Bristol City 3-1 Saints - Match Thread

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Pamplemousse said:

Utterly depressing.

We won't go down but we need another clear out in the summer, we have zero chance of promotion. It's pretty obvious to everyone who wants to fight and who the losers are. Scienza, Charles, Armstrong, build a team around them.

Sack the manager by all means, and he isn't blameless, but we have too many losers and nobody could get a tune out of them even with the perfect gameplan. He isn't the biggest issue.

Half of them didn't even bother coming over to the fans after the game, too scared to face the music. Still was the only one who did.

Who are the losers who started tonight?

Archer?

[Whitey Grandad]

It seems obvious to me. If you play three Centre Backs then you're going to be light in midfield. The three don't make us any stronger,  they just get in each other's way and leave responsibility to each other and because we're light in midfield they have nobody to pass the ball to.

[SambaMaverick]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Who are the losers who started tonight?

Archer?

Harwood-Bellis would be my shout. England international, what a fucking sick joke.

[SWLondon Saint]

12 minutes ago, imadirtyurchin said:

Considering how long the club had to prepare for this season - after knowing our fate for so long last season. I don’t think they’ve done a very good job. 

Poor recruitment - massive holes in the squad - no consistent quality down the spine, and glaring problem positions identified last season still unaddressed. And then appointing a relatively rookie manager to deal with it. 

I think where Still has been weak is managing the squad, and SR did him over in some areas:

Still's fault:

He clearly liked Sesay, Matsuki, Robinson in preseason and the first 2 have disappeared and Robinson has gone bit part when he was one of our better players in the first couple games. Roerslev came in, one good game at Norwich, one shit one at Hull and he's copped it. Fraser has been moved all over the place and looks lost. Stewart should never have played 3 games in a short time. Downs needs time in the U21s. I don't think an experienced manager would have allowed such a big squad.

SR's fault:

Extended Stephens and kept him as captain. Too many CBs in the squad, should have shipped some out. THB and Downes don't seem to want to be here. No GK or CF recruitment, Downs not ready for this level. Too many attacking midfielders, we should have bought a striker instead of Azaz or Fellows. Lallana should have gone after the debacle of last season, don't think having him around will have helped tbh. And that Carl geezer too.

[Southner]

3 minutes ago, SaintNate said:

Oh dear oh dear

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

13 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Downs is absolutely terrible and seems scared of the ball. I swear he's the smallest/weakest tall person ever. 

With his first touch, he took the ball down but gave it away in doing so. He gave it away a couple of times. But at least 1 was an attempted decent pass. 

Can't recall him winning a challenge. He didn't seem likely to either. So not offered anything from deep lying positions or from being a target in the box.

He did pop up centrally in front of the keeper once, although we didn't get it to him.

We're just a mess. We've no idea how to get anything out of him. And he doesn't offer much to the things we've tried. But we don't try anything consistently for anyone up front to build momentum and opportunities.

[OneMrsWallace]

What the actual fuck is going on. Apparently the media were told Fellows was sick and not available then comes off the bench. It's a shit show from top to bottom on and off the pitch.  Listened on the radio and you could've written the script once we missed chances to go 2-1 up. Why did we not buy an experienced, gobby player to help the younger players. Why not another striker to cover a fragile Stewart. Glaring holes in the squad. Lose on Saturday and who knows where we might end up. Can't see any improvement whilst SR continue as owners. As for Still - he's just throwing names in the air and hoping it all falls right. 

Edited Tuesday at 21:53 by OneMrsWallace

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

With his first touch, he took the ball down but gave it away in doing so. He gave it away a couple of times. But at least 1 was an attempted decent pass. 

Can't recall him winning a challenge. He didn't seem likely to either. So not offered anything from deep lying positions or from being a target in the box.

He did pop up centrally in front of the keeper once, although we didn't get it to him.

He seems to jump for the ball either too late, or too early. 

Look at the difference Sinclair Armstrong made, he's an absolute trash player by the way - nothing 'elite' at all, but he used pace/power and bullied us. Downs is incapable of doing anything like that, nor touching, nor controlling, nor scoring. 

As I said above, I cannot for the life of me tell you confidently that he is a footballer. I wonder if the real Downs is still at FC Koln?

[Paul_B]

Got to take the positives from that one tonight, decent plucky performance and to only lose by 2 goals to a great Bristol side is nothing to be ashamed of. For us to score a goal and go one up was a beautiful moment.....if Lamine Yamal had finished like Arma did tonight the world would be spaffing themselves to oblivion over it.

