High on hope, low on delivery. England are heading towards yet another heavy away Ashes defeat, with an overriding feeling of frustration and annoyance at what could have been. Despite a largely woeful winter, it doesn’t feel like they’ve been too far away from having a chance of claiming a rare victory, which makes the scale of the failure all the more galling. Mitchell Starc and Travis Head have been the huge difference makers and deserve to be joint Men of the Series. Steve Smith delivered in Sydney, whilst Alex Carey has proven himself to be the world’s best wicket-keeper. Other than that, there hasn’t been a lot to scare England. Major Australian absences opened the door. Starc, and more latterly Scott Boland, have dragged their attack through the series. Thirty years of worrying about Shane Warne and Nathan Lyon ended with a complete lack of spin option. Other than Head, Smith and Carey, no Aussie batter averaged over 28. Ultimately, though, it was a series defined by brainle...
The last couple of weeks has been quite a period in Bristol City’s long history. It’s been chaotic, troublesome and concerning. There’s been anger and abuse (more on that later), antipathy and arguments. And, as is the way with football, things tend to move very quickly. There is now more than a murmur of excitement (not quite full-blown, mind) and significant nodding of approval at the choice made by the club this week. In between all of this City won a game of football, albeit against a team bottom of the league playing with ten men for most of the match. But they won, and got three points and moved back into the top half of the table. Underperforming and not where the club wants to be…? Margins are fine, that’s for certain. So, what has been learned, with the announcement of Liam Manning as Head Coach on Tuesday and what myths do need to be busted? Firstly, the club communications are like Jekyll & Hyde. The engagement pieces, insight videos and some of the fun nonsense ...