Championship thread 25/26! (56 Viewers)

I don’t think Sky were indulging them. They were thinking about money. Increasing ad revenue etc. Trying out a new format for other potential matches with celebrity owners. For me, it was unwatchable but I’d be interested to see the viewing figures for it compared with the regular coverage.

SwanLane said:

I don’t think Sky were indulging them. They were thinking about money. Increasing ad revenue etc. Trying out a new format for other potential matches with celebrity owners. For me, it was unwatchable but I’d be interested to see the viewing figures for it compared with the regular coverage.

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I lasted 20 seconds before switching over

SwanLane said:

I don’t think Sky were indulging them. They were thinking about money. Increasing ad revenue etc. Trying out a new format for other potential matches with celebrity owners. For me, it was unwatchable but I’d be interested to see the viewing figures for it compared with the regular coverage.

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I hope to god they don't go down that 'celebrity commentary' route - it'd be horrific to hear

I just fast forwarded through it now. I'm not that bothered. Can see why sky did it and tbh Ryan Reynolds has always been very likeable. I mean he's fucking van wilder for crying out loud.

Had it been tom Brady i might have thought different

Warwickhunt said:

I lasted 20 seconds before switching over

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Sounds like my brother on his wedding night, before he quickly learnt that he was gay.

covcity4life said:

I just fast forwarded through it now. I'm not that bothered. Can see why sky did it and tbh Ryan Reynolds has always been very likeable. I mean he's fucking van wilder for crying out loud.

Had it been tom Brady i might have thought different

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Thing once you allow this, where is it going to stop? No other team has had this.

covcity4life said:

I just fast forwarded thought it now. I'm not that bothered. Can see why sky did it and tbh Ryan Reynolds has always been very likeable. I mean he's fucking van wilder for crying out loud.

Had it been tom Brady i might have thought different

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Brady would have made constant and irrelevant references to himself, the NFL and the super bowl.

The other Tom would have been mentioning synergies, shareholder value, the sports quarter, etc.

Think a good 20 years ago now Sky experimented with getting two fans to do commentary on the games which you could watch instead of the main comms. That I’d be interested in perhaps, but wanking off Ryan Reynolds and Wrexham is all this was about.

Grendel said:

Apollo global are worth £800 billion and will fund ambition in the premiership

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Not saying they wouldn’t do it, but they’d legit have to buy 22 players if they got promoted. Pretty much Moore, O’Brien and possibly Hyam that could hold their own in the PL.

Always loved Bristol city

me and the lads today

Liquid Gold said:

me and the lads today

View attachment 49919

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Okay, but why are you sitting next to a Nazi?



The bloke on the right looks a bit dodgy too.

Shannerz said:

""Following a week of frustration regarding officiating, I am incensed by the timing, process and outcome regarding this incident," said Ipswich chairman Mark Ashton."

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What he meant to say was “Following a season of being given every decision suddenly we’re treated like Coventry”

Otis said:

Okay, but why are you sitting next to a Nazi?



The bloke on the right looks a bit dodgy too.

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All we want is the West Country for the cider drinkers. Is that too much to ask for?

robbiethemole said:

Lots on your board convincing themselves you're still the best team in the League!! Reality is a real bitch.

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Don't know who these lads are, but suspect they're of the empty vessels shout the loudest clueless minority. We may play the best football to.watch, but we're not the best team in the league. The table tells it's own story and any of our fans with sense know we're not catching you from here.
Given that we're still the best placed side to do so right now, that's practically saying you'll be up top when the season ends.



In truth, I'm bricking it today.

There's the old Hoodoo of course, but hard stats bear it out as well that have nothing to do with any hocus pocus, and everything to do with preparation time. It also correlates with our other "off the boil" period too.

For the majority of games recently we've had less time to prepare than most of our opponents which will certainly be a big factor in the whole oft-quoted mantra of "credit to X, they had a game plan and they executed it well" after disappointing results. Of course the fact that they had longer to perfect it whilst we were still concentrating on another game previously and running our ar$es off during that will have been a big help to them?

Here's a list of our recent fixtures with each sides days of preparation after them and the team highlighted in bold who had longer to prepare. I've started at the start of what most will agree has been our stuttering period, after our 6 game winning run (when coincidentally we usually had about even time to prepare as our opponents);

COVENTRY 9 vs Middlesbrough 7 (2 days)
Middlesbrough 5 v OXFORD 11 (6 days!)
Middlesbrough 3 v Leicester 3 (None)
Birmingham 5 v MIDDLESBROUGH 6 (1 day)
QPR 8 v Middlesbrough 6 (2 days)
Middlesbrough 3 v CHARLTON 4 (1 day)
Middlesbrough 3 v BRISTOL CITY 4 (1 day)

Overall, from the 7 games, we've had longer to prepare in ONE game, against Brum which perhaps not coincidentally was when Hellberg had time to come up with a slightly different system, drill and implement it into the players and take Birmingham by surprise.

In ONE game (Leicester) both sides had equalise time to prepare.

In the other FIVE games, our opponents always had longer to prepare and with the exception of QPR, ALL were games in which the adage of "credit to X, they had worked out a gameplan and stuck to it well" can be trotted out, which is also expected of Bristol City today. Almost always it was practicing the low block in relation to our own players, the only exception being Cov, who have the players to do otherwise, unlike the majority of other opponents.

With arguably our 2 crappest most unexpected results (I don't count Cov in this as they're a huge force at home, so the result was much less unexpected than Charlton say) they had another third of the time and over twice as long to prepare respectively, which coincides with the biggest ratios of the lot, unfortunately echoed with Bristol City today, so we'll have to be at our very best.

From these 7 games, as a cumulative total, our opponents have had 11 more days to prepare for our games than we have?
Blame Sky!!

Also for this reason, a win today would be huge. There's finally defeating the Hoodoo of course, but also doing so against these statistical odds. Beat this shithousing lot and we'll truly believe again that we can get out of this league, rather than us havign a third of a chance, along with Millwall and Ipswich (not favourable odds)

Thankfully after today at least, this $hitty trend is reset, with us finally having the same amount of days to prepare against ALL our remaining opponents, with the one exception of Ipswich, who due to fixture pile up have 4 days from their last fixture, compared to our 7. Which in theory gives us a clean slate for the last 8 games, even an advantage over the Tractors, which we'll gladly take, given their deeper squad.

Sorry about the wall of text, but meh, you're used to it by now

Captain Dart said:

I know of no Brevity did you mean Verity?

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Brevity is Verity's shorter friend.

Another dirty one. Cheating bastards these.