Obviously conceding immediately is normal, pretty sure most teams do that just to even things up, not just us.

Great through ball from Jander to set up their third, shows we do have that vision. From there I think we've done well to see the game out, again quality passing between our defenders, I'm pretty sure if my calculations are right we have recorded the most passes between defensive players in the whole of the universe, ever. Really encouraging. And Downs coming on really sured up Bristols defence, so credit where it is due.

So let's take these positives and keep the momentum going for the next one! 🙂

[Mboto Gorge]

Pathetic , weak, spineless , error ridden , slow tempo performance yet again, full of elementary errors, missing chances, giving the ball away in critical areas. And then as expected, zero response or fight once we went behind.

 

As a club we are so unprofessional it’s untrue and that starts from the top. I’ve said it for over a year now, until these owners leave we are absolutely screwed, we will be in league one soon , you can absolutely guarantee that, if this lot stay in charge another couple of seasons. 
you won’t find more clueless owners anywhere in Europe. 

Edited Tuesday at 21:59 by Mboto Gorge

[Holmes_and_Watson]

4 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

He seems to jump for the ball either too late, or too early. 

Look at the difference Sinclair Armstrong made, he's an absolute trash player by the way - nothing 'elite' at all, but he used pace/power and bullied us. Downs is incapable of doing anything like that, nor touching, nor controlling, nor scoring. 

As I said above, I cannot for the life of me tell you confidently that he is a footballer. I wonder if the real Downs is still at FC Koln?

Apparently the Bristol City boss got 10 or 11 goals out of him at Koln. Hopefully the focus of Still's post match manager catch up.

Completely agree about their Armstrong. His limitations are obvious and his own club are expecting more goals. Yet, the benefit of just having someone to win a challenge, hold it up for a second, create space for others. Any number of players would have offered us at least that. But SR are smarter, as they've been in every window since they took over. Maddening.

[S-Clarke]

6 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

 

Completely agree about their Armstrong. His limitations are obvious and his own club are expecting more goals. Yet, the benefit of just having someone to win a challenge, hold it up for a second, create space for others. Any number of players would have offered us at least that. But SR are smarter, as they've been in every window since they took over. Maddening.

There are a lot of similarities playing out to our season in 05/06 when we came down.

The club gambles on a striker in Ricardo Fuller, never scored enough goals, drew shit loads of games, languished in the bottom half. A CM in Quarshie who didn't want to be here, and an exciting teenage winger making a breakthrough, sold in January. Changed manager in December, had a revival in the second half to build some momentum and go into the following season with some positivity. We then spent spent any remaining 'fortune' that following summer on our ill-fated playoff push - and then the house of cards came tumbling down.

It all feels eerily similar. We need to be careful.

Edited Tuesday at 22:07 by S-Clarke

[macca155]

2 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

There are a lot of similarities playing out to our season in 05/06 when we came down.

The club gambles on a striker in Ricardo Fuller, never scored enough goals, drew shit loads of games, languished in the bottom half. A CM in Quarshie who didn't want to be here, and an exciting teenage winger making a breakthrough, sold in January. Changed manager in December, had a revival in the second half to build some momentum and go into the following season with some positivity. We then spent spent any remaining 'fortune' that following summer on our ill-fated playoff push - and then the house of cards came tumbling down.

It all feels eerily similar. We need to be careful.

I was thinking the same, as a business model, there is no way this is sustainable. However they've made some some big sales, so for a while the club is solvent, but what comes next. 

The squad is ridiculously big, how on earth is Still supposed to manage that many players.

[qwertyell]

17 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Look at the difference Sinclair Armstrong made, he's an absolute trash player by the way - nothing 'elite' at all

QPR's young player of the year two years running. That's a guarantee of quality.

Or, at least, so we were told this summer when Ronnie Edwards inherited the title.

[SWLondon Saint]

35 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Utterly depressing.

We won't go down but we need another clear out in the summer, we have zero chance of promotion. It's pretty obvious to everyone who wants to fight and who the losers are. Scienza, Charles, Armstrong, build a team around them.

Sack the manager by all means, and he isn't blameless, but we have too many losers and nobody could get a tune out of them even with the perfect gameplan. He isn't the biggest issue.

Half of them didn't even bother coming over to the fans after the game, too scared to face the music. Still was the only one who did.

Got to say, hats off to you and our other away fans, outsung their lot by some distance and deserved better. Players should have been on their knees in front of you lot apologizing for that shite!

