BFC 2-0 Bristol City, Tuesday 15th March 2022

‘WE ARE STAYING UP, WE ARE STAYING UP!’

WHAT IS HAPPENING? From being dead and buried a month ago, we’ve now given ourselves a CHANCE. Correction, from being dead and buried a month ago, loanees Quina and Bassi have given us a CHANCE! Tonite, both have starring roles in the capitulation of a disinterested City side with nought to play for, with the goals coming from Bassi corners and the attacks coming from Quina’s boots. Can a Watford reserve player be my favourite Red?

I wasn’t with my usual matchday companion today, so fancied a change. With the current ownership, who knows when the historic Main (West) Stand will be closed or pulled down, so I got to Oakwell early enough to swap my East Stand ticket for a pew opposite. I love the West Stand. The darkness, the low roof, the aging wood, the pillars. The latter, perfect in seasons where we’re not doing so well, turn out to be a right pain in the derriere when you DO actually want to see the game. Where did that defender appear from? How did that player beat that opponent? Surely that bloke’s offside? Hang on, who’s that over there? Yes, I enjoyed the novelty, but I wouldn’t want to do it over a season. Nevermind that in the first half, as I sat on the back row, you can’t see the ball if it’s far enough in the air. God knows what a season under Big Val would have looked like from here.

Any pre-match nerves were quickly dispelled. 10 minutes in and Shirley whips in a corner at the away end, panic ensues and Morris prods it home from 3 yards. Having seen it on replay, you see Helik running in at the front post causing the defender(s) to miss it, the ball bounces, Wolfe heads goalwards and Morris is there. A little over 10 minutes later and it’s two. This time the corner works ‘properly’ as Helik gets across his man to flick it home. Reward for the City fans who had the referee insist on Shirley taking it from the correct place, forcing him to move it 2 inches back. (They were right, by the way.) Incredibly, it’s Helik’s first goal of the season, having notched half a dozen last year. There’s a raft of reasons for this, but I’d say the main 2 have been the lack of a quality ball in, and deserting last’s season’s successful tactic of crowding the keeper. Only BFC would give up a successful strategy.

And there it was, 2-0, game over. I’m not sure we really came close again, though Quina skinned the fullback enough times for someone (anyone) to show for him, but I mustn’t grumble. Even Asbaghi’s usual ‘sending on the subs to protect what we’ve got’ failed to rouse City; not that we weren’t worried…Cole on for Morris and Kitching for Styles, with 20 left to play. Indeed, we had Kitching to thank for keeping them goalless, as he headed one off the line in injury time. Whisper it, but we may not come bottom. (I’m not going to get carried away with thoughts of staying up…yet.)

Onwards and upwards!

*** Quina. Took the game to City. He gets the ball, they retreat…and retreat…he beats one man and we’re in their box.
** Morris. The effort, the strength, the tenacity…the fact he can actually keep hold of a ball under pressure. And scored.
* Wolfe. I’m liking him more and more. As well as setting up the opener, my favourite bit was 1st half, when he picked the ball up on the edge of our box, and carried it (at pace!) to the halfway line.

Official MOTM: Quina

Londontykes’ MOTM: TBA

Despatches:
Another good game from Gomes. The Gomes-Wolfe defensive axis in the 4-2-3-1 is what allows Quina and Bassi to play. Styles had a funny game. Constantly outmuscled, but did drive at the opposition. Often sent tumbling at speed but never gets the free kicks in the way that, say, Garther Bale used to for less. Brittain looked back on his game while Helik and Mads were barely troubled, Collins in goal even less so. Vita was also back to being a left wing back after his stint on the right wing. How’s he ever gonna develop if we mess him about like that?

In City’s ranks were former Reds Matty James and Joe Williams. Remember Joe Williams? Midfielder, on loan from Everton. I maintain he is one of the nest players I have EVER seen for the Reds out of possession. He couldn’t half win a ball, but would then give it straight back to the opposition, often on the edge of our own box. Anyway, he came on as sub with 5 mins of the 1st half left and looked like Glenn Hoddle, spraying passes all over the pitch and now losing it. I never noticed him 2nd half, but maybe that’s cos he went off after 55 minutes!

Back to the Main Stand, and I can see why Farnham likes it here. I’m half a dozen seats from Cauley Woodrow, who may or may not be doing something for local radio. I’m even fewer from a couple of other blokes, who say thanks on their way out as I make room for them. Why, it’s Blunts manager (and Reds legend) Paul Heckingbottom, plus one. What will he have made of events, given we play them Satdy? ‘Deal with Quina and everything else will drop into place’? (Does he realise Quina is a different – less effective - player away?) It must have been a night for spotting minor celebs; I also passed former Reds legend 3rd division midfield player Alex Neil (now Sunderland manager) coming out of the toilets at Wetherby services.

