Red-Robbo

Yep, usually go via Raynes Road, but both Clarks or the pasty van outside the Rising Sun (assuming they're there this season) will offer better options for hasty pre-game snacks.

As I think I explained on another thread, some of us face long journeys to get to AG and will not have had time to get lunch. Last Saturday, through circumstances out of my control, myself and my matchday companions arrived too late to get anything in the wider Ashton/Bemmy area, so resigned ourselves to pasties at the ground. A disappointing afternoon got off to a disappointing start when we found the pasty stall now only sold US-style donuts, and the bars had run out of pasties by 2pm.

It's franchised inside the concourse and the same company operates most of the outlets for football/rugby and concerts. Independent operators, such as Feed The Goat, also exist, but it's one company - I've forgotten the name - that has the majority of concourse stalls. They are charming people. My niece worked for them over the summer and they tell their staff they must not talk to customers, unless answering a direct question relating to the stall, and they must serve one customer every 17 seconds.

This has been discussed elsewhere, but it's fair to say the food and drink options have deteriorated, things are poor VFM - a microwaved bratwurst in a bone-dry roll, masquerading as a "hot dog" was £6.50 with a s/t - and stock levels are inadequate. In-stadium catering is I believed franchised out, but it's also fair to say that whoever controls the franchise has no idea of what the typical football fan wants to eat and drink, and is taking the piss. If I need food before a match in future, I'll source it away from the stadium.

Indeedy. I'm reminded of the Swiss football commentator, quoted once in Private Eye's Colemanballs feature, who said: "But the game's not over yet. There are 89 minutes left to play!" Long way to go before we can draw too many conclusions about the shape of this season - or even the shape of City's starting XI.

Yup. Saturday worked perfectly - but then my ticket had the right date on it. If - and it's only an if at this stage - my ticket for the Brum game still says August 5th on it, in 12 days' time, I reserve the right to be mildly trepidatious. Not because I won't get in, but because if it doesn't work automatically for me, it'll not work for thousands and the turnstile queues will be vast.

Twas the midfield that let us down, which is why I can't agree with those posters who say Williams had a good game - he was adequate and busy, that's all - or that Knight looked OK. To be frank, he looked unable to cope with his Preston counterparts. Caveats: first game - you can take nothing from just one 70-minute appearance. Scott there wouldn't have given us more heft to ride those roughhouse challenges, but it would have hopefully given us the classy passes for Bell, Wells and later Sykes or Conway to run on to.

Yeah, it was a step backwards from the progress seen in the last half of last season. You could blame it on rustiness over lack of Championship football, but that didn't seem to hamper PNE.

Due to the vastly different things we're all seeing on our phones, the worry is the people who set up this system don't have a grasp on technology... ?

After an initially promising 15 minutes, we looked second best. Fortunately for us, lots of their moves were based on huge upfield punts that were either not controlled; or either Keane, the Danish lad or Potts brought down in offside positions. Didn't suit the weather or us. We played the offside trap well. Lowe clearly had a word about this at half-time. There's no doubt they were in our penalty box more than we were in theirs though. Bell's shot aside, most of our moves fizzled out just over the halfway line. We lost tackles, lost control of the ball or were otherwise hustled out of possession. At times, the midget ref seemed to let fouls go, although this seems to be the way in football these days. A bit of all-in wrestling seems par for the course, but if your opponent trips over your feet you give away a free kick. It wasn't much of a watch: they were poor and we were very poor. In the second half, we took the lead against the run of play and based on a couple of rare defensive errors by Preston. From then on, it wasn't 'if they score', it was a when? We were extremely lucky to get away with one point from such a bad performance. A big uplift is needed in order to win against all but the weediest opponents. But, hey, I'm not panicking. We have 45 games. We've seen (even) worse opening days.

That's fair enough, but perhaps the point is people are expecting more this season than the same fare we've been served for many a season in the Championship. It's the realisation that we still might be facing tedious games with an unorganised, out-thought and out-played City. We hoped for better. It's the hope that kills you...

There may be a good reason why some clubs don't want to automatically share that info with the media...

We were fortunate that Potts didn't seem to be able to hit a cow's arse with a banjo. He had three free hits at goal.

Yeah, I was supporting you. Folk seem to assume BBC Sport Online has a cast of thousands. It doesn't.

A broadcast journalist or possibly a broadcast assistant - very likely a freelance - will be rushing his or her arses off to cover inputting such details into the multiple dozens of games held yesterday. With most matches finishing at the same time, the attendances will be cut and pasted from the PA match stats. You haven't got a team of people looking at each match. One lowly employee will do it all. Based in Salford, I doubt they'd instantly recall City or many other teams' maximum capacity. I can see how the mistake happened, as amusing as it is for us.

Unfortunately, Harry's close control let him down more than once yesterday - although I'd agree the quality of the passes he received were likewise sub-standard. He (understandably) doesn't have the pace of Bell and Wells, so got caught by defenders more easily. He gets his usually 6/10 from me, but I still can't say he's really clicked at City, despite the ample game time he's been afforded. Overall, he's been a disappointment, but then perhaps my expectations were unrealistically high. But I'll take your point that there was a lot more going wrong for City yesterday than Harry Cornick's presence for 73 minutes.

The trouble with Cornick isn't that he's particularly bad - but just that he's rarely notably good. He's had one excellent game for us in the seven months he's been here. Others range from 'OK, I suppose' to 'bang average' to poor. It isn't really fair either to compare Sykes's performance yesterday to him. Sykes got considerably less than half the time on the pitch that HC got and came into the game at a time when Preston were pressing hard for a goal and we could hardly move the ball out of our final third.

Might vary from phone-to-phone. My mate's e-ticket changed to the Birmingham match within seconds of him swiping in; mine changed at about 9pm last night. Both of our tickets say 5th August though. We both have android phones.

Captaincy doesn't suit everyone - and maybe he doesn't want to wear that particular armband. However, yeah, agree with the rest. He was a rock. Thank goodness, because if it hadn't been for our centre backs and Preston's wayward shooting, we could've lost that one.

Really that was the negative. A team that a play-off bound side would've beaten, yet we were fortunate to have earned a point at home. Can't dwell too much. The first game back may not reflect the rest of the season - but what a duff way to start off with. It would hardly have persuaded the thousands of part-timers who turned up on Saturday, to part with their money and visit AG again.

They used a BRFC calculator.

It sort of seemed like that was the plan yesterday, but the counter attacks mainly spluttered out. I said to the guys next to me "we're playing like we're the away team".

Because some of us have long journeys to AG and if we also want a couple of pints before the game we won't have had lunch. The pasties weren't great, but they were at least something warm to keep you going. I'm not going to buy a frigging donut, nor, after yesterday's experience, will I buy a £6.50 "hot dog". I will get something outside the concourse, or more likely, outside the ground.

So's mine. But according to the e-ticket, we're playing Birmingham on the 5th of August. ? No wonder we were so poor yesterday. We were playing two teams at once! ?

I've got to be honest, I was bored yesterday. The first half, in particular, was so lacking in quality that I found myself wishing I was elsewhere. Not the return to football I had hoped for. We were more under-the-cosh in the second period, largely because Preston had abandoned their long-ball punts and realised they could just walk it through our midfield, but at least there was more action - although surely no one could've been surprised when we surrendered the lead. I see on other threads, people are criticising the fans for not being more vocal. It isn't a one-way thing though. When you're not given much to cheer about, you don't cheer.