All the debate from Ashton Gate - and elsewhere
DESPITE Bristol City being outplayed by a classy Reading side at Ashton Gate the Saturday before last, the crowd, to their credit, stuck behind the team – except when Lee Johnson was substituted.
He was subjected to some cruel jeering from the home fans. I can only imagine the type of conversation that may have gone on between a couple of mates watching the game and their totally different takes on it.
Billy Shortmemory: "I don't believe it! He's taking his boy off at last! I'll give a cheer to that one!
Ashton Alf: "Billy, it's hardly going to help jeering our own player!"
Billy Shortmemory: "Well, he's been awful today and for that matter, most of the season!"
Ashton Alf: "No worse than the other 10 today! Let's face it, we have been outclassed."
Billy Shortmemory: "Yeh, but Gary never subs his son and it's well overdue!"
Ashton Alf: "But is that Lee's fault?"
Billy Shortmemory: "Well, he's just rubbish and just not up to this division – he shouldn't be in the side."
Ashton Alf: "But isn't his selection down to Gary; I can't hear anyone jeering Gary, but they wouldn't would they, because they remember where we were when he took over! Thinking about it, hasn't Lee played in most of the games throughout our success."
Billy Shortmemory: "I suppose you could have a point there, I've never thought of it like that!"
Ashton Alf: "How must Gary feel when his son is jeered like that by our own fans. After all, it was Gary who brought Lee to club and Gary who selects the side each week. Do you think it could cause Gary to consider his future at the Gate if those fans continue to react like that?"
Billy Shortmemory: "Hmm! We certainly don't want to lose Gary, do we?"
Ashton Alf: "Exactly!"
Alan Payne
Chepstow Park
Downend
City have lots to put right
I WRITE as a committed Gary Johnson fan, but feel moved to comment after the Reading debacle.
This ranked alongside the dreadful first half against Plymouth as a low point of the season.
We lack goals for sure, but we need to look beyond the strikers for some reasons. We have no width, and for all their speed, Michael McIndoe and Ivan Sproule do not have the ability to get past a defender with the ball to feed the strikers. Sproule is, at best, a final 10-minute impact player.
Lee Johnson has been good for the team, but needs Gavin Williams or David Noble to complete the midfield with Elliott as ball winner.
If you rest Lee Johnson, it has to be Williams and Noble with Elliott.
Brian Wilson deserves a run of games at right-back. He defends capably and can also overlap well.
Hopefully Louis Carey will be fit soon, but the Reading game apart, Jamie McCombe and Liam Fontaine have done well.
We don't get the best out of Lee Trundle. It's pointless placing him on the right wing where he always needs to stop and cut inside. Give him a left-side berth at McIndoe's expense. What he lacks in speed, he compensates with guile and can provide good crosses from the wing.
Finally, the strikers – Dele Adebola, despite poor ball control, has been good for the team and for the short-term at least should still play a part. Stern John is an excellent acquisition and after the Southampton game looks to be Dele's obvious partner. John Akinde is a good prospect, and we may yet see the best from Nicky Maynard with an improved supply.
Ian McLeish
via email
Nicky needs better service
I would like to respond to comments in the Evening Post regarding Gary Johnson's appeal for Bristol City fans to back the team.
I make the following points:
Why did the manager throughout the second half against Reading stand motionless in his technical area? There was no encouragement, passion or anger shown at any time. What example was that to fans and players alike?
After the final whistle, he shook hands with opposing team officials and match officials but did not speak to a City player while still on the field.
Why pay £2 million-plus for a young, slightly-built striker (Nicky Maynard) and then give him no service that he can feed from? He will only be effective if playing in front of footballers with skill and vision – in this category we have David Noble and Lee Trundle, both of whom have footballing brains.
Forget two wide men, Ivan Sproule and Michael McIndoe do not have the ability to get to the by-line and cross a quality ball. I would describe McIndoe as busy but ineffective, Sproule just not up to this level.
City's midfield is being overrun. Lee Johnson gets a lot of criticism but is trying to do too much. We should be playing Johnson and Marvin Elliot, plus one other (Gavin Williams or Cole Skuse or a new signing) plus Noble in the hole behind Maynard and Stern John or Dele Adebola.
The manager could then use his full-backs as overlapping attackers. Only then will we see the best of Maynard. He needs balls at his feet and in front of him. He will never be effective trying to win high balls with his back to the goal.
I remain a committed supporter of over 50 years. But if I and many others can see the problems, why can the manager not see them?
Tony Williams
Via e-mail
JED SAYS: I was expecting a few letters regarding Bristol City after what was a pretty abysmal performance against Reading. Firstly, the game should be put into perspective. Reading looked like a good team to me and it is very rare that City play that badly. Only Stern John could hold his head up high and some, including Lee Johnson, had games they would never want to repeat. Lee looked jaded after a lot of football and it looks like he needs a rest, but he was by no means the only one. Gary may have just wanted to get off the pitch. He certainly spoke to his players afterwards and kept the press waiting a long time, which is unlike him. I agree with the thoughts on Lee Trundle. I don't understand the idea of sometimes playing one up front with Trundle on the right.
John deserved more respect
JOHN Thorne was a great servant to Bristol Rugby Club and Combination rugby, a man good enough to play for England, and many people will have been sad to hear of his death.