[SWLondon Saint]

38 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Who are the losers who started tonight?

Archer?

Archer - invisible except for his crap finish.

THB - so negative with the ball, seemed to lose his rag completely 2nd half and asking to be sent off.

Fraser - never ever looked even slightly like a threat going forward, targeted in the air, also super negative with ball.

[Mboto Gorge]

28 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Apparently the Bristol City boss got 10 or 11 goals out of him at Koln. Hopefully the focus of Still's post match manager catch up.

Completely agree about their Armstrong. His limitations are obvious and his own club are expecting more goals. Yet, the benefit of just having someone to win a challenge, hold it up for a second, create space for others. Any number of players would have offered us at least that. But SR are smarter, as they've been in every window since they took over. Maddening.

Replace the word smarter with “delusional, arrogant cunts” and I think you’re onto something there 

[Badger]

31 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Apparently the Bristol City boss got 10 or 11 goals out of him … 

A shrewder appointment than the one we made this summer. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

3 minutes ago, Badger said:

A shrewder appointment than the one we made this summer. 

Yet SR would have us believe they're shrewder than a whisker of Shrewsbury supporting shrews. 

[Badger]

1 minute ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Yet SR would have us believe they're shrewder than a whisker of Shrewsbury supporting shrews. 

Yes. No hipster vibe or credits in appointing the bloke City went for. He probably doesn’t look or fit in with the laptop crowd. 

[die Mannyschaft]

20 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Got to say, hats off to you and our other away fans, outsung their lot by some distance and deserved better. Players should have been on their knees in front of you lot apologizing for that shite!

Players didn't bother coming over to Saints fans. Great support. Maybe the have realised where we are heading and new players can believe they moved for relegation battle 

[HarvSFC]

A lot of these players could barely motivate themselves to try and get to 12 points last season. A lot of them seemed content to be part of the worst Premier League side of all time points wise. They don't have any pride.

But, at least we have a fantastic captain and leader of these men.

[Football Special]

Just back,  been a long day for more disappointment,  up for work in a 5 hours , we're getting worse aren't we , absolutely no chance this side gets near promotion 

 

[cambsaint]

It is unrealistic to call for Sports Republic to go because , they own the club, it's their money, and they would have to want to sell to a willing buyer at a profit.

Having said that though, they must be wondering where there investment is going or has gone.

A massive shake up at all levels of management is surely required.

As for Will Still, well although I follow from afar and my health only allows me to watch on TV, I seriously wonder if he is the right man for the job. If you want to see what a good manager can do then just look at Lampard at  Coventry. Perhaps Still is too cerebral and not inspirational enough for this league.

Have Coventry more money than us, have they got the parachute payments, yet they looked very good at the end of last season. The contribution the right manager can make is intangible, but remember when we found Pochetino,  

Our league position is dire however you look at things.

[Saint_clark]

3 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

It seems obvious to me. If you play three Centre Backs then you're going to be light in midfield. The three don't make us any stronger,  they just get in each other's way and leave responsibility to each other and because we're light in midfield they have nobody to pass the ball to.

Well I'll be honest I didn't see any evidence of any of that. There was plenty of passing from the backline forwards, including to Charles, Jander, Scienza and Armstrong who were all very mobile making themselves available for the ball.

The mistakes that were made weren't the result of getting in each others way or not taking responsibility, it was individual mistakes. Poor control from Wood for the first, on McCarthy for the 2nd for assuming it was going wide then shitting himself when the ball rebounded to him, and then a poor pass from Jander without looking which went straight to a City player. 

[FredVaFC59100]

4 hours ago, Mboto Gorge said:

 

 

As a club we are so unprofessional it’s untrue and that starts from the top. I’ve said it for over a year now, until these owners leave we are absolutely screwed, we will be in league one soon , you can absolutely guarantee that, if this lot stay in charge another couple of seasons. 
you won’t find more clueless owners anywhere in Europe. 

Yes Sir!, There is another club even more mismanaged in Europe, it's Valenciennes FC!

Oh, wait...

[Convict Colony]

Not being able to score when we have great chances is costing us.

Last game defence played well, this game not so well but the lack of goals is not putting the other teams under pressure giving them the freedom to attack without consequence.

Archer isnt doing anything in the games and i dont think we would lose anything if we gave downs the same run given neither of them currently inspire confidence but i would hope downs can improve.

Also i didnt see many complaining about the formation when it was announced.

Anyway will get rid of this result the usual way.