Irregulars will be pleased to note the West Stand bogs still retains pride of place, a lick of red paint and a roof notwithstanding, though whothehell places a hand dryer above a wall people urinate on? It was good to hear another fine recent tradition continued too, as there were a couple of boos for the players taking a knee, before crowd applause drowned it out. This Black Lives Matter stuff is all a Marxist conspiracy, you know that, right? Still, it was a surprise to me. I didn’t realise the players still took the knee, given I’m rarely in the ground at this point.

Thinking of my dad, and how we always used to drive home through Leeds, I did same in his memory. I miss passing Tetley’s, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, crossing the River Aire and driving past those lines of terraces north of the city centre. R.I.P. dad.

I smiled all the way home.

Drink du jour: Another expensive flat white in Wetherby service station.

Away: 279. Let’s just say well done to those who came, rather than poke fun at a big city club bringing less than 300 for a second tier fixture.

Minutes on the pitch for Palmer or Benson: 0.

The Damage:
c. £35 petrol
£3 programme= c. £38

The Tunes:
Whirlpool (Chapterhouse)
The Back Room (Editors)
BBC5live – 25 minutes of whining on about Man Utd losing to Athletico Madrid in the Chumps League, followed by 4 minutes round-up of everything else. Bliss!
Blissed Out (Beloved)

BFC 2-2 Bristol City, Friday 1st November 2019

‘Sack the board, sack the board’

Friday night under the lights.

Who’s idea is Friday nite footie?  What a pile of the proverbial.  Days off work (not everyone lives in Grove Street) for a Sky audience of…what?  350?  Tho maybe it was more, given the crowd at Oakwell can’t have been more than ten thousand, whatever the claims of 12k+ were.  It’s like at Arsenal, where they claim 60,000, despite the fact you can clearly see the pattern of the cannon in the seats.  So maybe plenty were watching it at home.  Or else in ‘tarn’ drinking.  Why let Sky ruin a perfectly good Friday night?  (Mind, it could be worse…Dutch second division games are always played on a Friday!)

Welcome to ...

We were very down on Friday night.  Losing 0-2, it p***ing down with rain, little to no hope of a comeback…chants calling for the owners’ heads (are they going to sack themselves???)…everyone wishing they were somewhere else.  In fact, thank goodness for said rain.  It’s problies wot stopped more folk from leaving early.  That they came in the first place was testament to some delusion…or faith…that this team would pull something off.  And for 71 minutes, it looked bleak.

Talking of bleak...thirty quid to see THIS?  Good luck.

Don’t get me wrong, we’d played well (again) but we were losing (again).  Having had the advantage of seeing a repeat of the match the next day on Sky, I concur with whichever commentator said ‘the keeper’s saves were better than the finishes’ in describing a couple of incredible saves by Daniel Bentley, saves that somewhere gained him the MOTM (announced, with perfect timing, before we equalised).  Firstly, Malik Wilks cut inside and curled an effort to the far corner, which the keeper tipped around the post.  The second was even better, as the keeper got a touch on Chaplin’s close-ranger and it cannoned back off the post.  Either would have put us in the lead.

The teams line up.

City went ahead just before half-time.  Like a child disappointing a parent, former favourite Marley Watkins was given a tug and went down like a sack of s***.  Free kick, and a chance for Cavare to stand still as Ashley Williams (the biggest bloke on the pitch) had a free header.  Cue boos ringing round Oakwell for Watkins’ ‘professionalism’.  Having seen it again, the question I’d ask is ‘was his shirt pulled’ (yes) and ‘is this a foul?’ (yes).  So what’s everyone complaining about?  Watching it again on telly, I was able to see several decisions in OUR favour, but no-one mentions them; a corner gained when our guy blatantly headed over, and a Diaby bodycheck which went unpunished.  This alleged bias against us is complete rubbish.  (Tho a free given against Cauley, when their bloke climbed all over him and landed badly was a poor decision.)

A sparse Ponty v Bristol City.

Second half came around and we were going nowhere, absolutely nowhere, when they bagged a 2^nd, again from a deadball.  Interim head coach Murray has introduced 3 at the back, and still we can’t defend a corner, Weimann dropping off from his marker and looping a header to the back post.  Of course we don’t have a man on the post – why would we?  No-one ever scores there (!)  What is it with this fad for zonal marking?  Abysmal.  Those preferring a walk in the downpour to watching this rubbish start to trickle out.

Barnsley, on a Friday night.  Well done Robins!

