Lord Duckhunter

Absolutely spot on.

Did I dream it, or did he have an absolute stormer against Man Utd once.

To be fair, their penalties that went in were excellent. It’s just the first one was shite and the second a decent save.

They can allocate tickets anyway they want. Whether they will is open to debate, but they certainly can.

Did he cry afterwards?

There was absolutely nothing racist about it, if that’s what you’re implying.

Game over....lost to div 4 team lol

3-1

Ha ha ha, missed first 2 lol...

This was the first post that took us down that line. Is fan the Flames a trump supporter?

Penalties......ohhh exciting.

He was pretty headless, but he suffered from breaking into a side with class players all over. Personally I remember him as more of a cult figure than a scapegoat, but it was years ago and a lot of ale has been sank in the intervening years.....

That’s interesting. One of the biggest tactical changes I’ve seen in the game over 45 years, is the role of the strikers without the ball. They used to just cut the full backs off and then pretty much “rest” whilst the other 8 or 9 defended. Nowadays they’re working harder off the ball, constantly on the move and closing down, and periods of “rest” seem to happen when their side have the ball and are knocking it around the back 4, midfield etc. As it’s impossible to play at 100% all game, strikers now take a brief breather when we get the ball. I wonder if they’re working so hard defensively, that they’re not making runs when we first win the ball back. Because of this, we cant pass it early, and then get into our sideways, backwards rhythm. The obsession with not giving the ball away too soon after wining it back and the lack of a Tadic type, mean once the opposition are set defensively, our constant pendulum of sideways/backwards/sideways rarely leads to anything. It’s no surprise that Spurs feature high on the list, for all his defensive mindset, Jose has a couple of forward thinking quick players that just fill spaces defensively and don’t charge around like lunatics pressing and closing down. Therefore, once the ball is won back, they’re fresh and also in a maximum position to exploit an early pass. In our case, Ings would probably be knackered from just running 10 doggies pressing but also be in the wrong place to mount an effective counter.

That’s how great a candidate Crooked Hilary was.......

Imagine how shit someone who lost to someone who lost to him was.

I’ve a problem with a player bottling it and ducking out of the way of a free kick. Sums up the mentality of the club and a large section of the fan base that people accept it.

Apart from when Pep praises us, that’s 100% truthful with no spin a5 all. Maybe after our run of results, the soft underbelly that runs right through the side and the constant mistake we make over and over, it’s time for Ralph to give the players a bit of clog in the media. This positive spin being put on the performances doesn’t seem to be achieving the desired results. Personally, I don’t buy into this protect the players in public roast them in private bull anyway. They don’t look they’re getting clog behind closed doors to me. The manager, his staff and the senior pros all seem way too nice to me. We’re a lovely little club.

Fucking hell. Deciding who is better with the ball at his feet between those two, is like deciding who is funnier out of Dawn French & Miranda Hart.

Exactly. Noddy club behaviour. Mind you if we’d only lost 3-2 he might of been close to tears. What is it with the club, softness running through it and yet some lap it up. Like good little children we know our place and isn’t it lovely that Pep said some nice things about our lovely boys and Ralph. A playing squad full of Son in Laws. Alex Ferguson only said nice things about managers and sides that were no threat to Utd. I’d rather opposition managers were bemoaning our nastiness and ruthlessness, instead of being condescending. Of course Pep likes us, we know our place and show him way way too much respect. I bet he won’t like Everton or West Ham quite so much next time he faces them. Does anyone seriously believe it was anything other than a stroll in the park for city, and had they needed 9 they’d have got them.

Stephens did ok there last season, and Ramsay can’t be judged on the 9-0. He should have kept Bednarek at centre half and then filled the right back position. By shifting Bednarek he not only weakened the centre of defence, he was woeful at full back and it also seems to have affected the lad. It’s been a lose lose situation, and the manager has to be held to account for that decision. It’s all well and good bemoaning our lack of options, but it’s only one right back missing, one. You can’t tell me the manager has no responsibility for that situation. No doubt the Ralph lovers will blame the board, but I don’t believe for one minute he didn’t have some influence on decisions made in regard to that area of the pitch.

This is the attitude that leads to two 9-0’s in two seasons. It’s not a coincidence that it’s us it keeps happening to, not a coincidence that we give up more points from winning positions than anyone. When it’s acceptable to only let in 5, acceptable for the captain to duck out of the way of a free kick, and acceptable to let the opposition have a free shot every fucking time, it’s where you end up.

It’s not just last night, it’s the culmination of weeks worth of decisions. Bednarek & Vesty were a decent partnership, until he started messing with it. Bednarek hasn’t been the same since he went into full back, even when switched back to Centre half. .So I would have just left that alone weeks ago. If he doesn’t trust Ramsay (I think Poch or Puel would have done), and you need an emergency RB, then play Stephens there. That way you only disrupt one position instead of two. Armstrong was fine in CM last week, why move him, if you’re going to play him anyway. Why not give the nipper another chance (again Poch would of done imo). The excuses are mounting up and they don’t add up. Koeman drafted in Martina, Puel had Pied. Is it beyond Ralph to insist on a similar cheap stop gap, once he sanctioned the leaving of our full back cover. I do not want him sacked, and he has a fantastic opportunity in the cup to genuinely reach legendary status. But his record up to now has been pretty average. Had Mark Hughes made the decisions he’s made lately, this forum would be pretty United in its condemnation of those decisions.

Regardless of how good they are, you can still make it difficult for them. You can still tackle, still block shots, still get stuck in. Our defending was woeful. If they needed to score 9 they would have done. It’s pathetic that the majority will accept that, just because they’re better than us. They barely broke sweat, half of them didn’t even need a shower after the game.

What the “well done lad, we only lost by 3” merchants fail to understand is that it’s not particularly the result, but the manner of the defeat that upset some of us. There’s not one player who can look in the mirror and truthfully say they gave it their all. Had we lost by 7, but players were chucking themselves in the way of shots, getting stuck in, battling, and generally making it hard for them, I’d have been the first to applaud their efforts. They didn’t, they were quite happy to knock the ball about in safe areas, quite happy to only lose by 3. Fernandinho put in more tackles and fouls than our soft as shite midfield,and he was playing with a cigar in his mouth and his slippers on. It was a subservient display, propaganda football at its finest.

Noddy club mentality on show here. Let’s go to City, doff our caps and let them do what they want. Afterwards we can praise our heroes for keeping the score down to 5. Well done lads, proud of you, after all there’s such a big gap between us. Cheltenham gave them more of a game than we did, Nigel’s newly promoted side did, WBA did, but it doesn’t matter because city are soooo much better than us.