough.

 

 

Why haven't we been invited?

City were full value for their 2-0 interval lead against mid-table Luton thanks to goals from Nahki Wells & Adam Nagy. The second half capitulation which saw 3 goals conceded in a 15 minute spell showed the team for what it has become: no leadership on the pitch and a soft touch for any side that just ups their own game one notch.

The bright spark was the performance of Tommy Conway and his greater commitment compared with some around him was shown late in the game when the ball went out for a corner and he was waving to the kicker to hurry up and get on with it.

Other than the game, Ian, Mark & myself discuss the off-pitch omni-shambles which must have a resolution in part, if not whole, before the end of the season on May 8th.

Ian came up with the most amusing quote saying that the training ground's acronym should be changed such that HPC stands for Hamstring Probability Centre!! 

Finally, why the title for this episode? Our spies at the ground tell me that the guys from 3 Peaps were in attendance, add this to Shantely of OTIB being on Robins TV some months ago I am wondering why, as members of one of the Top 4 BCFC podcasts, none of us have been invited on? Then again, perhaps it is a blessing we have not witnessed first hand any of the dross that has been served up at Ashton Gate this season