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:49 by Convict Colony

[DT]

On 20/10/2025 at 08:59, DT said:

More shit tactics and uninspiring leadership mixed with inept strikers, an overly defensive set up and a bunch of individuals who are not gelling or give any evidence of believing in what the coach has to say/dreaming of being at other clubs, soundly beaten by a team who play together and will slice us apart with enthusiasm if not skill. 3-0

Almost bang on. Our play is so loose and flabby, unstructured. We are being managed by a sham coach. This is not a computer game. Get rid, and take Ankersen with you, the real problem in the club. 

[lambtiss]

10 hours ago, Farmer Saint said:

If only we had Kieffer Moore eh? 🤣🤣🤣

Or Sargent, or Morris, or Kone, or  McBurnie or kept Onuachu ....

.. But then none of these would have met the main criteria ...

 .. Potential resale value. Downs met this criterion but is inferior as a striker to all of these and probably most, if not all, central strikers in this league.

Edited Wednesday at 07:52 by lambtiss

[Convict Colony]

honest question are we able to still loan a forward ?

[Pamplemousse]

1 minute ago, Convict Colony said:

honest question are we able to still loan a forward ?

In January we can

[AlexLaw76]

8 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

honest question are we able to still loan a forward ?

We can sign a free agent now 

[AlexLaw76]

Oddly, we looked terrible with their 3rd gear press

 

[obelisk]

Haven't the players been told that there's to be no more easy passing along the back line? It just invites a press from opponents who know there's a loose blind pass inside coming at some point and all they have to do is wait for it to arrive. I don't think THB looked forward all game.

Saints look much more dangerous when the ball is slotted through the lines or over the top for pacemen to run on to. Dangerous until it comes to putting the thing in the net that is but at least the ball would be in the right areas and maybe it'll slice off a Saints player's backside and into the net one day.

[JohnS]

Predictable performance/result 😔

Every opposition manager must just say - stay patient, they’ll have lots of possession, which will be no threat.

Punish their mistakes & have faith, they will make many, they will fall apart, we are much stronger

We are no easy fix, major change needed

If there is any truth in that we could add a Free agent squad member right now then the whole club should be working every hour under the Sun to sort this now for a big strong awkward centre forward to hold the ball up 

Armstrong & Archer are no real threat & very easily controlled in the main

We need more urgency & much more directness through the middle rather than always passing out wide ending in nothing 

so bloody frustrating 

[Give it to Ron]

1 minute ago, JohnS said:

Predictable performance/result 😔

Every opposition manager must just say - stay patient, they’ll have lots of possession, which will be no threat.

Punish their mistakes & have faith, they will make many, they will fall apart, we are much stronger

We are no easy fix, major change needed

If there is any truth in that we could add a Free agent squad member right now then the whole club should be working every hour under the Sun to sort this now for a big strong awkward centre forward to hold the ball up 

Armstrong & Archer are no real threat & very easily controlled in the main

We need more urgency & much more directness through the middle rather than always passing out wide ending in nothing 

so bloody frustrating 

We had 75% possession early and 1 scuffed shot to show for it.

[benali-shorts]

Still's job is to get the best out of the best players in the squad. Azaz Fellows Robinson and Scienza are our best attacking players, but only one starting is a terrible indictment on the manager. 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

9 hours ago, Pamplemousse said:

Utterly depressing.

We won't go down but we need another clear out in the summer, we have zero chance of promotion. It's pretty obvious to everyone who wants to fight and who the losers are. Scienza, Charles, Armstrong, build a team around them.

Sack the manager by all means, and he isn't blameless, but we have too many losers and nobody could get a tune out of them even with the perfect gameplan. He isn't the biggest issue.

Half of them didn't even bother coming over to the fans after the game, too scared to face the music. Still was the only one who did.

Haven't gone back more than a couple of pages on this thread so it might have been mentioned before but where we were in the ground people reckoned they could see Ralph Hassenhutl at the game...

Like you say Pamplemousse, we can change the manager but the buck doesn't stop with him. I just can't see why we aren't more positive and more direct. It's not just our club but teams have got to work out ways to break down these teams that park the proverbial bus. Run at them. One touch passes. Speed up play.

[macca155]

5 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Well I'll be honest I didn't see any evidence of any of that. There was plenty of passing from the backline forwards, including to Charles, Jander, Scienza and Armstrong who were all very mobile making themselves available for the ball.

The mistakes that were made weren't the result of getting in each others way or not taking responsibility, it was individual mistakes. Poor control from Wood for the first, on McCarthy for the 2nd for assuming it was going wide then shitting himself when the ball rebounded to him, and then a poor pass from Jander without looking which went straight to a City player. 

