"Mango's Mouth"

Friendly or not, Bristol City were OUTCLASSED from start to finish tonight by a slick Ajax side who not only wore their traditional red and white strip (City were in all-black), but whose style of play still echoes the great days of Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Dick van Dijk, Ruud Krol and Co from the great Ajax team of the early 1970s, which, of course, also led to Holland's "Total Football" from the mid-70s onwards.

My Dutch mate in Nijmegen told me recently that Ajax were "not the side they used to be", seeing as they only finished 3rd last season in the Eredivisie, which is like a national disaster to them. Not the side they used to be? JUST AS WELL THEN, otherwise it would easily have been double figures!!

Ajax, in all honesty, could and should have doubled their score as they ripped City's defence apart time and time again, like a knife through butter. Every time they attacked, they looked like scoring. If they'd won 10-0, you couldn't have complained. City rarely troubled the Dutch defence in the 90 minutes, and a couple of long-range shots was about the best they could come up with.

I didn't learn anything at all about any of the City players tonight, including the new ones, apart from the fact that the new keeper from Colchester, Gerken (??) can't kick a ball for toffee!

Gary Johnson warned in the programme about City trying to make sure that Ajax didn't keep possession all the time. One series of moves in the 2nd half led to around 40 passes without a City player getting anywhere near the ball. The goals were all well-taken, with the 3rd one, a chip from 35 yards, being the best of the lot.

Of course, countless substitutions in the 2nd half took their toll on the game (City made 6 in one go at one point), but it didn't seem to matter to Ajax because you didn't notice any difference at all in their play when they made their changes. Whoever wore the red and white shirts was just as good as anyone they'd just replaced.

In the end, this was little more than a training game for the Dutch side. City will have learned something from the experience, and it was only a friendly after all, but this really was Men against Boys out there tonight!

The gate was just under 11,000 including around 100-150 Ajax fans who were well policed throughout the game. Very good crowd figure then.

I did also enjoy the "Come On You Reds" message being flashed up on the screen occasionally, seeing as the only team out there in red tonight were the mighty Ajax!!

Enjoyable evening though and a huge learning curve for Gary Johnson's team.

BUT WELL DONE SUPER AJAX !!!!!