Bristol City 0 Watford 0

Will someone please stop the ride. I want to get off.

"The fourth official has indicated there will be at least three minutes of added time."

For the love of god man, please, no.


I hope yesterday evening was simply the result of two teams so utterly scared of losing that they clammed up, bolted the doors shut and waited for the final whistle, because if this is the brand of football being served by the top teams in the Chamionship then the Premiership will be scrapping promotions and relegations from it's league very soon.

You get the impression that a lot of time and effort could have been saved had both teams walked out at 7.45, shook hands taken the point there and then, and sent all the supporters home before it started raining, again.

It wasn't completely turgid, indeeed for the first 20 minutes we did look like we wanted to go and win the game. We didn't really know how we wre going to win it, but at least we looked like we wanted to win. Collins John looked lively, but plainly no-one else was on his wavelength, and despite more possession and territory we'd barely created a real chance when Marvin Elliot forced two good saves from Richard Lee in the space of a few minutes. City's game plan it seemed, was to soak up the pressure and hope to take their chances.

Then with thoughts turning to a half-time Bovril, the game exploded, albeit briefly, into life. Big Doris used his immense strength to win a ball that was never his to win, slipped in my man of the match Tommy Smith who was clumsily brought down. The City fans were moaning, but no clearer a penalty will you ever see. Darius stepped up to take the penalty, seemed to wait to see if the keeper would make the first move and when Basso didn't budge he seemed to change his mind and delivered his shot at a nice height for the keeper down to his left.

Angry with himself for the miss Hendo took out his frustrations on Lee Johnson, the City manager's son. It was an ugly challenge and he was perhaps fortunate to stay on the pitch, then again Johnson himself was fortunate to stay on the pitch moments later when he delivered his own retribution with a very very late challenge on Danny Shittu. I suspect had half-time not saved them, this game would have shortly have seen at least one red card. Tensions were high, and this was not helping the football.

The awful weather got worse in the second half, and with the removal of John for Williamson ten minutes after the restart, Watford were closing up shop. From then on, we created very little as we concentrated on not making any mistakes at the back and lumping aimless balls forward. City though also failed to show any guile and the quality of football went from bad to down-right awful as the tension grew, the weather worsened and the both sides mentally settled for a point. The last 20 minutes was some of the worse football I've ever seen.

However, we so nearly nicked it in those three-minutes of stoppage time when JJO'T poked a shot wide in a scramble in the City box, and although it would have been so welcome, we didn't deserve it, and the game didn't deserve it.

I'd have taken a point before the game, so I suppose I shouldn't be disappointed, but I had hoped for so much more, both in points and football. Hopefully better conditions will assist the quality on Saturday, though I fear the tension might be just as bad.