Bristol City 1 West Ham Utd 1 (17/04/12)

[Hatcham Iron]

after that spell of draws at home its been an uphill battle our form sadly at the boleyn has let us down, a shock to me because i thought it would be the away bit that would let us down.the playoffs bekon and i rekon we have put the fear of playing at home behind us with the brighton result couple that with our strength away from home and i realy feel wembley bekons. for me better days than the last few years."LETS GET BEHIND SAM AND THE TEAM WE CAN STILL DO THIS" COME ON YOU IRONS"

[Up the Junction]

...the criticism aimed towards Allardyce's style of football is a bit harsh.

In Kevin Nolan you've probably got the best player in the Championship.

All in all, so long as your team keeps their nerve, there isn't a better side in the Play Offs than West Ham.

I think these points from an outsider looking in are worth repeating. Thanks Fred.

[GreenIron]

Big Sam on the radio straight after, talking b*llocks ...

Interesting to note than none of you lads posted in the Brighton match thread.

I wasn't at the Brighton match (and still haven't seen the highlights). Missed my big chance to see us put 6 past anybody - and to comment on it.

He was however talking b*llocks to suggest that we dominated Bristol City.

I've never been a Sam basher. In fact, in the car on the way home last night I said that the last thing we should do is get rid of him. But I do wish he wouldn't be so relentlessly upbeat after matches when we've been ****. It's almost Wenger-esque - and I loathe him.

[AMC1964]

To be honest, I though Bristol played some decent stuff at times as well, and the lad that came on (no 27?) on the right, looked a proper handfull. Their crowd was well up for it as well and fair play to them. Despite that fact we've had a small issue with them recently, I like them and they're a decent football club with solid support. Pleased they're staying in the champs, and look forward to a return if we don't go up, which again, I'm not too bothered about really.

Things that stick out from the team last night was that we missed Linda massively in terms of crossing from the left, and WTF was Carew doing on the pitch. Rubbish I'm afraid. Julien put in three quality crosses and the lummox couldn't get anywhere near them.
the game was screaming for Cole, so I assume he was injured?

anyway, another big day out on monday for the Leicester trip, so chins up you lot..lets go have a beer with no expectations other than a decent game of football against another proper football club.

PS b*llocks to Reading, bunch of plastic tosspots.

[Up the Junction]

But I do wish he wouldn't be so relentlessly upbeat after matches when we've been ****. It's almost Wenger-esque - and I loathe him.

Accentuating the positives is exactly what he should be doing, that's his job. There's enough moaning minnies on here to express the negatives on his behalf ... hence why match threads when we win tend to be considerably shorter!

[taffhammer]

"redfred"...the criticism aimed towards Allardyce's style of football is a bit harsh.
"redfred" In Kevin Nolan you've probably got the best player in the Championship.
"redfred"All in all, so long as your team keeps their nerve, there isn't a better side in the Play Offs than West Ham.[/i]

I think these points from an outsider looking in are worth repeating. Thanks Fred.

The last one is, but then again it's not quite over yet.

[Bill]

No need for so much soul searching.

Absolutely spot on IMHO. We can definitely win the play-offs.............but please Mr Allardyce send Carew to the glue factory. I knew we were ****ed when he came on last night. He had at least 3 clear cut chances and fluffed them all and couldn't even be arsed to stick out a foot for a couple more. WTF is BFS doing having him on the bench and totally overlooking Baldock? Yes, he has the height (and doesn't use it to effect), but he has neither the pace or desire to get us goals.

We can definitely do it, but Allardyce has to decide what his best team is for those (potentially) 3 games and formulate a plan to win them. This seems to be something he's failed to do so far.

[BubbleBoy]

Last night was typical. We had plenty of players like Nolan, Vaz Te, Maynard, and Lansbury on the pitch who are supposed to have the creativity to unlock defences but in the end it took a centre back's header. What Southampton show is that you have to have a creative system, not just a percentage game. In this league there are too many well-organised teams like Bristol who put in a massive effort and reduce us to firing in balls rather than creating proper chances.

I don't think the difference is in the style of play, it's in the conversion of the chances created.
Reading and Southampton have both been excellent at staying in the game and taking the chances that come along.

From watching a fair few games of all the top 3 in the past few months, I actually think we play the more attractive football overall. We're just have not been as clinical as the other two.

