TheBrownBottle

Red top white shorts from memory - stripes came a short while later. we did though wear blue shorts for a long time …

West End went pop. East End just occupied their old ground (not sure if Chilly Road also had an infamously sloping pitch mind!)

It’s clearly 1881, though it isn’t anything to get hung about. Off the top of my head, we are though the only club I can think of where a name change is seen as the birth of the club - Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Sheff Wed, Everton etc etc don’t.

Yep. But his debut was vs Chelsea - and it was one of the most impressive debuts SJP would have seen in my lifetime.

You always hope for a Woodgate-esque home debut, but that’s a massive ask. Thought Botman looked ok-ish today; he needs to get used to the pace and reduced available reaction-time in games. He’s a baby in CB years, I’ve no doubt he’ll learn and get better and better

Yep, we’d finished 11th the previous year too - like we did last season - and finished 4th that season And that’s the last time I’m putting ‘4th’ into a sentence with us in it, it’s only August, don’t want to get too carried away

He’s a phenomenal footballer, he plays like he already knows what’s going to happen

Some performance that. Says it all that there’s a tiny bit of disappointment at a draw! Fair result on balance of play in fairness.

Nick Pope is class mind

It’s a definite booking. Never a red

This ref is fucking unreal. Thank Christ for VAR

Baals. Looking leggy now. Still a great performance

Whatever happens 2nd half, I fucking loved that first 45. Felt like a glimpse of the future.

Fukkin yereees

And stick that up yer bollocks Grealish

Always said Almiron was a class finisher …

Almiron can’t finish for toffee kind. Desperately need a RW

You’d best hope that Haaland isn’t all in proportion …

Scariest part of our bench is 12 months ago that was a sizeable chunk of our starting XI

Targett still has a dead leg, then. I think Fraser is out after a wedgie, too.

How much did they want for Harrison again?

I’d actually forgotten that football was meant to be fun!

Steve Bruce’s prematch comments upset the support again

The worst thing about games vs Man City these days is all the way up to their first goal there is an evil little bastard at the back of my mind telling me we’ll nick something. The difference this season is that we can brush any of these reverses off, as there is a positive vibe around the club again. Hope is a good thing, even when it tricks your brain into thinking ‘today’s the day’

Chelsea falling to bits