The Exiled Robin

HELP GET BRISTOL CITY TOP #FANPOWERSTADIUM UPDATE  UPDATE UPDATE Keep going - we're still in the top three so CAN WIN THIS!! OK, so this nPower competition seems to have some traction and I've spent the last couple of days on Twitter doing my best to galvanise and get people tweeting.  This seems to have helped us rise from 5th to 3rd in the league standings but a number of people still don't seem to know much about what it all is, so I thought I'd explain, along with links to all the relevant bits -  THERE IS SOME REALLY REALLY  CRITICAL SIGN UP INFORMATION. nPower are running the competition, and the idea is to reward the winning club with upto £30,000. Details from City's offical site here: http://www.bcfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10327~2693634,00.html There are two ways to win money: Firstly (for £10,000): 'Grab a Seat' via Facebook and get everyone you know to do the same.  First club to 'fill' their stadium wins Secondly (for...

Amidst an ever-foreboding aura of gloom and despair surrounding Ashton Gate, Thursday evening’s creaking shut of the loan transfer window proved considerably more exciting from a Bristol City point of view than the permanent equivalent in January.   True, we didn’t have our top scorer and main headline-grabber leaving us for a couple of million quid, but that was all a bit of an anti-climax anyway for us in the West Country. This time, taking prominence instead of Maynard’s departure was the arrival of three players in a move that looks certain to be boss Derek McInnes’ final gamble.   With an incessant series of injuries and suspensions in defence – which will be exacerbated again following the credible point at Middlesbrough being earned despite McGivern’s sending off – contributing to a run of form as bad as many can remember, this could be seen as the tough Paisley-man’s equivalent of putting the house on black (or red, for City of course). A more in-depth analysis ...

As an exclusive for my column on social media in football for Bristol City matchday programme ‘Red Alert’ , I recently asked for and got the opportunity to interview Commercial Director Kevin Smith. What followed was an enjoyable and informative hour on topics ranging from cider to Twitter, and Wembley to ticket pricing. The surroundings are not as glamorous as you might expect for the Commercial Director of a Championship football club. Standing outside the main entrance of the club on my arrival, I was surprised by a tap on the shoulder from behind me and even more so when I was led to the portacabin in permanent situ across the staff car-park. This is the man responsible for generating every penny of revenue for the football club (excluding transfer fees), yet at the back of a compact but bustling commercial headquarters is Kevin Smith’s working home, an office barely bigger than a dugout, but serving its purpose as he surveys the desks and telephones of a busy team of...

Bearing in mind I’ve just returned home to my CF post-code after watching three City players put the ball in the net in the Severnside derby, yet am still facing work on Monday morning after a 2-1 defeat, this is one of those nights where the feeling of a need to write overwhelms. However, I feel my words may be tainted by disappointment – with the result, with the way luck seemed to fall, with some of the decisions made by the apparently top-class officials and most certainly with some of the so-called City fans who have decided to react to their own frustration already, via twitter, in abusing one of our players.   I also figured most from the West Country who’ll read this will have already been poring over the forums and Twitter and have a gist of the outlook of their companion fans. So, instead here’s something a bit different.   Seeing as I’m based t’other side of the bridge and take a higher-than-average interest in the goings-on in the nation’s capital, I follow a h...