Most liked posts in thread: Time to be positive

'Nowhere near good enough to cement top 3' @Tolly856 ? How do you explain us being level on points with 3rd then?

@Rcbantam You know what also puts fans off - constant negativity, its draining. Football might not be the prettiest but you have to recognise how far we have come in a short space of time. Anyone remember Parkinsons first season? In fact, take the cup runs out of it I dont think the football was any better than what we are seeing now. Anyone remember Jurgen Klopps first year at Liverpool? He got a lot of unfair criticism but the fans gave him time and look where they are now.

Bowyer is absolutely the man to take us forward, call me a 'happy clapper', I dont care, - just bored of everyone elses negativity

 

Wow, red, upper case and now underlined as well. What have you got in store for us next, bigger font or are you going for italics?

 

This is very much how I'm feeling . As a ST holder I'll keep going to home games, whatever the results or quality of football. But my enthusiasm to go away has greatly diminished.
The Leyton Orient game really got to me. We played eight man defence against truly awful opposition - the worst defence and the poorest form team in the division at that point. We could have played for three hours and not scored. We had Connolly and Ismail on the bench and never brought them on, making like for like defensive midfield subs only. It was clear that Bowyer had settled for, and was happy with a point in a game that we could have been winning at a canter with the personnel available to us, even allowing for our injuries..
I've got time on my hands, money in my pocket and no young family commitments. But I really can't be arsed to make the away treks to watch the kind of crap we saw at Orient.
I'm not advocating sacking Bowyer - that would be stupid - and I accept that the only thing that really matters is getting promoted. I've no problem with us grinding out points at places like Swindon either - that's sensibly pragmatic. But setting up to stifle teams like Orient and Morecambe is making promotion harder for ourselves than it needs to be, in my view. We've dropped points that we were capable of getting without taking unnecessary risks, by being ridiculously ultra cautious against rank bad teams. I just hope those dropped points don't bite us on the bum at the season's end.
I live in hope that when Devitt, Donaldson and Pritchard are back that we'll see a bit more creativity from midfield and less hoofball to isolated strikers, whoever they are.

 

I'm happy with today's result and will openly admit getting out of the league is the be all and end all as far as I'm concerned.

 

All I keep reading is we are not good enough to go up and don’t deserve to be where we are....

we are over halfway into the season and the table doesn’t lie. Someone’s got to go up. Why not us?

 

I started to follow City in 1979 in the 4th div as it was then. Crowds were averaging around 3,000.

Now we are in the new 4th division with average crowds of 14,000.

Quite impressive really.

 

There is only one way we will increase season ticket sales next season is promotion

 

We all want entertaining football but right now it's the results which matter the most. Yes the pitch is very poor and the lack of funding into it is a clear indication the club just want promotion out of this division by any means. The money diverted from the pitch has gone into ensuring a competitive squad.

Injuries - and to an extent the pitch - have probably influenced the defensive approach Bowyer has taken. Once Donaldson in particular is back we might see a more attack minded city.

With regards to Doyle your argument is nonsense. You have the benefit of hindsight. Nobody knew Doyle would be as prolific at Swindon as he has been and the majority were calling for him to be shipped out any way. You also fail to recognise that his loan helped finance the aditional players Bowyer has brought in. We have a stronger and more rounded squad because of it.

 

Fans go through different stages of following City in their life, though I expect the club never leaves them.

When I was in my teens I would have never missed a home game. It was unthinkable, I’d have crawled over broken glass to watch us.

Even when moving away to uni I’d get the train home every week, even if it meant walking home by the time the return train had arrived and the last buses had stopped. Those were the days of Colin Todd, Gareth Edds, Robert Wolleaston and Luke Cornwall lol. Must have been mad (or sad!).

But then you grow up, have kids and suddenly it can become a bit of a hindrance going every weekend. Certainly no time for away games, but can justify home games with the mrs due to cost. Some weeks, just can’t be bothered now and don’t go religiously. That’s not due to Bowyer’s style (I like him and agree we need to prioritize results and promotion for us this year) but just just due to having a family and other stuff going on at weekends. I do most homes, but aren’t as enthusiastic as in the past.

