Why the surprise..?

[PFree]

I am baffled as to why some fans expect us to be a side challenging for the top six this season. We continue to sell our best players for good money and then shop in Lidl and Poundstretcher for lower league players we hope might come good in several seasons time.

Once SL decided not to invest further, we have been treading water, and that will continue sadly.

When you look at Ellis Simms tonight, they spent around £8m on him and as much as I hope our new strikers do well, being honest, what pedigree and track record have we bought..?

Not being negative, more realistic, and yes, I renewed our ST’s, but not out of expectancy, more that I enjoy the social time and beers with mates.

Sincerely hope I am wrong but mid table is as much as I expect with this squad..

[Graham76]

Who needs Ellis Simms when you’ve got Harry Cornick! 

[Lack of Action Man]

Tbf I quite like Lidl.

But your point otherwise stands. Bland and uninspiring leadership translates into a bland and mediocre team.

[Shauntaylor85]

See my quote on the other thread re Steve Jones replacing Akinbiyi. Same people involved now on the board. We need change. 

[Ivorguy]

1 minute ago, Lack of Action Man said:

Tbf I quite like Lidl.

But your point otherwise stands. Bland and uninspiring leadership translates into a bland and mediocre team.

And coaching staff too

[GrahamC]

1 minute ago, Graham76 said:

Who needs Ellis Simms when you’ve got Harry Cornick! 

One cost ten times the other, brilliant comparison.

[BCFCGav]

I do believe our ownership needs a refresh. But I’m still optimistic for the season. A solid defence is a hell of a thing to build on. 

[Lew-T]

1 minute ago, GrahamC said:

One cost ten times the other, brilliant comparison.

I think he was taking the piss.

[Ivorguy]

3 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

One cost ten times the other, brilliant comparison.

Says everything about our owner

[MythikRobins]

No surprise really, I'm not expecting certain players to perform massively above what they've shown, I'm expecting players who in extremely recent memory have played far better than what they showed tonight. If we could shop at Lidl and sign more Max Bird's I'd be more than happy.

[petehinton]

**** me. Clearly some fans still don’t understand FFP after all these years then. Nice

[formerly known as ivan]

I’m ever the pessimist when it comes to this club, so much so I didn’t renew this season. But you can’t get too carried away after two games, one being a cup game with a much changed line up.

There are still players to come in. I would hope Bird and Knight were the preferred midfield two moving forward. I said at the time he signed a new contract, Williams has been part of the problem for the last few years. He will have the occasional good game, Watford away for example. But in the whole he offers very little. TGH as well since his move was made permanent. You could easily forget he is part of the squad.

Get this young kid in from West Ham to provide the spark, leave Bird and Knight to do the dirty work. Defence seems ok. Fingers crossed the new guys up front come good once they have settled.

[tin]

11 minutes ago, PFree said:

I am baffled as to why some fans expect us to be a side challenging for the top six this season. We continue to sell our best players for good money and then shop in Lidl and Poundstretcher for lower league players we hope might come good in several seasons time.

Once SL decided not to invest further, we have been treading water, and that will continue sadly.

When you look at Ellis Simms tonight, they spent around £8m on him and as much as I hope our new strikers do well, being honest, what pedigree and track record have we bought..?

Not being negative, more realistic, and yes, I renewed our ST’s, but not out of expectancy, more that I enjoy the social time and beers with mates.

Sincerely hope I am wrong but mid table is as much as I expect with this squad..

To be fair, anyone who’s deluded enough to believe we are top-six material is on the same wavelength as the board. It was the board who set that goal last season after sacking Nige during the middle of a crippling injury crisis. I don’t know anyone who genuinely believes that (or a word that comes out of the board’s mouth). 

SL said “what football makes, football can spend” but nothing could be further from the truth. Coventry sold Gyokeres for £20m+ last summer at the same time we fetch a similar ball-park fee for Scott. Coventry spent big on Simms and Wright, we did nothing. They made an FA Cup semi-final, we did nothing. 

Unless you’re luck’s in, like Luton two years ago, money talks unfortunately and (rightly or wrongly) our approach won’t change until the Lansdowns go. 

