Good Luck, 'innit'!

[Kinky John Fowler]

Does what it says on the tin.....As a Bristol City fan and occasional visitor to this forum I would like to wish you good luck for the forthcoming season.

For those of you coming up to Bristol next week have a safe trip, Gasheads arent a bad bunch if truth be told and they will no doubt make you feel welcome.

And if we cock it all up this season and make an utter pigs ear of things like we were threatening to do last season we might see you at Ashton Gate next year.

You never know.

Cheers.

[Dave]

Many thank's K-J-F, and likewise of course.

[Southampton Gull]

Cheers mate, good luck to your lot too.

[cambgull]

As one of the best "foreign" users of the forum, I wish you all the best KJF. I'm sure you guys will be just fine this season, I doubt you'll be battling relegation at any point.

[Southampton Gull]

Shocking start mate, fancy doing a report for us?

[Kinky John Fowler]

As one of the best "foreign" users of the forum, I wish you all the best KJF. I'm sure you guys will be just fine this season, I doubt you'll be battling relegation at any point.

Cheers Cambgull, much appreciated mate . Thanks also to Forevertufc and SG for the best wishes.

[cambgull]

Cheers Cambgull, much appreciated mate . Thanks also to Forevertufc and SG for the best wishes.

When I say I doubt you'll be battling relegation at any point, I obviously will forget this "blip" at the bottom of the table for <insert length of time> week(s).

I will edit as appropriate!

[Kinky John Fowler]

When I say I doubt you'll be battling relegation at any point, I obviously will forget this "blip" at the bottom of the table for <insert length of time> week(s).

I will edit as appropriate!

=D good man!

[Kinky John Fowler]

Shocking start mate, fancy doing a report for us?

Shocking is a good word for it Dave (if you dont mind me calling you Dave), shambles is a better word though.

Its been clear for a while to pretty much every City fan that we are seriously weak in defence, for what ever reason we havent brought anyone in to improve our back line (imo we need 2 quality defenders to do this) and if we dont do it soon we are going to struggle this season. As we have Pitman and Stead up front I think now is the time to cash in on Nicky Maynard and bring in players of a similar mould to Stephen Caulker who was brilliant for us at the back last season.

Of course you always hope for the best at the start of a new season but given our glaring problems at the back many of us feared this type of result, we didnt start off too badly in fact on the overall balance of play I think 3-0 slightly flattered Ipswich however 2 bad mistakes by David James and Keith Millens reluctance to change things around until it was too late contributed to our downfall. For the second year in a row we start the season with a 3-0 defeat at home, last year it was Millwall and whilst Ipswich are on paper a better side what worries me is that we will face much better teams this year.

Here is a pictorial guide of my Saturday:

:S :-o :aww: :B >:(

How do feel about your first game mate, are you happy with the fight Utd showed to pull yourselves back from being 2 down or do see it as 2 points dropped?

[cambgull]

Pictorial guide - brilliant!

As for our first game, although I was not there, the commentary seems to have given quite a good view of the game.

Like yourselves, we have some defensive problems. For a start, it seems we have 3 right sided centre backs in our squad. Fortunately Robertson seemed to be OK on the left side but we are definitely missing a vocal leader. Oastler, our Right Back who has been impressive during the pre-season had a bit of an off-day yesterday and was at fault, either directly or indirectly, for both goals. Hopefully he'll pick himself up from it as our other right back has a knock at the moment.

As for midfield - wings could be a problem. Morris on the left looks good but I don't think he has really "impressed" anyone yet. On the right, we have a choice of Macklin and Stevens. Macklin was rarely played by Paul Buckle but showed in pre-season what he was capable of. He has quite a bit of pace and can cross, sometimes. Stevens is the most frustrating player in the world. Just imagine the dribbling ability of Lionel Messi but can't shoot, pass, cross, tackle or even think.

In the middle of the park, we should be decent. Mansell is our engine room and has been given a new box-to-box role which seems to suit him very well. It can leave gaps in behind though which will be a problem against a clever manager. Eunan O'Kane is probably one of the top players in this league and has incredible vision and passing ability. I'd be amazed if he was still here past January.

Up front, looking decent. Howe and Kee are both the size of the incredible hulk and not fast either, seem to link well with each other but not so much with anyone else. Howe is a quality finisher though and will be very important for us. We also have Atieno who is fast and tricky, but perhaps not so clinical as the others. We should have some decent goals this season.

Our goalie, Olejnik is utterly superb and seems a class act in this league. Distribution is very good and he's a good shot stopper too.

All in all, quite happy with the squad in general but there are flaws, which will be found out by quite a few teams.

I also just realised I didn't even answer the question you asked...

Generally it was good but quite a bit to work on!

[Regiment]

unfortunately, i wasn't at the game either, and after a good pre-season despite all the comings and goings, we were optimistic of a good start on saturday.

ultimately though, any game where you're 2 goals behind after an hour, and come away with a point (or more), you've got to be reasonably satisfied, particularly when you weren't at your best on the day.

[ferrarilover]

Shocking is a good word for it Dave (if you dont mind me calling you Dave), shambles is a better word though.

Its been clear for a while to pretty much every City fan that we are seriously weak in defence, for what ever reason we havent brought anyone in to improve our back line (imo we need 2 quality defenders to do this) and if we dont do it soon we are going to struggle this season. As we have Pitman and Stead up front I think now is the time to cash in on Nicky Maynard and bring in players of a similar mould to Stephen Caulker who was brilliant for us at the back last season.

Of course you always hope for the best at the start of a new season but given our glaring problems at the back many of us feared this type of result, we didnt start off too badly in fact on the overall balance of play I think 3-0 slightly flattered Ipswich however 2 bad mistakes by David James and Keith Millens reluctance to change things around until it was too late contributed to our downfall. For the second year in a row we start the season with a 3-0 defeat at home, last year it was Millwall and whilst Ipswich are on paper a better side what worries me is that we will face much better teams this year.

Here is a pictorial guide of my Saturday:

:S :-o :aww: :B >:(

How do feel about your first game mate, are you happy with the fight Utd showed to pull yourselves back from being 2 down or do see it as 2 points dropped?

Both.

Pictorial guide, genius.

Decent showing against a poor Burton side who were VERY lucky to go 2 up in the manner they did. Some will point to the chances they had, but they succeeded in making it pretty easy for our keeper, so I don't agree that they deserved a lead. We were superb for the last half hour and they barely had a touch. If we can avoid gifting the opposition goals in the manner of their second, we'll do just fine.

Matt.