After four
points from two games in which, for once this season, the points tally has
bettered the performances City have an opportunity to pull out of the bottom
four as they play their game in hand against Steve Coppell-directed Crawley
Town, their first league match against the relative newcomers.
Stu Radnedge has
spoken to Steve Hollis who covers Crawley for Sussex-based ‘The Argus’ to
get his take on the Bonfire Night visitors to Ashton Gate.
The match was
due to take place on Oct 12 but was cancelled due to City having
international call-ups. At the time, City's form was pretty woeful and
Town's was very good. But as of late there have been three
straight defeats for the Red Devils. I'll guess you would have rather
played the match on the original date, but what has happened the last
couple of weeks that could explain the change in form?
Yes, Crawley would have preferred to have
played on the original date as they were on a good run of form then. Not
too much has changed in the last three games although they are likely to
be missing striker Billy Clarke who is sidelined by a knee injury. They
were poor against Port Vale but have been a little unlucky against both
Stevenage and Brentford so results can be a little misleading.
There will be a fair amount of local focus on two people - one player and
one member of staff. Firstly, can we expect to see ex-City manager Steve Coppell
in the stands watch the match?
Coppell is unlikely to be at the game. I
think he is going to scout Crawley's FA Cup opponents Hednesford Town in
order to avoid a return to Ashton Gate. Coppell is very much in the
background at Crawley but manager Richie Barker has admitted his
experience has been useful.
The other person City fans will be intrigued to see is Kyle MacFadzean
- who we were strongly linked with and bid unsuccessfully for twice,
at the beginning of this year. What was your opinion on what happened at
the beginning of the year and why did the deal fall through?
I think Kyle would have gone if it hadn't
been for the virus which kept him out for so long. The clubs weren't far
off agreeing a fee from what I can tell but City needed a player who could
come straight in to help their relegation battle and Kyle didn't play
again until pre-season.
How do you feel
Crawley's season has transpired so far, considering their fairly small squad?
Crawley have a lack of depth in pretty much
every position considering they only have a squad of 20. They
are fairly well covered at centre-back and centre-forward but everywhere
else they don't have many options. Considering their lack of resources
they have made a positive start to the season but it will be interesting
to see how they respond to the recent blip.
Who should City fans expect to cause us some problems on Tuesday night?
Nicky Adams is a real livewire and is
usually involved in most of Crawley's best moments going forward. Kyle
Bennett has shown glimpses of what he can do since signing on loan from
Doncaster and is an exciting prospect.
Can I have a score-line prediction please?
Crawley tend to do better away from home
against the bigger clubs having won at Peterborough, drawn at Sheffield
United and lost to an injury-time goal at Wolves so I'm going for a 2-1
Crawley win.
Finally, the repeat fixture is at the Checkatrade.com Stadium on the
last game of the season. Do you think the fixture will hold any importance significance
for either side?
I can't see Crawley having the strength in
depth to mount a play-off challenge but they are too good to get sucked
into trouble while I think City should pull away from danger considering
their resources. Could well be a mid-table end of season affair!
A big thank you
from me to Steve and Stuart for those thoughts.
I’m confident this
will be our first home win of the season, and we may even eke out a clean
sheet. You heard it here first!
COYR!
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