 

[Charlie BCFC]

The negativity around the game today is too much, played well against one of the better sides in the division and at no point did we have our best midfield on the pitch. Still having trouble putting the ball away but compare this to the all championship game against Norwich last season the performance is night and day

[cidercity1987]

9 minutes ago, petehinton said:

**** me. Clearly some fans still don’t understand FFP after all these years then. Nice

It's nothing to do with FFP is it when we are well within it.

Why did Simms go to Coventry? They sold Gyokeres for £20m odd and spent some of it on Simms.

We sell Scott for £20m odd and still now one whole season later we haven't spent one single £1 on anyone else that can remotely get us up the pitch or create anything 

[Mr Popodopolous]

We are a fairly midtable side aren't we.

*Solid defensively in general.

*Technically fine in midfield.

*Good Energy

End Product and Goals...huge question mark.

Edited August 13 by Mr Popodopolous

[Charlie BCFC]

3 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

It's nothing to do with FFP is it when we are well within it.

Why did Simms go to Coventry? They sold Gyokeres for £20m odd and spent some of it on Simms.

We sell Scott for £20m odd and still now one whole season later we haven't spent one single £1 on anyone else that can remotely get us up the pitch or create anything 

Important to note though they also sold Hamer. Combined it was around 50 mill

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 minute ago, Charlie BCFC said:

Important to note though they also sold Hamer. Combined it was around 50 mill

I made it £35-40m the pair less sell-on less any book value but they can into it in a better position and their Revenue rose post takeover, optimism etc.

Were we to splash £4-5m on prime years striker I wouldn't have an issue and it would likely not sink us FFP wise.

[FNQ]

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

We are a fairly midtable side aren't we.

*Solid defensively in general.

*Technically fine in midfield.

*Good Energy

End Product and Goals...huge question mark.

Mid table with a huge question mark on end products or goals? Struggling to think of 12 teams that will finish below us. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Just now, FNQ said:

Mid table with a huge question mark on end products or goals? Struggling to think of 12 teams that will finish below us. 

Midtable can agree it a bit ie maybe higher end bottom half. Lower midtable or maybe the strikers will grow into it a bit..both young and relatively raw.

[Rocking Red Cyril]

21 minutes ago, formerly known as ivan said:

I’m ever the pessimist when it comes to this club, so much so I didn’t renew this season. But you can’t get too carried away after two games, one being a cup game with a much changed line up.

There are still players to come in. I would hope Bird and Knight were the preferred midfield two moving forward. I said at the time he signed a new contract, Williams has been part of the problem for the last few years. He will have the occasional good game, Watford away for example. But in the whole he offers very little. TGH as well since his move was made permanent. You could easily forget he is part of the squad.

Get this young kid in from West Ham to provide the spark, leave Bird and Knight to do the dirty work. Defence seems ok. Fingers crossed the new guys up front come good once they have settled.

Who is this new kid from west ham?

[Dr Balls]

The problem is that to have any chance of winning a game we need to keep a clean sheet. And even then we will struggle to score…

[Davefevs]

Think Simms was more like £3.5m with add-ons, one being a big promotion add-on.

[Shauntaylor85]

Simms and Rudoni…..what a difference. Pay the money for quality SL. 

[RedJim]

24 minutes ago, tin said:

To be fair, anyone who’s deluded enough to believe we are top-six material is on the same wavelength as the board. It was the board who set that goal last season after sacking Nige during the middle of a crippling injury crisis. I don’t know anyone who genuinely believes that (or a word that comes out of the board’s mouth). 

SL said “what football makes, football can spend” but nothing could be further from the truth. Coventry sold Gyokeres for £20m+ last summer at the same time we fetch a similar ball-park fee for Scott. Coventry spent big on Simms and Wright, we did nothing. They made an FA Cup semi-final, we did nothing. 

Unless you’re luck’s in, like Luton two years ago, money talks unfortunately and (rightly or wrongly) our approach won’t change until the Lansdowns go. 

 

Well said 

[headhunter]

27 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

It's nothing to do with FFP is it when we are well within it.

Why did Simms go to Coventry? They sold Gyokeres for £20m odd and spent some of it on Simms.

We sell Scott for £20m odd and still now one whole season later we haven't spent one single £1 on anyone else that can remotely get us up the pitch or create anything 

Without player sales we have a cost base that sees us (now) lose £12-15M per annum. That is the problem.

