Skip to main content

The Inside Line: Fleetwood Town v Bristol City (20/09/2014)

And so it goes on. This stunning unbeaten run; no team in league one has scored more, no side has conceded fewer (Saturday’s opponents Fleetwood have an equally good defensive record), no other team in the league has 20 points already – its remarkable and for long-suffering City fans a true moment to savour!

It will of course all end at some point, perhaps on Saturday, perhaps a month or more from now, but let’s enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Ahead of the trip to the North West coast, Stu Radnedge takes a look at City’s stunning start to the season and adds a sprinkle of caution.

“Bristol City face another side on Saturday who earned promotion last year from League Two – Fleetwood Town.

Known as The Fishermen, the history behind the club is something which could easily be regarded as folklore – six promotions in the last 10 years have seen the club go from the depths of the non-league pyramid to attaining Football League status, and then up again to the “history making” status of League One football after winning the League Two play-off finals last year.

Romanticism aside (as great as it is to talk about the success of a club who have progressed from nowhere to League status) City will, no doubt, fancy their chances. The well circulated statistics of our season so far say it all – most goals scored, fewest conceded and a double figure positive goal difference for the first time since the end of the 2006/07 season – the  one when we got promoted from this league.

But, for me, it’s the stats that aren’t being circulated that matter the most. There have been four clean sheets (in eight games) already this year, with three in-a-row at the moment. Goals are coming from, what feels like, everywhere. Aden Flint, even though not our captain, is leading the defence and developing them into a much more solid unit and he’s also posing a threat at the other end of the pitch. Seven goals in eight games from Aaron Wilbraham is a solid return – if we feared we were losing a 20+ goal machine in the sale of Sam Baldock, we may already have his replacement.

Eight games into a season is a one-sixth of the way into the season. Statisticians would say, by law of averages and form, City will gain promotion at a canter.

But I’m taking a more pragmatic approach. Yes, Wolves ran away with it last year. Yes Arsenal’s unbeatables did it – so why can’t we? I like the optimism, I really do.

However, that time-old inner battle is taking place as my heart is saying we will but my brain is saying it won’t happen.

And the only thing that will stop us achieving is a lack of belief and confidence in our ability… which certainly isn’t the issue at the moment. The squad, not the team, has clearly bonded – with goal celebrations being as entertaining as the football!

Back to our opposition, Fleetwood began League One life in a very promising way. Top after three games, the wheels appeared to have  come off a little with three losses in a row (Morecambe in the Football League Trophy, Oldham and Crawley).  But a no-score draw at home on Wednesday with free scoring (of late) Barnsley could indicate the style of play City will have to endure on Saturday – a team aiming not to concede. We faced it against Scunthorpe and could face it again this weekend?



My thanks to Stu, it’s a tough challenge on Saturday that’s for sure, despite Fleetwood’s more recent form.  I can see a tight game and it may just take s stroke of luck to find a winner – fingers crossed it falls our way.


COYR!


The Exiled Robin

Follow me on Twitter ---'Like' us on Facebook

http://exiledrobin.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/theciderdiaries --- www.twitter.com/theciderdiaries
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
12 comments
Read more

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 : ...
13 comments
Read more

Scott Golbourne: He's Coming Home - a Wolves view

The signing of Scott Golbourne (not Goldborne, Goldbourne or Golborne!) must have been as much a relief for those in the club’s hierarchy as it was for us supporters. Constantly barracked and ridiculed over the past few months for the seemingly disastrous lack of transfer activity, Golbourne is only the second permanent signing for the senior squad in 18 months since we embarked on our hugely successful League One title-winning campaign. Plenty of loans have been tried in the meantime, but only Jonathan Kodjia’s bolt-from-the-blue signing from Angers in the summer has caused the editors on Wikipedia to move a player's full time club to Bristol City in that time. Any fan over the age of 17/18 or so will fleetingly remember Golbourne, of course, as he spent his formative years with us but his opportunities were limited at that stage so I knew little about him, other than he’s looked like a pretty solid looking traditional full-back in the games I’ve seen him in since. ...
7 comments
Read more