ToBW

[the other bob wilson]

Reminds me of the character in Dream Academys Life in a Northern Town.
"He sat on the stoney ground, and he took a cigarette out, and everyone else, came round, to listen".
Whilst I enjoy most of his blogs, the majority of responses from fellow posters, seem almost "desciple' like.
The latest one didn't strike any chords with me.
A fighting performance against a piss poor Villa side, is not gonna get my juices flowing.
His references about Malky, and the so called gory days, with just a fleeting reference of the dates, and no mention of Jones seems typical.
We played some of the best football ever seen from a City team under DJ, and were a whisker away from winning the FA cup, and promotion to the premier league, with a lesser budget, and IN BLUE.
I do like most of Bobs Write ups and blogs, but this one seems as premature as a schoolboy looking through the window of a strip club.

Your reaction to someone who disagreed with you is that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I'll say the same to you - I was aware of the possibility that it could look as if I was jumping to conclusions too early, so covered myself, or thought I did, with the use of the word "seem" in the title of the piece and with the analogy that a frost could still kill off those "green shoots of recovery" I mentioned. Still, if you disagree with me, then fine - unlike some I can think of, all comments really are welcome.

That said, I can't help thinking that you misunderstood my intention in using Malky Mackay's 2011/12 team as a foundation to build the piece on. Any notion that I was intending to be critical of Dave Jones somehow exists in your head rather than mine - that was never the reasoning behind what I wrote. My point was that five years ago to the day since the Villa match there was an occasion when the club we support felt like "our Cardiff City" and there were a few more before the end of the 11/12 season when it felt like that. Since then though there have been a series of events, starting with the rebrand, which have dictated that it has barely ever felt like "our Cardiff City".

Recent home matches have seen an increase in excitement and entertainment and, for me, the atmosphere has improved in proportion to this. So many people and players have come and gone from the club in the last few years who never got to see what I'd call a genuine City atmosphere was like, but, if Monday does turn out to be Bruno Manga's last match for us, at least he can leave now having experienced what it feels like on occasions when it is "our Cardiff City" performing out there on the pitch.

One last thing regarding Dave Jones. I feel that Neil Warnock and Malky Mackay possess a degree of charisma that Dave Jones doesn't, but you will see that I said

"So, as I've mentioned in one or two earlier pieces, home matches have become more enjoyable under Neil Warnock, but, five years to the day since that Reading game I mentioned at the start and with Joe Ralls again to the fore, the beating of this expensively assembled Villa team moved things on to a different level - this was what supporting Cardiff City used to feel like on one of those very good days that we had become used to experiencing on a fairly regular basis between the years of 2000 to 2012."

in my piece, the date range I mentioned covered the whole of the period when Dave Jones was manager. There were plenty of occasions during Dave Jones' time in charge when it felt like "our Cardiff City" - I'm just so pleased that it's beginning to feel like that again under Neil Warnock, because it never did under Ole, Russell Slade or Paul Trollope.