[Son of Fred]

54 minutes ago, Graham76 said:

Who needs Ellis Simms when you’ve got Harry Cornick! 

Interesting to remember I took stick on here for saying when we brought Cornick in he wasn't up to scratch..

[Robbored]

21 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

The problem is that to have any chance of winning a game we need to keep a clean sheet. And even then we will struggle to score…

Two news strikers in Armstrong and Fally both of whom have played in than less two matches. Partnerships take time to form.

Lets reassess after 10 of the season.

[Mr Popodopolous]

6 minutes ago, headhunter said:

Without player sales we have a cost base that sees us (now) lose £12-15M per annum. That is the problem.

Broadly speaking isn't that just the Championship in fairness, and you can add £7m per year maybe to the £13m per year.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Just now, Robbored said:

Two news strikers in Armstrong and Fally both of whom have played in than less two matches. Partnerships take time to form.

Lets reassess after 10 of the season.

The flipside there is that they are raw and pressure can build, on young energetic but not terribly prolific strikers and when young and raw it can become quite hard to turn around.

[Frenchay Red]

4 minutes ago, Robbored said:

Two news strikers in Armstrong and Fally both of whom have played in than less two matches. Partnerships take time to form.

Lets reassess after 10 of the season.

They will struggle to form a partnership if there is only one them on the pitch at a time.

Edited August 13 by Frenchay Red

[Dr Balls]

1 minute ago, Robbored said:

Two news strikers in Armstrong and Fally both of whom have played in than less two matches. Partnerships take time to form.

Lets reassess after 10 of the season.

Fair enough in one sense, except that we are already seeing a very similar pattern to last season. Of Armstrong and Mayulu, the latter seems more likely to score. Or here’s a radical thought - how about playing with 2 strikers for once? Might even double the chance of scoring something out of nothing, comsisering that’s really how our only goal this season has arrived. And having watched us against Willem II as well, the issues going forward were already evident then.

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 minute ago, Frenchay Red said:

They will struggle to form a partnership if there is only one them on the pitch at a time.

He probably means between the midfield, front like into the striker focal point and that can take time and patience but are time and patience a commodity that we have.

We defo didn't sign up for a fumbling rebuild.

[beaverface]

Just now, Frenchay Red said:

They will struggle to form a partnership if there is only one them on the pitch at any time.

Agreed, I would've loved us to go proper old school two up front. Instead of taking Fally off, I would've stuck Armstrong next to him, and then later on, if need be allow Cornick to make it three striker forward line.

On another note, we really need to practice corners as aside from the final corner in the last minute, we don't look threatening from them in the slightest. What's this obsession with kicking high to the back post where we inevitably push someone in the back?!

 

[Frenchay Red]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

He probably means between the midfield, front like into the striker focal point and that can take time and patience but are time and patience a commodity that we have.

We defo didn't sign up for a fumbling rebuild.

Plenty to ask BT about at senior reds this week. He's the guest speaker. I expect that he will only take written questions.

[Dr Balls]

5 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The flipside there is that they are raw and pressure can build, on young energetic but not terribly prolific strikers and when young and raw it can become quite hard to turn around.

Including the last pre-season game, we have played 3 games against reasonable opposition and only scored once, and that was a piece of individual skill. Admittedly we have only conceded twice as well but a good defence is only a basis for success, it’s not the way of actually achieving it. 46 draws would still probably lead to relegation. If we can’t score, we are in big trouble.

[AshtonGreat]

36 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

The problem is that to have any chance of winning a game we need to keep a clean sheet. And even then we will struggle to score…

We kept quite a few clean sheets at the end of last season, and almost kept one in our first game of this one

[Dr Balls]

7 minutes ago, AshtonGreat said:

We kept quite a few clean sheets at the end of last season, and almost kept one in our first game of this one

From the beginning of January to the beginning of March last season, we lost 4 out of 6 home league games 0-1. The exceptions were the Watford game we drew 1-1, which was pretty poor as I recall, and obviously the game against Southampton where we actually played the style of football that the team was set up for. But that was a flash in the pan. Similarly the 5-0 win over Blackburn, another midweek performance at home where it appeared to click and they had a defensive meltdown. Other than that goals were hard to come by during the second half of the season, and I see nothing so far that indicates it’s going to be much less of a problem this season.