More fool them, of course, as Halme powers in a header from a corner of our own.  Looks like City are just as good as us at marking.  We proceed to miss chances, each one looking like the last…Diaby heading over from close range…Cauley bobbling one with Diaby in close attendance (putting him off in way he doesn’t put off opposition strikers?)…a misunderstanding on the backpost (Sibbick and Simoes?) while a couple of other Cauley strikes are wayward.  Then, with time virtually up…was it sub Simoes playing a one-two with Sibbick?...the ball is rolled across, Schmidt knocks it goalwards and Cauley pokes it home.  Oakwell has not seen celebrations like this since the last time we equalised in the last minute, about 3 weeks ago.  Carnage.  How long left?  Just enough time to worry about City breaking up field to nick it, yet not enough time for them to do so.  Phew.  We got out of jail here.  We have reached the heady heights of second off bottom.
Onwards and…upwards!

The teams take advantage of a break in play.

*** Halme.  Sponsors’ MOTM.  Good interceptions and cracking header to put us back in it. 

** Thomas.  We were going nowhere till he came on, running at players, popping balls off down each wing.  Best player on the pitch once he was on.

* Cauley.  Can’t argue with bagging a last minute equaliser when playing in a team as poor as this.  Shame he thinks the same, often going for goal from improbable positions, such is his lack of belief in the rest of the numpties.

Londontykes' MOTM: 1. Mowatt  2. Halme  3. Dougal
Despatches:Big thanks to Mrs Reed, who picked junior and I up from Donny pre-match.  Not sure her cat was so grateful tho, as we returned from Oakwell to see the soggiest puss I’ve ever seen.  Double thanks, as Mrs R let Andy and I watch a re-run of the match on Sat morn while she’d planned to watch the rugger buggers.  As it was Andy’s birthday (Happy Birthday Andy!!!!) we’d rocked up to the pub at 11…but it was shut, so tail between legs, I was forced to watch the 1^st half of the rugby anyway.  We left again at half time.  I hope England lost.  I hate rugby.  Where’s the fun in watching big blokes push each other, repeating the same routine time and time and time again?  Without any paint to watch dry, I stood up and stared out of Cynthia’s front window, gazing at the raindrops splashing into the pond/lake (this is Hoyland; it’s posh like that).

The players?  I know everyone else thought little Alex Mowatt head and shoulders above the rest.  While he was tidy, most of his corners were the usual dink into the middle, and I wasn’t impressed to see him lose the ball late on, then fail to track back.  Dougal had another good game, breaking down the opposition.  Wilks had a very promising first half, before disappearing.  Brown showed potential going forward, but I’m at a loss as to why some folk say we look more solid under this new manager; between Brown and Sibbick were great swathes of pitch asking to be attacked.  Diaby looks like what he is…too big and slow to turn.  And he’s not even that commanding.  I guess none of them (the centre halves) are, which is why we need 3 of them.  Cavare again showed he’s better going forward than defending…which is great, when he’s a defender.  Noticeably, the comeback started after Chaplin went off.  What does he do, apart from make Woodrow look even better than he is?  Later on Simoes came on, as did Schmidt, who (we think) touched the ball once in 20 minutes.  It was a very good once though (we scored).  

Drink du jour: Leffe, on the train.

Away: 512.  A fabulous turnout from a team with a tradition of fickle support at Oakwell.  Still, they were due to go 2^nd if they won.  Which they didn’t.  Unlucky, Little Lee.

The Damage:£21 train= £21

The Tunes:
Crush (Floating Points)
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Public Enemy)
Blindfold EP (Curve)
Cherry EP (Curve)
Frozen EP (Curve)

A soggy moggy gets dried.

BFC 2-2 Bristol City, Friday 30th March 2018

‘Johnson, what’s the score?’

Welcome to ....

Well, that made a change.  Played well, scored a couple.  Didn’t win.  No change on the latter then, as we break our record for most number of consecutive home games without a win (is it 12 now?)  Furthermore, if we don’t win another home game this season (feasible) we break our all-time record for least number of home wins in a season.  Great.  So what we need is another member of our 3^rd division play-off  winning side to come along and deny us points.  This time it’s Josh Brownhill who pops up with an injury time looping header to give Little Lee’s Bristol City a share of the spoils.  This follows Josh Scowen’s 25 yard winner for QPR and Hourihane’s goal in Villa’s Villa Park win.  So, if (when?) we go down, if it’s by 3 points or less (feasible) we can say it’s our former players wot did it.  Good job Marley doesn’t get picked for Naaaarwich…

It's all downhill from here.

Yet we started the match like a train.  Not a British train but one of them there continental ones wot work.  Kiefer Moore is clean through and is fouled.  Free kick and a yellow.  Fans baying for a red and 85 mins v 10 men.  I thought the yellow was right.  Denial of a goalscoring opportunity?  Hardly.  I’ve not seen Kiefer Moore control a ball and run with it…let alone finish it…since he signed.  ‘More likely to score with his head’ I told my dad’s friend Diane.  Two mins later, he does just that, beating the keeper to the ball off a corner.  (Had we given them one of our keepers?)  One-nil.  Dreamland.  Only 83 mins to hold out.

