As the ice and mist dispelled from Ashton Gate, Clough Jnr and his Derby boys were caught by a Bristol City side who off the back of Manager and Player of the month awards for Keith Millen and Steven Caulker respectively, put to bed the jinx with a convincing win. After a difficult start to our season, fans really have something to cheer about again. The signing of David James, under the managership of Steve Coppell we assumed the 10/1 odds at the start of the season was a good shout for a flutter. How quickly things change?

Keith Millen was appointed, who after his performances near the end of last season, many feel should have been a shoe in for manager once the season started. This was not to be, and by default he is now in the hot seat. It hasn’t been an easy ride . Poor showings in the cup once again have caught us, the need for a good run is essential. Hopefully the FA Cup will give us our tradition back? It frustrates me when managers claim not to be bothered by cup runs. As we proved 3 years ago on our promotion from the Championship, it was coupled with a convincing and exciting game with a then Premiership side Middlesborough. We matched them over two legs and despite losing in the second leg on penalties, the games gave us pride and revenue which was essential in keeping the club strong.

Our first year in the Championship was one to remember. 2nd place in the league, with games to spare gave us hope. Thrilling games against Crystal Palace got us to the final. But unfortunately, as had happened 3 years before in Cardiff, we lost a play off final to Hull, and lost our place in the Premiership.

We meet that Hull side tomorrow. With only two players remaining from that fateful Summer day they may have something to prove against a much changed Hull side. I hold no grudges. On the day, they were the better side. Dean Windass came back to haunt us on  the day, but most City fans admire the effort which Hull City put in, during the first year of their time in the top tier. We are missing influential players such as Carey, but Christian Riberio is a star for the future, and as such will make the right back position his own. With Jon Stead, an absolute steal, and Brett Pitman on fire, we have an enviable forward line. This with Nicky Maynard, biased I know, but the best striker in the Championship and Danny Haynes on the bench; our attacking prowess is strong. With Steven Caulker and Danny Rose, we have future England internationals on our books till the end of the season.

Are things looking up? Damn right they are. Christmas may have come early for the boys in Red. Don’t underestimate us, we have are sights on the top half of the table, and with Maynard back in January we could well be looking at another date this summer. We have been in the play offs every 3 years, why not again?

lots of grand rhetoric floating around as you’d expect when trying to gain support for a new stadium. Talk of a £30 million cost for a stadium capacity of 30,000 that could be increased to 40,000+ if needed. This increase could be if when City reach the premiership or also if England win the right to host the world cup in 2018 (or 2022). Apparently it will be funded by the selling of Ashton Gate (probably to create housing), funds of the club and the good Mr.Lansdown himself, corporate boxes and (the inevitable sore point) selling of the stadium naming rights.

the wierd digital video of the intended design really does not tell us that much, and to be honest looks like if Sims released a Bristol city expansion pack (i’m trademarking this idea as we speak).

well then- mighty big talk and impressive designs, but behind all the glitz ‘n’ glamour how do the fans really feel about it?

new modern stadiums seem to be increasingly unpopular, with their Ikea indentical look and feel, accused lack of atmosphere and sponsored names, but logically it may be what city need. with city now a solid championship team the stadium may be needed to help them make that jump up to being a top flight team. Bristolians often get told how Bristol is a city that could support a Premiership team and this stadium can go a step towards this. as Steve Lansdown points out this new stadium could be a real central part of in the future of bristol and the west.

your thoughts? a step ahead reflecting city’s growing status, or a money-hungry move to a heartless and characterless new stadium (cough** Emirates** cough)?

one thing we can all agree on, if the naming rights are to be sold, I hope Blackthorn are first in the queue.

Always Believe

the glorious 2-0 victory away at reading. good goals, clean sheet, against a team we will be competing for places against, good support (4,500 apparently). what a great game. reading did test us at times, but that’s to be expected they have quite a threatening offensive line-up including former City boy Lita, but Basso and the defence were more than up to the challenge, to make it 8 wins in 10 and 4th place. It’s close behind us with Ipswich in 10th only 3 points behind + theres some teams with games in hand over us, notably the welsh scum Cardiff, but with our momentum its looking more and more hopeful we will still be sitting in the top 6 come the end of the season.

special mention must also go to big del. adebola appears to be under going some kind of indian summer with city this season. that’s not to imply he ever really fell away, but last season and the start of this he was a solid, but peripheral figure. now with another goal on saturday taking him to 9 in league (alongside maynard) he really appears to be the talisman of our recent form.

In other news it appears word of the mighty City is spreading far and wide . perhaps a future link-up with city and steua is in the pipe-line.

until next time
Always Believe. or for Mihay 007
Întotdeauna cred

as for the game- well last week i said things such as

“wining is winning regardless of how hard fought, refereeing decision or penalties. and right now city just keep on winning
it may be more of the same for city but while we’re winning i’ll be very happy with that”

And that’s pretty much what I got. It was indeed another hard fought and close match with a team we would hope, and probably expect to beat. And again we struggled to stay consistent from start to finish. And yet again, we have the 3 points. Delicious.