[east sussex red]

1 hour ago, Graham76 said:

Who needs Ellis Simms when you’ve got Harry Cornick! 

Bloke who puts in more effort than any other player continues to be the butt of jokes from his own supporters.

[formerly known as ivan]

1 hour ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

Who is this new kid from west ham?

Without wanting to sound like a knob, the can’t tell if you are serious or not?

[Mr Popodopolous]

3 minutes ago, east sussex red said:

Bloke who puts in more effort than any other player continues to be the butt of jokes from his own supporters.

Yeah he gets some unfair flak.

I just wonder if Cornick off a big striker as 3 years ago at Luton may make a difference to us and him but.

[Graham76]

1 minute ago, east sussex red said:

Bloke who puts in more effort than any other player continues to be the butt of jokes from his own supporters.

Cry me a river ffs. 

[Southport Red]

1 hour ago, Charlie BCFC said:

The negativity around the game today is too much, played well against one of the better sides in the division and at no point did we have our best midfield on the pitch. Still having trouble putting the ball away but compare this to the all championship game against Norwich last season the performance is night and day

Played well?  Did you only watch the first half?  The second half was nothing short of embarrassing

[mozo]

If we beat Millwall on Saturday we'll be averaging 2 points per game, and suddenly the sun is shining again.

Let's not be too crestfallen after a league cup 1st round!

Naturally, if we lose to Millwall, I'll accept it's a bad three-game start to the season, but let's just wait and see.

[Mr Popodopolous]

We've lost 4 of the last 5 Home League games v Millwall and won 1 in 7..Weimann hattrick to start 2022.

Edited August 13 by Mr Popodopolous

[WolfOfWestStreet]

Where are these fans that expect top6? No one bar Jon Jansdown believes this is a possibility. They are either trolling or ill. 

[The Masked Man]

I thought we played okay. Dominated the first half without getting the goal we deserved. Second half Coventry had more quality on the pitch. It will be another close game when we play them on the 24th.

I like the look of Mayulu and don't think we make the most of him at present. Surely we ought to be playing more balls to his feet and then feeding off him. I'm most concerned about the quality of our wide players. I'm not sure Sykes offers enough at the moment and Mehmeti is too inconsistent. A lot of hope is being placed on Hirakawa adding some quality. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Dr Balls said:

Fair enough in one sense, except that we are already seeing a very similar pattern to last season. Of Armstrong and Mayulu, the latter seems more likely to score. Or here’s a radical thought - how about playing with 2 strikers for once? Might even double the chance of scoring something out of nothing, comsisering that’s really how our only goal this season has arrived. And having watched us against Willem II as well, the issues going forward were already evident then.

We played 442 tonight.  Wells played right alongside Mayulu tonight, until he was subbed.

23 minutes ago, The Masked Man said:

I thought we played okay. Dominated the first half without getting the goal we deserved. Second half Coventry had more quality on the pitch. It will be another close game when we play them on the 24th.

I like the look of Mayulu and don't think we make the most of him at present. Surely we ought to be playing more balls to his feet and then feeding off him. I'm most concerned about the quality of our wide players. I'm not sure Sykes offers enough at the moment and Mehmeti is too inconsistent. A lot of hope is being placed on Hirakawa adding some quality. 

Coventry dominated the second half before they even made the subs.  The pressure was building, the goal was coming, Bajic made a couple of good saves before those 5 subs.

Someone like Weimann (in his WSM pomp) would love being the 3rd man runner off of him.  I thought him and Wells linked well tonight.

[Charlie BCFC]

1 hour ago, Southport Red said:

Played well?  Did you only watch the first half?  The second half was nothing short of embarrassing

I thought we dropped off but if you think that was an embarrassing performance then you can’t have been watching City for long. Last 15 got back on top, after a tough spell just after they made their subs. Difference tonight was how ruthless we were (been an issue for a couple of years) Simms had one chance and he buried it

[Malago]

We spent 18 of the 24 years from 1982 to 2006 in tier 3 or below.  Being a solid tier 2 side is not to be sniffed at.

[temp]

If only we had a couple of strikers like Blackburn have now........ its the same old same old as the original post says.

Its also the same old same old hopes, the next 10games, the next window, the next loan player.