They were targetting Frazer and Edwards right from the start, and overwhelming the midfield. They had done their homework.

Wood, THB, and Edwards were trying to plug the gaps by pushing forward. It worked for 20 minutes but City adapted, mistakes set in and they took advantage.

They'll always be mistimed tackles and passes in football, City had a fair few themselves. Playing two in midfield just means there is less cover when needed.

I should have gone to Aldershot to see the U21s. A better game,and saved myself the emotional trauma and expense.

[Challenger]

Absolutely nothing learnt from last season. We still have a punchless attack, a porous defence, brittle/weak players, ineffective manager and apathy,naivity and denial runs through the entire club.

[die Mannyschaft]

8 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Absolutely nothing learnt from last season. We still have a punchless attack, a porous defence, brittle/weak players, ineffective manager and apathy,naivity and denial runs through the entire club.

Exactly, easily summarised so why can the club see that. Or don't they watch the reviews , PowerPoint,  read the data stats. File Save As managers trying to emulate Russell Martin. 

[lambtiss]

10 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Who are the losers who started tonight?

Archer?

The fans, especially those who travelled to the match

[badgerx16]

One thing for sure, nobody could accuse Saints fans of being glory supporters.

[stfrancisofbenali]

10 hours ago, saintant said:

Did they fuck - we gifted them 3 goals and that's the only reason they won this game.

Why did we concede possession for their goals? Because they pressed us high and knew that we would shit ourselves. Their game plan worked and with limited resources, they were far more streetwise, despite the fact we dominated possession. If you can’t see that, you don’t understand football. 

[Sunnyside Saint]

It's baffling, new manager, new coaches, a whole bunch of new players but the same old failings are apparent, mentally weak, passive, reactionary, error-prone, careless, lack of confidence I could go on. Surely the new recruits didn't bring this baggage with them so how have these traits permeated into all them so quickly, and from where is it coming?

[DT]

Get this shit manager out before it's too late. He seems bamboozled by the play actually going on in front of him as it differs from his computer algorithms. Can't react. So just shoves three subs on and hopes it works. Zero personality. No charisma. Struggles with selections and formations. Apart from that he's great. Another shit appointment from the sham-meisters in charge. No, we are not Brentford getting lucky with Thomas Frank.

And get experience in - including in the playing staff.

[Window Cleaner]

32 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Absolutely nothing learnt from last season. We still have a punchless attack, a porous defence, brittle/weak players, ineffective manager and apathy,naivity and denial runs through the entire club.

So, business as usual then!  I actually saw the game yesterday, bit of a rarety nowadays, it was on BeIn.

We did pretty well early on and then City started pressuring us. The rest is history. Bristol defend pretty well and their numbers 10 and 11 are pretty handy.

Got the impression that Still doesn't know what to do with the players that he has. Doesn't surprise me, saw his Reims side at Clermont once, two Japanese wingers that he just had to point in the right direction, but it was pretty good stuff really. Saw his Lens side as well, wasn't pulling up any trees there really. I'd say that him getting his coaching certificate changed his style of play, didn't have it at Reims, they got fined 25000 euros a match for it.

[stfrancisofbenali]

The lack of resilience in our squad is astounding. For me that comes with recruiting two or three ugly, older, experienced players who don’t mind getting a bit gobby so that the younger ‘talent’ can learn from them. EG: Connor Cody, Viktor Johannsen, Ollie McBurnie types. We have spectacularly failed in the balance of the squad assuming that recruiting potential will be enough. 

[Gary R76]

10 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Who are the losers who started tonight?

Archer?

Fraser , nice guy but inept performances

[Saint_clark]

55 minutes ago, macca155 said:

They were targetting Frazer and Edwards right from the start, and overwhelming the midfield. They had done their homework.

Wood, THB, and Edwards were trying to plug the gaps by pushing forward. It worked for 20 minutes but City adapted, mistakes set in and they took advantage.

They'll always be mistimed tackles and passes in football, City had a fair few themselves. Playing two in midfield just means there is less cover when needed.

I should have gone to Aldershot to see the U21s. A better game,and saved myself the emotional trauma and expense.

They were overwhelming the midfield from the start!? After half an hour they put up the stats that only 10% of the play had occurred in the final third near our goal and we'd had 75% of possession. 

They played on the counter attack and it worked, fair play to them, but at no point were they overwhelming our midfield. They bypassed it.