Having said that I quite like QPR and their fans and ground, the same can be said of Brizzle. Don't mind either City or Rovers. Nice day out and there are many, many good statue drowning comrades down there. We even looked at moving down there, but it is too expensive. Best place of all is Bristol Sweet Mart https://www.sweetmart.co.uk where they have food from every part of the world. Everything. Stuff you have never heard of. There is also a takeaway part, which is deadly. The sesame chicken 'n' rice they do is a big Kremlin favourite. Those people know their way around the spices and are complete demons for cooking. In fact, the whole of the Easton district around Stapleton Road is great. Ciff loves to go down there to visit this place, which is a 6 aisle black ladies beauty shop which has everything for the hair. Creams, potions, brishes and combs, wigs - everything. It is quite expensive but very popular. Then there is a Senegalese comrade just down the road who sells baguettes. Just that. No different types or anything. Just white crusty sticks. But what sticks! Crispy crunchy outside and melt in yer month middle. The best baguette I've ever tasted in Britain. Meanwhile in Stoke's Croft there is the Cafe Cuba, which is run by good Cubanos and has very, very good food. Highly recommended. If you go down there, just give the comrade with the pan (Alain) a wink and tell him Clive sent you and Viva Fidel! Then there is the famous St Pauls district, where in some bars and restaurant, not only do the lockdown restrictions NOT apply, but they also have special exemption from the smoking laws! And not JUST tobacco smoking laws either! Another such place is the Plough Inn in Easton Road. Good food, cheap beer, very eclectic and mixed music and an outside smoking area that looks out over the railway, which is very chilled and very, very smoky. In fact this is one of the many places in Bristol which can cater to all of your smoking requirements.
Watford players are very good at saying how great they are and how we've got the best squad in the league etc. Well after 18 months of underachievement it's about time they walk the walk, instead of bragging about themselves. If we're as good as they say we are, we will win. Anything less than that will be another fail. Lose and we can see a little chink of light between us and Norwich/Bournemouth......and I don't expect either of those sides to be caught like Reading. I see tonight as the big indicator in terms of are we top two or just part of the chasing play off pack.
Which players have actually said we have the best squad though? Seems to be more of a fan and media thing tbh.
Well I did hear him say Sarr was like our Messi. Better give him the ball then ! Or did he mean Sarr is sulking because he doesn’t want to be here?
Spent many a night (and morning) in Stoke's Croft as a student, usually starting further up Gloucester Road.
Ivic said he was in his pre match interview, I hope he plays I have no faith in Andre Grays finishing and Deeney may as well have not played against QPR.
Never heard of Sweet Mart but sounds great - unfortunately their online business has closed down (temporarily I assume) whislt they rebuild the website. Pity, would have been a potential source of Xmas pressies
This is a fine summary. Bristol is a great city, and one of the few other parts of the country I could happily live, but for that godawful accent....
Funny, in my first job after leaving uni I spent a lot of time travelling to cities around the UK - my least favourite, by some distance, were Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool. different strokes for different folks I guess
Also a big moment for Ivic. He's called the whole squad out after the QPR game, questioning their desire. How many of them are going to listen to that and think that actually it was his fault for the half time change if formation? Will either fall in line and get behind him like they did with Jokanovic or down tools and try to get him sacked like countless other coaches...
I know I should know this, but is this on Hive Live free for season ticket holders or pay to watch on Now TV??
I really hope we can win this and properly get on track, but I just can't see it. We still look disjointed, inharmonious as a team, and it seems that Ivic is blaming the players, and it wouldn't surprise me if they blame him. They're clearly not enjoying playing for him, and his reluctance to change the tactics (or in the case of Saturday change them so clearly for the worst) makes me think he's hopelessly out of his depth. Mind you, its not helped by our team of big time Charlie's thinking they can just turn up and it'll all go swimmingly. I really would've hoped that their relegation would've done something to make them realise that the Championship doesn't just lay down to you, but its not looking like it. If we win convincingly tonight - perfect. Back on track. If not, then surely the board has to make a decision. A win against the team in 3rd would be perfect, and hopefully galvanise the team, but I'm really worried this is gonna be a similar event to when we lost 0-3 against West Brom back in 06/07 - a humiliating defeat, followed by a spectacular implosion. I really hope not, but it seems to all be pointing in a horribly inevitable direction...
It's free for ST holders who paid the one-off fee to 'save my seat'. Use the same code as issued for the first game v Boro.
I don't think it's true that the players are "clearly not enjoying playing for" Ivic, but it's certainly a possibility. Just expecting to turn up in order to win also has an element of truth in that I don't think some of the players 'get' the Championship yet (hello Etienne). They have the idea that keeping possession will eventually lead to chances and goals, but we know that effort and commitment count for a lot in the Championship. You only have to look back at the home games against Blackburn and Stoke to see how Watford were upset for periods when those teams got in their faces. More urgency in moving the ball and starting attacks will pay dividends for us with our much vaunted 'superior quality', but they have to make it happen not just expect it to.
I was agreeing until the last bit. I like hearing regional accents to remind me where I am, but fewer and fewer Bristolians still have them.
After every dire performance recently I've said to myself that I won't bother watching the next one. And I always do. Same tonight. I just hope he plays a decent formation.
Head says Ivic will revert the more defensive 5-3-2 option tonight as we're playing a fellow top 6 team away from home. Heart hopes we start a similar way to Saturdays game. In isolation a point wouldn't be too bad, they're a decent team, but our poor away form this season means we're eager to see the team start playing better and picking up more points on the road than we have so far. Head says 1-1 Heart says 0-24
I'd really like to know if they just don't get Vlad or if they really don't like his tactics.? I do think he is extremely naive about English football, one reason being most teams in this division have very ordinary managers and yet they mostly outwit him. We all know that an ordinary bunch that are fit and highly motivated will often come up trumps against languid, arrogant team, so we need to match them first and then show our class (ahem). I do think we seem too keen to play a sort of zonal defence in midfield, which is partly why oppo forwards walk thru us.... So we are too rigid rather than letting the players suss out where the threats are coming from. We also look slow even as we defend as a team" so somethings very wrong right now. Maybe Vlad will get us going by Xmas but I'm not sure he really understands the Cship, and if he doesn't work it out I think we could looking at Eddie Howe by January....
Is it just me or do other people also mainly enjoy our fixtures for two reasons. 1. To see which players have been chosen to play 2. Look forward to the match prior to kick off When the whistle blows then it's an instant disappointment with no crowd or atmosphere. Then usually I find we ain't playing as good as we could/should BC 1:2 W
One of the oddest things about this is that at the very start of his tenure here, particularly in those pre-season games, much was made of how he had the whole team working as a unit, flooding back to defend a counter-attack without a second thought, to the point Cleverley even mentioned it in some detail in an interview with the club site. It was held up as the perfect example of how he'd come in, stamped his authority on the team, and in doing so changed the mentality of the squad for the better. Since that time, that kind of approach seems to have almost completely fallen by the wayside, and there's nothing notable about how we play or defend as a unit, and certainly not our hunger and mentality. I don't think that's a great sign for the players' relationship with Vlad and what they are prepared to do for him, because they have already explicitly given up doing one of the key things he asked them to do (according to the club's PR effort, at least). We should be so lucky. There's no chance he'll come here - he'd see himself as proven at a higher level and there's no way he'd work under the Pozzo model. You really do have to start asking which managers/head coaches of a requisite level of competence actually would, at this point.