[I8CHAVS]

I really didn't enjoy that last night, didn't like the ground,the atmosphere was shockingly bad from us, the traffic was **** and I got wet.

Thought it was all a bit meh

[irving boleyn]

Without the Blackpool massacre the result would have been received with more equanimity (word of the day!).

We had the same two purple patches but failed to score, whereas we got six on Saturday. That was a massive dollop of luck and fooled us into thinking we had turned the corner.

I dont know whether Cole would have made a difference.We didnt carve out any clear cut chances from open play apart from the frenzy of good crosses in the last ten minutes.

Wonderful to see Taylor pick out Tomkins for the goal. They were remiss in not marking him more closely.

Romford's gumshield was not called into use, it seemed..wonder where all those rumours came from.

[Tommy Taylor's Jockstrap]

''and WTF was Carew doing on the pitch. Rubbish I'm afraid. Julien put in three quality crosses and the lummox couldn't get anywhere near them''.

John Carew, Carew
No better than me or you
He's not got a ****ing clue
John Carew, Carew

[Romford_Iron]

John Carew, Carew
No better than me or you
He's not got a ****ing clue
John Carew, Carew

(thumbs up smiley)

[Devs Hampton]

[quote].. but Allardyce has to decide what his best team is for those (potentially) 3 games and formulate a plan to win them. This seems to be something he's failed to do so far.[/quote]

Well he's not managed that feat in 44 league games so far so there is no reason to suppose it will suddenly come to him now!
Completely ambivelent to the play off's, if we go up we do (and probably end up being smashed most weeks next season) if we dont then we get to be competative again for another season (even when we are not very good and the man at the top gives no impression he knows what he is doing!)
TID

[maltab]

How did the travel arrangements work out ?
Did you all manage to get to Temple Meads for the last train?
I did see a number of fans being directed to the coaches,and the night itself seemed to go off trouble free.

[w4hammer]

How did the travel arrangements work out ?
Did you all manage to get to Temple Meads for the last train?
I did see a number of fans being directed to the coaches,and the night itself seemed to go off trouble free.

we had a nightmare -basically came outside and wandered around in increasingly hostile territory until we got a bus going to the city centre( £3.90) which was still 1.5 miles from the train station ( £6 cab) the traffic system in bristol is insane miles and miles of road going nowhere and traffic lights on every street corner! I would have thought it unlikely you could have walked back from the ground and made to 22.30-- i changed my mind and stayed overnight in the end.

[warp]

yesterday wasn't that good for me.
back on monday (around midnight) after six days in the netherlands, and no running water in the flat.
tuesday morning at work.
late for the train (still don't know how), so i have to take the one after that.
but i don't, 'cos i jump on another train that's late and very close in time to the one i have to take (same platform).
hop off at reading, go back to didcot. miss a train to bristol for 30 seconds. the following one is late.
arrive at temple meads at 7:20. walk out of the station and it starts raining really hard, for like 5 minutes. welcome to bristol.
too late to walk to the ground, take a bus.
the driver gives me a ticket to ashton "vale" instead of "gate", so i end up paying more than i should.
get to the ground a bit late (10 minutes).
atmosphere in the second half is the poorest i can remember at an away game.
the game isn't that hot either.
after the game, start walking the way back. plenty of time, but i get directed to the wrong station, despite asking for temple meads.
luckily find a taxi and arrive at the station two minutes before the train leaves, covered in sweat and smelling like a camel.

[tugboatpete]

We all saw the simple chances carew missed -but why didnt bfs start with him ??? citys defence is one of the smallest in the league he caused them a lot of problems the service we gave maynard was diabolical
Once again we were set up wrong

[geowhu]

How did the travel arrangements work out ?
Did you all manage to get to Temple Meads for the last train?
I did see a number of fans being directed to the coaches,and the night itself seemed to go off trouble free.

Apart from the Skirmish in the Field !! That was there fault as 30 odd of them tried to have a go at 5 of us ,

Game started well but fizzled out from our point of View , oh well Wembley here we Come

[hammer_lad]

Without reading through all the pages, has anyone mentioned romford getting "you fat b*stard" sung at him?


Seemed to take it in good spirits though!

[maltab]

Without reading through all the pages, has anyone mentioned romford getting "you fat b*stard" sung at him?


Seemed to take it in good spirits though!

Thought it was Romford that was walking past us a couple of times.I was near the front by the chap with the guide dog.

It was you in the striped shirt Romf wasn,t it