Saint Pete

I don't disagree the EFL punishment on the club was very harsh, I would argue over the top and out of proportion to what happened and the sporting impact. But the FA will always answer your question by saying their role is to discipline the individual not the club and Tonda has not been punished personally for what he did yet. So, I don't think we will get very far arguing that they shouldn't be punishing him/us again. Our only real avenue is to push the FA more on what a proportionate and reasonable punishment for what he did and the sporting impact of it should be. That's why I think we should have used the Parsons interview more to argue that there shouldn't be a disparity between how heavily smaller clubs like us and their staff are punished for breaking the rules compared to bigger clubs like Chelsea. And to point out that the FA cases brought against those bigger clubs had a far more significant sporting impact than what Tonda and the kid with the phone did. I personally think that argument would have gained more support in the press, which in turn might have helped make the FA or their panel think again about imposing another very harsh penalty on Thursday.

I'm personally not totally against doing an interview to get our side of the argument out there and put some media spotlight and pressure on the FA themselves to make a fair decision, as I feel we have been too passive in this process from the start. But if you are going to do it, it needs to be done with real conviction and you need to have something really tangible to say in your defence or a bit of threat towards the FA rather than just "please don't punish him because it will hurt us" . Problem is Parsons isn't the right man to do that, so it just comes across as a bit weak again. The bit about why we haven't already sacked him in particular, which Parsons answered by saying because he's a good manager so deserves our loyalty, which may be true but makes it sound like we have no integrity. He should have said because he is young and made a mistake and deserves a second chance as we still feel he is a good man. If we were going to do this, I would have liked Parsons to go harder on the fair and proportionate punishment to fit the crime angle by drawing parallels with FA cases of rule breaking and cheating against the bigger clubs (eg Chelsea) where punishments have been light, suspended sentences, fines etc. If we were worried about naming them for legal reasons, we could have still referred to them broadly as cases involving larger clubs without naming names. That is an angle where I think we would get more sympathy from the media and the wider football world, so could have helped us put more pressure on the FA before a final decision is arrived at and announced, assuming that was the aim.

You have to admire Spurs really. Spent well north of £300m on players coming in this summer and still no wins and bottom of the league after 5 games. That takes something special! 👏

Scored again today, 3 in 3 in the league so far.

Away form becoming a serious problem.

A win tomorrow and I think we can be really pleased with this first "segment" of the season. Away form is the main concern so far so a win would address that.

I agree it was probably wrong for us to sell him when we did, but on the other hand, I think it has been what he needed to get more experience and confidence at League One level and now a chance with a team where he will get plenty of opportunities to start at Championship level. Whilst it would have been nice to see us re-sign him in the summer, I'm not sure he would have suited us the way we are playing right now and he likely wouldn't have got the opportunities to start and show what he can do that he is getting at Brizzle.

Maybe we will hear Amanda Holden's views this time?

Even Haaland seemed confused it was going to be given!

Wow, Cov really struggling! No goals scored in 4 games more than a little worrying for them. That Lewis Dunk goal was a bit tasty though!

And yet we still can't keep a clean sheet?!

Well yeah, but who knows what machinations the FA goes through in deciding these things, it's baffling how it could have taken this long to come to a decision and what exactly they have been doing all this time! I personally think a ban is inevitable purely because of all the furore that has surrounded this, it's just a case of how long.

Yes of course. But it's also important not to get too carried away thinking "it's another thumping home win" when on another day if Bristol were a little sharper up front, it could have been a very different scoreline. We have started sluggishly in a few games now, we need to improve that when we play the real top contenders like West Ham, Wolves etc or we will likely be punished. But great result and a lot of positives too of course.

Scored the winner tonight for Auxerre, 2 goals in 2 league games so far.

It's good that it sounds like Mubama did much better today in his sub role and his assist for Azaz's goal should boost his confidence. It's going to be so important to our season overall that we have a good enough option to sub on in that position that it gives confidence to the manager that he can give Larin a longer rest sometimes.