Bristol City: A tough start, or the best possible way to begin?

Following today's announcement of the fixtures for next season, City fans will be charting their hopes and aspirations for the 2013/14 season as they plan their route around the country. Stuart Radnedge follow up his preview article from last night with a view on what the fixtures may mean for the season ahead...

Well, the fixtures are out and the strong test I was hoping for has been realised. The opening game at home to last year's League Cup runners-up Bradford will certainly be a wake-up to life in League One, as will two trips in a few weeks to face Gillingham away – once in the cup, the other at the end of August, sandwiching trips to 'big' clubs, Coventry and Wolves.

Following the announcement a quick chat with my colleagues confirmed a 50/50 split as to whether playing a newly promoted side is a good or bad situation. Bradford, who clearly exceeded expectations last year in the cup, will arguably have momentum behind them after securing promotion from League Two comfortably with a 3–0 Wembley victory against Northampton. Alternatively, Ashton Gate, full of noise and expectation on the opening day, could lead to shrinking violet syndrome.

Gillingham, as highlighted in part one yesterday, will be a test and Wolves early on could be a blessing or a curse – depending on their and our adjustments to life in League One. And then there’s Coventry…

They're a team we have a fairly good record against at their place, but where will "their place" be – with the club having all sorts of issues in securing where home will be for the team.

The following month could provide us with the opportunity of securing a foothold in the league positions with three out of the four league matches that month being home encounters.

The same is enjoyed in November (3 home, 2 away) and December (3 home, 1 away) – a key time in the Christmas calendar preparation. We also have three games at home in April – at the business end of the season.

But this is only relevant if we can bring back the fortress mentality in BS3.

Reflecting on last season’s start, things were looking really good at home until the wheels fell off – which occurred soon after we beat two of the three teams that were eventually promoted. This emphasises my next point.

Both Palace and Cardiff gained promotion after arguably poor starts to the season. So how important are the first six games?

There’s no right or wrong answer really, as any wrongs can be undone later in the following seven-and-a-half months. But a bad start will heap the pressure on everyone.

If it’s a simple mathematics game, then nine months cover all but the final fixture against Crawley. Is nine points a month too much to ask for? We’d finish on 81 points which could be enough for a top two finish (Doncaster were promoted with 84, and Bournemouth 83 last year) and with some months containing 5 or more matches – we’d possibly secure more points than the 9 anyway.

There’s no way I’m going to write my predictions for wins & losses, but in this league I would be unhappy if at the end of the season we finished outside of the play-offs – let alone in the bottom half of the table.

But how easy is it to predict? Who has the answers?

We’ll all have our opinions of how things may pan out at 5pm on August 3^rd – but we’ll be better informed at Christmas and definitive on May 3^rd.

The Exiled Robin

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http://exiledrobin.blogspot.com

Why Cotterill was sacked

In the end, it was very sudden. In a season where pressure has increasingly grown on Steve Cotterill for all sorts of reasons, an unknown combination of a lacklustre, exhausted-looking performance at home to Preston, an unsavoury altercation with an abusive ‘supporter’ at the end of that game, or perhaps a behind-the-scenes disagreement over transfer policy look to have ultimately curtailed his time at Ashton Gate. No manager these days can win just four out of 28 games in a season, be in the bottom three, and expect to be impervious to the threat of being sacked. But given such an incredulous level of success last season, Cotterill was surely closer than most to having a level of credit in the bank to be given until the end of the season? I share views with many as a general principle where I wish all clubs would give mangers more time to build, but the days of giving a manager the luxury of years of under-achievement, of the type Alex Ferguson enjoyed, resulting in a ...

Bristol City: Our Greatest Team to the Ashton Gate Eight

Back in 2014, I was invited by the Two Unfortunates website to write about Bristol City's greatest team. It was a story which, of course, ended ultimately in the story of the Ashton Gate 8. Since the site of the original post has long since gone, here it is republished in full. "Eight players with more than 80 years at the club and more than 2,000 appearances between them, cast aside as unwilling saviours" Sometimes, events occur that make you realise your true standing in life. When the emotional mask of expectation is removed and those rose-tinted spectacles are lowered onto the brow of the nose, you can realise that things aren’t quite all they seem. And so it was for me, a lifelong Bristol City fan, when I was asked to talk about our greatest ever team. For when it came down to it, there was only one real choice. One genuinely great team that I could write about even in the perspective-bending world of football and this was one I hadn’t even had the privilege of seein...

The Inside Line: MK Dons (substituted) 24/08/2013

This new series on The Exiled Robin threatened to come a cropper in its early days with a fixture against Franchise FC, as I wasn't prepared to seek an opinion on a club created in such a fashion. Not that I doubt that those supporters who follow them do so in the same irrational and desperate manner we all do with our clubs, but the way they came about, with the corresponding direct negative impact on another community-based club, manes they are - ironically enough - disenfranchised from the football community as a whole. Anyway, as a result I decided to instead focus on their predecessors, a club reborn and one that has found it's way back into the football league for a second time. Chris Lines, (NOT the ex-Gas player, as far as I know!) writes his own blog and occasionally offers his view for the fabulous Two Unfortunates, as well as spending his weekends following the fortunes of AFC Wimbledon. You can follow Chris on Twitter @NarrowtheAngle : ...

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