The Exiled Robin

My final article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert  for the 2011-2012 season, from the home game against Barnsley, on April 21st, that sealed our safety Having spent all season telling you all my views on social media, and in particular Twitter, I thought I’d hand this final page over to some of the #bristolcitytwitterfamily to tell you what they think.   I asked five questions and got nearly a hundred replies, thanks to all those that took the time and apologies if you haven’t had a mention. 1)       What’s the best thing about Twitter? One main themes came through on this one with the interaction with other City fans and fans of other clubs suggested by @Barnzy_BCFC , @kpcider , @AG_Gouldie , @JackCox83 and @Saxokid amongst others. The other key mentions included the speed of news breaking ( @McBCFC ) whilst two birds of a feather ( @Cucumber_Kid_71 & @Escobaraloplopp ) said they loved the ability to tweet whatev...

For the penultimate On the Social of the season - for the West Ham game on April 17th - I welcomed Bristol City's Head of Media, Adam Baker (@Bean_Head ), to the pages.   As one of the club’s key communicators the ever-growing role of social media has a constant impact on how the media team goes about their job, so I found out more: How has the ever-growing influence of Twitter affected the job of the media team? I think similarly to the times when internet forums came on the scene, it’s something we have to be aware of and monitor as best we can. That doesn’t mean sitting on Twitter 24/7, but equally if something’s happening it needs covering. Twitter is a great source of news, and therefore is somebody is reporting something about the club then it’s our job to be alert to that.   It’s often on Twitter where stories are broken these days, ahead of papers and websites. Could (and should) the club be doing more to embrace this new world? I think we were slow...

My article from Bristol City's matchday programme, Red Alert : Coventry, Easter Monday, April 9th Most Bristol City fans are probably now aware of the Fanpowerpromotion the Football League sponsors nPower are running, having featured regularly in the programme and on the club’s website.   What may have passed many by, as with many competitions these days, is that the only way in you can actually help is by signing up via Facebook . Essentially they are using the new social media channels to give them cheap information about potential new customers – let’s face it, they wouldn’t be spending money on prize-money or promoting it if there wasn’t something in it for them, and there are benefits galore in using these new channels. For sponsors, the opportunity to utilise their involvement with a competition such as the Football League which is mass-supported, has substantially improved in the past few years.   Think back 15 years – if an event was sponsored, how could ...

So that’s that.   The celebrations on the pitch at Ashton Gate were perhaps overdoing things but it was a marked measure of just how tough a season this has been and just how close Bristol City had come to being relegated back to League One. The most pertinent moment came when the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner – created for that gloriously sunny afternoon against Rotherham five years ago when David Noble and Alex Russell made themselves City heroes for life – was unfurled in the centre of the Dolman Stand.   The years spent trying and failing to get out of the third tier had come sharply back into focus in the past few months as the spectre of relegation loomed and today was all about shutting that door. Whereas that day of celebration in early May was about jubilation and excitement, today was all about relief and reprieve.   For one more season at least the away trips will be to Elland Road, Molineux and the City Ground rather than Bury, Hartlepool and Shrewsbury. ...

The Exiled Robin takes a different direction with this post from Lee Molland ( @Molls28 ), a Bristol City fan who has progressed from coaching locally to his current role as a scout for the Bristol City Academy.  He has kindly offered this insightful view on St. George's Park, the  FA's soon to be finished state-of-the-art national football centre at Burton-on-Trent, and the impact it might have on England's finest young footballers. Football at grass roots level needs to be focused on playing and enjoying the game. As the standard of player progresses, the coaching can progress. Results should never be driven into the kids and the competitive side of the game should only come in at adult level. Children will only learn and become better when they have lots of touches of the ball in EVERY session. We need children to be able to play without fear of losing, where positional sense and tactics are not as important as simply touching the ball with your feet. Make a mis...

My latest article from Bristol City matchday programme Red Alert, taken from the Derby County game on March 31st: Manchester City’s money-chucking approach to gain success on the pitch causes considerable consternation but there is a long-term plan in place off-the-pitch as well.   Away from impressive plans around new training facilities and holding open evenings to explain their accounts, the online team has also been making great strides. The club has understood that whilst they can email fans or give away flyers with hot dogs, they will only ever reach a proportion of supporters via those methods.   Every other week 50,000 fans turn up at the Etihad Stadium, so what have Man City done?   They’ve turned over space on giant screens to fans tweeting about the game, about the club, about their day out – or about life in general.   Anyone tweeting using the hashtag #Blueview can find their tweet (and username) suddenly highlighted to all of their fellow supporter...