Match reports from City + BBC(nice chat with Johnson on the audio of this one thats worth a listen)

I was going to mention that how troublesome our upcoming fixtures appear, and to not get to carried away, but now is clearly not the time for. Things are going too damm well right now.

Until next time
Always Believe

hell why end there if this form continues Villa may not be the only team troubling the big 4 next year. with big del upfront and our own holy goalie then the premiership will soon be ours. you heard it hear first folks.

back to earth for a moment. another win, another hard fought 3 points, another bitter opponent left balming the ref, now 8th in the league, and 4th consectuive win (!!!). goals from Cole Skuse on 14, and then a penalty won by Dele and converted by Orr just before the break.

hang on a minute- hard fought win, 2-1 scoreline, Cureton being shit. ahh yes all things i predicted pre-game. although i was wrong about maynard starting and goalscorers. Skuse hobbled off shortly after his goal but apparently he should be fit again soon.

all is well for the Robins.
well almost, it would be a tad boring of a post if i just kept singing city’s praises so for the sake of balance –> again not a stunning performance and again conceeding. it was a close game and we did benefit from some fine refereeing, the sending off and penalty really did put and end to norwich’s challenge and from then city looked content to take the 2-1.

but then agian so what? wining is winning regardless of how hard fought, refereeing decision or penalties. and right now city just keep on winning
it may be more of the same for city but while we’re winning i’ll be very happy with that. bring on the Southampton.

(apologies for general scruffiness and spelling,grammar etc in this post. doing this in my hour break between seminars, in case your interested i have the ‘regional intergration of south east asia’ in 5 mins.)

Remember- Always Believe

Nicky Maynard and Sproule are both back and in the squad, and according to Gary Johnson will probably play some role in todays game, but doubt either will be starting. also boom boom McCombe and Elliot are both out, while McAllister serves a ban

We’re playing Norwich at a horrible time, when they’re still low enough down the league to expect a victory, but also at a time when they’re just starting to hit some form of their own with their recent 3-3 draw with Wolves + they’re still battling to pull free of the relegation zone. could be a tougher match than the league table indicates.

what would we like to see from todays game, well a win oviously but also a constitent performance for 90 mins, some solid defence, and a comedy miss and all round terrible performance from Jamie Cureton (no worries on this one). The form table doesnt really show how many of City’s recent results have been close run things and a bit of constitency in today’s game would be a good sign that city’s form is not just a run of luck.

Prediction- in all honesty could see this being a 1-1 draw, but my official positive prediction will be 2-1 City, Maynard coming on a getting a late-ish winner.

Welcome to the glorious rebirth of the Bristol City FC offside. A team of Bristol City’s quality and heritage really needed a voice on the offside and i will try to be that voice for you. I wont bore you with too much talk of myself, but your key info is Im David, aged 21, a student/barman/alcoholic and have been in bristol 3ish years now and following City since then, and a lover of football since time immemorial.

and luckily we are able to start this new blogging life together in happy moods, as City beat Charlton 2-1 at Ashton gate on tueaday evening.

match report from the bbc can be found here, here and the official city write-up here

it was a match that the fans can take many positives and negatives from. Negatives- It was a poor (at times just plain lazy) performance in the first half, charlton were (and still are) bottom and we were at home so it was an expected victory, and we conceeded against a team hardly prolific thus far this season. However Positives- a win is a win, form- that’s now 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss in the last 6 games, coming from behind for the win for the first time this season, a brace for big dele which can only help his confidence, and now up to tenth and looking up.
its true this was a weak performance against a bottom of the table team but with the team on the rise i feel we have some room for some positive feeling, think 5 games ago we were looking nervously at the bottom places in the table, now we are looking at the top. a place were city belong.
until next time remember

always believe

Where did City’s form go for most of the run-in? Over the two matches Bristol played some great football and fully deserved their two wins. It’s great to be heading to Wembley but I can’t help feel if City had found their form earlier we’d be going up automatically in place of Stoke. But let’s not dwell on the negatives, City are in the final!

The team need to listen to me more! Was anyone else shouting at the TV, urging McIndoe and co to take a few shots from around the penalty area rather than try and play their way through the defence? When they finally did, Trundle grabbed a lead from which their was no way back for the Eagles.

Hull are going to be tough in the final. They’re in form and have the necessary experience from the likes of Barmby. Any team that beats Watford 6 v 1 over two legs are going to be a challenge but if the lads play the way they did against Palace then there’s no reason we can’t go up.

Why have I not appreciated McAllister more? I thought the defender was possibly our best player over the two legs. He slips under the radar but he was at the heart of much of the excellent defensive work upon which our victory was built.

City triumphed against a poor Palace side in the first leg of the play-off semi final. Bristol travelled to Selhurst Park and took the lead after a lovely worked free-kick leading to a gorgeous strike form Carey. Despite at times playing against what seemed like 12 men with the referee seemingly oblivious to the dirty tricks that are a hallmark of the Eagle’s game (seriously are referees kept in a dark room between matches, how could he not know and be alert to this?), Bristol showed immense strength to come back after losing the lead through a wrongly awarded penalty given probably because the ball went into the City area. Noble hitting a sweet strike in the Palace net to give Bristol a strong advantage into the second leg at Ashton Gate.