Goalmouth action.

It’s an open game and City miss one great chance (was it a Jackson block?) before their guy cuts inside Yiadom and hits it into the far corner.  Great finish – but at least the 3^rd goal of this type we’d conceded this season.  Boro away, Dirty Leeds home…and there was another one got mentioned, I forget.  Yeah, great goals, but all AGAINST us.  If it’s that easy to cut inside and strike one, why aren’t we doing it?  Oh.

The Ponty v Bristol City.

The 2^nd half comes and we continue in an attacking vein, Moncur in particular driving from midfield.  Moncur lays a ball on a plate across goal for Paul Scholes…sorry, Brad Potts…to race into the box and shin the ball into the keeper’s grateful arms from about 4 yards.  Either a poor miss or unlucky, and I’m inclined to go for the latter, given the number of defenders the ball went through….and the amount of s*** Potts has got from various Londontykes this season.  Moncur is then taken off, Williams on, and the boos show the turnaround in Moncur’s (and Williams’?) stature around these parts too.  WTF is the manager doing?

855 away fans.  Allegedly.

Ahh, turns out Jose is a genius, as Moore holds a ball up wide left.  There is nobody within 40 yards of him…but who’s this, streaking down the pitch into the box?  Why, it’s the cavalry…it’s Brad Potts.  A perfect cutback is hit with the outside of Potts’ right boot and it flies in.  Delirium.  There’s some proper noise at Oakwell, and belief.  Apart from the bloke who said ‘I hope we haven’t scored too early’ (me).  Only 12 mins plus injury time to go.  

City flags.

As it was, turns out we did score too early. The clock is ticking down to injury time, they hoof a ball into the box and it’s half cleared.  Moore, by now, is off injured and Paddy McCarthy’s only input in the match is to fail to get anywhere close to preventing the ball being returned in from the left and Brownhill looping a lucky header over Davies.  I say lucky – there was no way he meant it.  But having seen it again on telly, it wasn’t the top corner job I thought it was.  Davies got a good hand to it, but he’s neither tall enough, or good enough.  Two-all and another nail in the relegation coffin.  This was our chance.  Robins fans, awake again, become the 2^nd or 3^rd team this season to chant ‘he left cos you’re s***’. I think they mean Little Lee.  Listen lads, you’re welcome to him.

Onwards and upwards!

The old Main Stand.

*** Moore.  Unplayable. This was the beast I thought we’d bought.  Held the ball up, kept possession, won headers (at their end and ours), scored, set up.  About the only mistake he made was, after bringing down a long ball superbly, and being clean through (at 1-1), allowing the keeper to save. 
** Moncur.  Most likely player to set anything up – and he did.  So let’s take him off for a defensive midfielder with half an hour left.
* Potts.  Good job he runs into the box, cos nobody else does.  Possibly shouldn’t take his shirt off in celebration with a body like that though.

Twitter MOTM: Moore.  I think we can all agree on that.

Londontykes' Top 3: 1. Moore  2. Moncur  3. Gardner

The view from the East upper.

Despatches:
Davies had two saves to make and conceded two. Fryers was an accident waiting to happen, but got away with it. Yiadom was alright, save for defending the 1st equaliser. So not alright.  Jackson and Lindsay were solid.  Isgrove was fairly anonymous, while Hammill looked keen and stoked up the fans when he came on.  Maybe the manager is getting the message about playing WINGERS on the wing. Or not.  McBurnie looked a threat, but too often he was wide left.  Still, you could see the terror in their defenders’ faces whenever he ventured towards the box with the ball.  Gardner was excellent, then disappeared when his mate Williams came on.  But at least they didn’t just stand around doing nowt, with Williams under instruction to get his ar5e up the pitch and join attacks.

All in all, a promising display, ‘cept at this stage, we need POINTS not ‘promising displays’.  Too little too late.
  
Drink du jour: Schneider Weiss on tap in the Old #7. Vodka and orange on tap on the train.  Good bants with a couple of Chelsea groundhoppers who’d been to Rovrum, and a Bolton fan coming back from Helland Road.


Away: 855. Three people, in three conversations, commented on how there were NEVER 855 Bristol there.  At any one time, I presume 300 were in the queue for a pie.

The Damage:
£28 train
= £28

The Tunes:
Damage and Joy (The Jesus and Mary Chain)
Lazer Guided Melodies (Spiritualized)

Panorama v Bristol City.

A present from The Captain to 'Geordie Owl' (me).