As Faithful Bantam mentioned, Ifollow now opens up chances to watch without leaving the house though, which is often easier than swapping shifts and causing disruption when sometimes you’ve got conflicts with work.

I’m not there yet but I imagine by the time I’m in my 40’s the kids will drag me along to matches because they are in the ‘nothing else to worry about in life’ phase in their lives, as I was when Edinho and Steiner were the rage, and want to go every week. Then when they move away from home and I’m in my 50’s+ I expect I'll choose to go just because it will give me a break from the mrs lol.

 

We would've gone up that season if we had swapped hanson for wyke in the summer. As it was we went half a season without an adequate striker. That and if the linesman puts his flag up at Wembley.

Hypotheticals I know, but we came pretty damn close to success under Stuart, playing brilliant, entertaining football, with not the best of squads either in comparison to others in league 1 that year.

 

Reality is Bowyer will have been given a brief for this season will be promotion and for when we are taking to the field for the first game of the season in August it's a league 1 match and if it is nobody will care what happened this season. We are in a good position and if we can keep the home form going and use today to build on the away from an improve that then we at least have a very good chance of top 3.

 

You are a miserable sod. You and @Fordy117 should get a room.

Your posts all day/week/month have been really negative towards the team/club so why don't you stop being a die hard supporter and become a floater? That way it won't bother you so much.

 

It wouldn't be good if we all agreed, but maybe a bit of devilment going on here , the original poster got it bang on for me.

Years of chaos at the club, much of it sorted out now.
We have an experienced manager who has given us a great first half of the season.


Its stunning that people call for a manager to be sacked at this point. Who the hell cares if we are boring, its league 2, promotion is all that matters. Some people don't seem to be able to accept we are nothing. We have to scrap our way out of this league any means necessary.

We've had a period of injuries that have heavily influenced tactics;
Palmer, Akpan, Donaldson, Devitt, Gibson
Mccartan, Pritchard, Ismael, Cooke, Mellor/Henley

Our best 11 includes 5/6 of those players.

That's all first team players, and its multiple attackers. The 442 we started the season with doesn't work without Donaldson. And it doesn't work when wingers have kept picking up injuries.

Yet we still sit 4th, unbeaten in 8.

We are back to 4 at the back. Donaldson and Devitt are close to returning. Time to start being positive. Boring Bowyer in League One is better than the chaos of looking for another manager.

 

I'll start being positive when the football is positive. Feels like a real chore at the moment and the money I'm spending week to week on this shower of a manager really doesn't fill me with joy. I'm with @Faithful Bantam on their comments. I'd class myself as a 'die hard' probably go to 80% of the games but what I've seen over the last month or so I'm considering cutting down my games for the reset of the season. I spend a lot of time watching City and sacrifice quite a lot. To be bored stiff less after travelling the length of the country isn't on in my opinion and not fair on the fans who pay hard earned money to go watch and GB gives nothing in return. I understand some games we may have to dig in but I've seen nothing in this division to be scared of yet Bowyer is purposely restricting this side and wasting a great opportunity to win this league and let the good players we have express themselves and put teams to the sword.

 

Well put young man you are a shining light on our forum .
Yes it is time for us grumpy old men to be positve. As my mate Bob Dylan said The times they are a changing.
Onwards and Upwards.

 

Nope

 

Swindon are 11/8 to win league with Bet 365. We are 9/1. If Doyle comes home next week, after that result, that price discrepancy will look silly. Up the Bantams.

 

Bowyer is holding us back from walking this league. I think that's the frustration.

The team is capable of so much more. Look at Vaughan ffs. Isolated, goals dried up (pens aside). He got absolutely zero service today.

That said, he doesn't deserve sacking for his awful football. Results first...

 

A great upbeat post, though sadly the word ‘positive’ is not in many people’s vocabulary on here.

 

I wouldnt be so dismissive of so called fairweather fans Bronco. We have a fairly small group of 'die hard' fans who'll attend City games regardless of price, division, ownership, entertainment and prospects. Fair play to them. But I'd argue that we have a larger proportion of fanbase who attend based on a combination of life circumstances, price, value, entertainment, division and prospects etc. That floating fanbase is key to our future and is probably a better indicator of where we're at and going, as they're a more objective and selective fan base.