Want to play with the big boys? then we have to pay like they do, show some ambition and stop selling our best players, that is not going to happen under our current leader.

Conway being the latest battering the door down to get away, looking like Boro or even Hull among others ffs, are ready to welcome him and give him what he wants.

 

Edited August 14 by temp

[P'head Red]

What happened to assessing after 10 games? That's always been my barometer. Whilst I'm dubious about the current regime this doesn't change. I thought there were good signs on the weekend against Hull, but yes we need to be more clinical in the final third. Let's not forget we're yet to see what Yu can bring to the team, and more than likely a new number 10.

If/when the 'full strength' 11 is out on the pitch and we still can't produce a creative display then that's when we'd be right in demanding more. 

[temp]

6 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

He probably means between the midfield, front like into the striker focal point and that can take time and patience but are time and patience a commodity that we have.

We defo didn't sign up for a fumbling rebuild.

Rebuilding is fine but only if we can get out of the habit of knocking it down as soon as we get out of the ground and start again and again and again.Never actually getting anywhere.

[RedM]

8 hours ago, GrahamC said:

One cost ten times the other, brilliant comparison.

I think that was the point!

[temp]

4 minutes ago, P'head Red said:

What happened to assessing after 10 games? That's always been my barometer. Whilst I'm dubious about the current regime this doesn't change. I thought there were good signs on the weekend against Hull, but yes we need to be more clinical in the final third. Let's not forget we're yet to see what Yu can bring to the team, and more than likely a new number 10.

If/when the 'full strength' 11 is out on the pitch and we still can't produce a creative display then that's when we'd be right in demanding more. 

Close season is for identifing and bringing in your target players and showing those not required the door.

Pre season is for for the squad to be honed into an elite footballing unit, fully prepared for the first game and first 10 games, the first 10 games are the season, not warm up games and after the first 2 and from what I have seen we seem far from ready for it.

Many will be looking to the next transfer window to "fine tune" the squad more in hope than anything else....ah well here we go again.

[Bodiesaffer]

7 hours ago, Frenchay Red said:

They will struggle to form a partnership if there is only one them on the pitch at a time.

I don’t think he means, just those two together.

[DirtySanchez]

Let’s not forget we had Sammy Szmodics and someone got rid of him  

[RedRoss]

2 games... 

OTIB is back. 

Edited August 14 by RedRoss

[wendyredredrobin]

Whilst Armstrong & Mayulu show some promise, I doubt if either of them will score more than 15 goals this season, especially if our midfield does not create chances.  Looks like 'same old' to me as we start a new season with zero wins from two games and our well known soft underbelly exposed just like previous seasons.

I don 't have a great deal of confidence that we will achieve anything with Manningball TBH and really don't like his negative style of play.  Struggling to see how we can finish top half, yet alone top six based on what has been served up in the first two games.

I get as excited by City under Manning as I did by England under Southgate and that's a sad admission.

Mediocrity seems to be the the name of the game in the board room, in the management and on the pitch.

 

[David Brent]

9 hours ago, Charlie BCFC said:

The negativity around the game today is too much, played well against one of the better sides in the division and at no point did we have our best midfield on the pitch. Still having trouble putting the ball away but compare this to the all championship game against Norwich last season the performance is night and day

I don’t think it is. Even without our best midfield, I’d still expect us to pass properly. That second half was such a shame after Hull and some of our games last season. 

[Monkeh]

8 hours ago, Robbored said:

Two news strikers in Armstrong and Fally both of whom have played in than less two matches. Partnerships take time to form.

Lets reassess after 10 of the season.

For a partnership to form robbo, you have to play them together 

[David Brent]

1 hour ago, P'head Red said:

What happened to assessing after 10 games? That's always been my barometer. Whilst I'm dubious about the current regime this doesn't change. I thought there were good signs on the weekend against Hull, but yes we need to be more clinical in the final third. Let's not forget we're yet to see what Yu can bring to the team, and more than likely a new number 10.

If/when the 'full strength' 11 is out on the pitch and we still can't produce a creative display then that's when we'd be right in demanding more. 

So we shouldn’t comment on what we saw last night, both positive and negative? I think we can all demand more than what we saw in the second half. 

