Red-Robbo

I read somewhere that it was 15 years, but having rugby played on it must considerably shorten that. I reckon you get more wear & tear in one egg-chasing session than in 4 or 5 football matches.

Ever thought of supporting the Gas? They play in blue and your last sentence means you'll fit in perfectly with 98% of their fanbase.

Yep, and it has to be said, the effect of a sea of red & white scarves was pretty impressive. Some folk - like me - are never going to wear replica jerseys, no matter how well-designed they are.

When you played in Wimbledon & District Division 4 - as I did - and do your ACL - as I did - the doctors tell you "Your loss is football's gain".

Cut @Red-Al some slack here. If we're parents, we stand by our kids. You just do. At the same time, it might be a salutary lesson that some policemen are not equipped with much patience or humour and if they tell you to stop swearing, then stop swearing. They have the force of the law behind them: you don't, even if you think they are being heavy-handed. Very tough lesson, but when you're a young lad, you live and learn.

Things I haven't said: Man City have small attendances Bristol City have large attendances Bristol City attendances have been higher than Man City (at least in my lifetime) All Man City fans are dicks. We mostly seem to have good encounters with them Things I have said: Man City's current attendances are at an all-time high Some, though by no mean the majority of, Man City fans are glory hunters who've started following the club since the oil money came in The Man City fans who thought online that we never get 20K plus unless we are playing them are talking through their arses In conclusion: I can't blame fans for being excited when their club is taken over by a sovereign fund with seemingly limitless pockets, they attract some of the most talented players in the world and need to expand their trophy room, such is their success. Be lovely if it happened to us, but I'd want it to seem more organic growth, less buy your way in and I'd prefer it if sportwashing medieval-minded Middle Eastern emirs weren't at the helm.

*sigh* this is all in response to Man City fans claiming we never get 20,000. There's no nuance there. They are wrong and typically prem fan Big Bollocks attitude. Man City are a very well supported club, but since they've become Abu Dhabi FC they've had more fans than at any time in their history.

Swearing (in a public place) has got to cause "distress, alarm or harassment" for it to be a public order offence. I guess it depends on how young the kids were as to whether they'd be alarmed and distressed. You'd get a warning to moderate your language though before any arrest. Sounds like Al's son was rather het up and was removed from the area before getting in worse bother.

I don't know how old you are, but now isn't the only time Bristol City have had crowds of more than 20K. They are getting 50K plus now which is vastly more than they did pre-oil money and taxpayer-funded stadium. Not sure why this is an argument?

Their average attendance in the Premiership 1994-95 22K. They are a bigger club. I'm not saying otherwise. I'm just pointing out that if their online fans reckon we never get above 20K apart from when we play them, they've also had some real dips in decades past and now many of their fans have come out of the woodwork for the glory years.

Which was more than they averaged when they were in the Premiership (as was). I'm not trying to claim they have ever been a small club, but we had more in last night than they were getting 30 years ago. It hasn't always been 50k+ and the increase to that level is due in large part to a stadium funded by the national (and local) taxpayer plus them suddenly being propelled by oil money to becoming a huge club. That sort of never sits happily with me.

Primark FM

They tend to be more north Manchester-based, whereas United's fans are from Salford and (unsurprisingly) Trafford. Just like Bristol though, the situation isn't as simple as City fans here/United fans here. United definitely have the south Manchester districts of Guildford and Penzance though. It'll take a while for the glory-hunting kids of today in their Etihad Airways shirts from Sports Direct to become glory-hunting adults. I haven't particularly got a downer on Man City fans though. As others have said, the ones down last night seemed a reasonable bunch. Spoke to a couple in the TF before the game. They lived in Devon but were originally Mancunians. Very complimentary about Bristol and - as they'd checked out the stadium early - complimentary about AG. The multiple games this last few days can explain the state of the pitch. Never had much time for the team though. I think the (weird) reason is that their light blue shirts reminded me of the light blue stripes on Embassy Regal packets. Possibly the worst fagerette ever made*. But every f-er I knew seemed to smoke them back when I was a kid. * John Player Special are also in with a shout here. This was proper brands, before all your Superkings and supermarket brands.

Aye, but they've "found" 24K ardent supporters since then. Maine Rd wasn't selling out when they were third tier. I accept their claim that they have the majority support in Manchester proper, but I can recall when they were averaging low 20s in the early days of the Prem. Roughly the same amount as our support last night which apparently is "******* shit". How we could've got more in isn't clear. House them on the roofs I suppose?

The annoying thing with the penalty shout was there was definitely contact. A push enough to put Syksey off his stride. So, a foul in the box. Nowadays players are told to make such fouls clear to the ref, so by going down he probably made it look like pure simulation.

The officials weren't too dreadful last night, but they definitely had "stars in their eyes" when it came to Man City's galacticos. Someone noted elsewhere that not a single offside was given against them, despite Mahrez, Foden and Silva frequently straying behind the last defender. I'm on the far side, but it looked like Mahrez came in from an offside position to deliver the cross for their first. Seems if you're famous enough you just can't be offside.

TBH it might have something to do with being able to get them to Bristol from a UK supplier faster than the supply chain from China is currently taking. But whatever, it's a generous gesture and sourcing from the UK is undoubtedly more expensive than getting them from Shaoxing or Dhaka.

There was a classic example of this where a ball had ricocheted out of touch Dolman side with the last contact being a Man City player. the lino hadn't expected it so he dithered for about 10 seconds whilst various players implored him and finally raised his flag for a Man City throw. Easier to just assume it isn't one of the big expensive famous players that had put it out, so guess it their way.

Yep. You wonder where we'd have got with Naismith, a non-Cup tied Mehmeti and maybe Conway available.

I woke up today reflecting, as I did last night, that if we play like that in the league, we'll win a lot more games than we lose.

As some massive wazzock stood up in front of me at the precise moment it all kicked off, can someone let me know what caused the ructions?

He's here, he's there, he's every ******* where! So good, he can come on and play in three positions at once.

Ironic for a team whose fanbase contains quite a number if non-Mancunians -and indeed a number sat watching them on telly in Beijing. I think they've also forgotten how low their crowds were sometimes, before an influx of filthy oil money from a despotic state propelled them to where they are now. Still, northerners are not exactly famed for being humble...

Yeah, that us a bit horrifying - and proof that the "suits" in Bridtol Sport don't really understand football fans.

I'd like to record that I was pleasantly surprised at the size and quality of the free scarves.