He deserved a far better tribute than the one observed at the Bristol versus Saracens game.
I cannot understand why the flags were not at half-mast, which is a traditional way to show respect.
Also, surely a minute's silence would have been appropriate, particularly with the game falling so close to Remembrance Day? This is, after all, the Memorial Stadium, a ground built in memory of rugby players from the Bristol area who died in World War I.
The new generation of rugby club officials seem to have forgotten this because a rather hysterical announcer, totally lacking the gravitas and tone of voice that this situation required, stated that a minute's applause would be observed. They even got this wrong because the applause only lasted for about 30 seconds before it was cut short.
John Thorne was also for many years the voice of Bristol Rugby Club, making the announcements over the tannoy at this ground.
Unfortunately, the club he served with such distinction failed to serve him appropriately on the day it mattered most. Shame on them.
Bill Kennedy
Downend
JED SAYS: Alas, I missed the game against Saracens so can only take your word on the announcer lacking gravitas. But, as a local man who was such a loyal player for club and country, the club should have ensured that there was no chance for criticism of the way they chose to commemorate and celebrate John.
Unfair criticism from City fans
I don't know if Andy Stockhausen (Evening Post's Bristol City reporter) has read the Bristol City fans forum, but recently there have been a lot of comments about him and his style of writing by some paranoid Bristol City fans.
I don't contribute to the forum but I like to read it because it is usually interesting and informed. I don't like some of the things that have been said about Andy. They say that he and the Evening Post in general are biased against Bristol City and that he is really a Rovers fan.
I just want to tell you that I have never noticed anything biased in his columns.
I have been following City since the 1960s and never thought that the Evening Post supports the blue side of the city any more than the red and is always well-balanced.
John Barry
Alveston
Bristol
JED SAYS: Any good, professional journalist will get criticism for bias in a city like Bristol where one newspaper serves two rival teams. Andy's job is not to be a spokesman for the club he covers nor is it to be a fan. He is there to do a job as a journalist. This will always upset some who hate to see what they perceive as 'outsiders' criticising their club. And, of course, Andy is not a Rovers supporter.
ECB must end Stanford fiasco
AS a die-hard cricket supporter, I am disgusted at the antics of the England and Wales Cricket Board for allowing the Stanford match fiasco in the Caribbean.
First, how was the team selected? Was it selected on the basis of previous performance or were they selected on the basis of the fact that they are an England XI that were sent out there to do the job for big bucks?
This is not what real cricket is all about. This has turned into a circus and is being financed by an American Allen Stanford, pictured, who has nothing better to do with his money than turn what is a beautiful game into a money-making farce.
I wonder if this Texan has ever played serious cricket. I doubt it. This is a sport, thank God, that is not all about money. You need the brain of a genius and articulate skills to play this game properly.
What angers me is that the ECB have signed up to a five-year deal, with all the pitfalls that go with that. No real cricket lover needs this circus and no real cricket lover wants it, so let's call the whole thing off and tell Sir Allan what to do with his money.
We don't want cricket to go the same way as football – what a shambles that is.
Dennis Betty
Bridgwater Road
Bristol
JED SAYS: It's a tough one this because it all depends on who you believe. I watched the shambolic $20 million match and Stanford spoke well about how this money would help rejuvenate West Indian cricket. He was right when he said that the West Indies used to be everybody's favourite second team because of the way they approached and played their cricket. If he can stop those in the Caribbean choosing the big bucks of basketball in favour of cricket then he has done an incredible job. If, on the other hand, this was a simple self-publicising episode from Stanford and a ridiculous attempt by the ECB to stop their players from playing in the IPL, it was a terrible thing to do and should never be repeated.
England stars can't kid us
WITH regards to the $20 million Stanford cricket match, I think that the brazen hypocrisy of the England players, as outlined in the statement from coach Peter Moores, is unbelievable.
Who do they think they are kidding?
Giles Clarke rightly makes the point that having missed out on the big money available at the Indian Premier League earlier this year, the ECB had no alternative but to allow their players the chance to earn major money – albeit in a tournament played under circus-like conditions and having no first-class, let alone international, cricketing status.
However, for those players (in the statement made by Moores) to question whether they were playing for England or for the money and that they had to "square it off in their heads" begs the question as to how much grey matter their heads contain! To go into a farcical game (you could not call it a match) against a team of self-styled 'superstars' to win, not a major or internationally recognised trophy, but a cash sum of $20m surely answers the question.
For Moores to then state that because the players had posed the question then "all credit to the lads ... what they wanted to do was to keep their integrity" begs the question: What integrity?
John Via email
JED SAYS: Nobody from the ECB nor the England side have come out with much credit after this. On the West Indian side you had a team which prepared for weeks like professional cricketers. I'm sure that money was on their minds but having trained so hard for one match, finishing the job off professionally was their aim. For England's players it was purely about the cash and the lack of professionalism they showed in the run-up to the game and during it was non-existent. But who can blame them? They never asked to go, to be part of the whole charade. They clearly were never told what to expect in Antigua and how this mini-tournament differed from all others. The players have a busy enough schedule and, these days, with central contracts, earn good many anyway. They should have been preparing properly for the tour of India.
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