[Dullmoan Tone]

2 hours ago, temp said:

Want to play with the big boys? then we have to pay like they do, show some ambition and stop selling our best players, that is not going to happen under our current leader.

Everyone over-looking 2 of the opposition (20%) were our ex-players and they played all game. We didn’t have to sell them - they weren’t regular starters! It’s not just about buying players, we should properly develop (or dare I say coach) the players we have to be better!

[P'head Red]

5 minutes ago, David Brent said:

So we shouldn’t comment on what we saw last night, both positive and negative? I think we can all demand more than what we saw in the second half. 

That's not what I said was it? I think we were below par second half. But what I was trying to get at is that it's too early to write the season off. 

[Bristol Oil Services]

8 hours ago, Frenchay Red said:

Plenty to ask BT about at senior reds this week. He's the guest speaker. I expect that he will only take written questions.

I can write, mate. Let me know all yer questions, and I'll them down for you (07785 006243)

[CityCiderEd]

46 minutes ago, wendyredredrobin said:

I get as excited by City under Manning as I did by England under Southgate and that's a sad admission

Southgate was the most successful manager England has had. His win record blows everyone elses out of the water. Whether the football was easy on the eye is another matter but it's difficult to knock the man.

[Alessandro]

It’s funny how often people think with a clean slate and a short summer break, things will automatically be better the next season….

The football is different under Manning, yes, but the outcomes are largely going to be the same results wise - no players seem to be stepping up their levels considerably from that which they showed under Pearson. 

The extended squad level is average - Roberts, Tanner, Sykes, Williams - yes good solid championship pros - but not the levels we need for a sustained promotion push - one great game in 5 isn’t enough. The huge promise of players such as Mehmeti and Bell fading into the distance with every game.

Behind the scenes - well it’s just average: the vision of the board is average, the implementation, average.

The recruitment has been nothing more than average - the squad is still average. 

Budgets and spending average at best - (if we sell Conway is that another season of more in than out?)

Not sure how anyone expected anything more than another average season?

Or are we hanging our hopes on a 20 year old loanee - Or even “gentleman’s agreement” Twine?

Same old City, but hey ho - yeah some may say it’s only 2 games, but it’s not, it’s last season too trending into this for me so far, as it was always going to do. You can either see it now, or we can talk again in 10 games time, 20, 30 - the outcome will be the same, average at best.
 

and all the debate in middle will be the same 

Edited August 14 by Alessandro

[Bristol Oil Services]

7 hours ago, Malago said:

We spent 18 of the 24 years from 1982 to 2006 in tier 3 or below.  Being a solid tier 2 side is not to be sniffed at.

Very true.  Judged by our own poor to modest record, Steve has made us solid at this level, and that is not to be sniffed at. As you say.

Judged against our peers, it's not so good. Delia Smith stepped aside from Norwich yesterday. In her 27 years as majority owner, Norwich have enjoyed six promotions from this level to the top (it's fair to add here, that Norwich have been rubbish in the PL and under Delia they have failed to adapt to the changed financial reality of top flight English football). 

So I make that: Delia Smith 6  Stevie Lansdown 0. Ouch.

And it needs to be remembered that Norwich were in a mess when she and her husband took control there. Attendances were 14 to 15000.

One might also look at others such as Brighton, Brentford, Luton, Huddersfield and so on. Swansea and Cardiff too. This has been done to death.

 

If we continue to judge ourselves now by our own poor to modest history, well, it's unlikely much better will lie ahead of us. We need to move on from doing this (if we want any more than this).

[Robbored]

36 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

For a partnership to form robbo, you have to play them together 

Based on last season Manning rarely, if ever played two up top and that contributed to City’s poor goal return in my opinion. Surely thats not lost on Manning……..……

With two additional strikers along with Cornick and Wells his options are greater and personally I’d love to see him start with two up top. The sooner the better.

In the two games so far Fally has looked pretty good and with him being unfamiliar to opposing defenders is an advantage so I guess he’ll be LMs first choice but it would be interesting to see him having a striking partner.

[David Brent]

45 minutes ago, P'head Red said:

That's not what I said was it? I think we were below par second half. But what I was trying to get at is that it's too early to write the season off. 

Definitely too early to write the season off but I think it’s fair to assess last night too. 10 games will give a good indication of where we’re at but we can still react to individual games.