The Exiled Robin

You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief across south Bristol at half-past-two on Saturday afternoon, as referee James Linington drew an end to one of the most disappointing and frustrating seasons in recent Bristol City history. Awful because we haven’t been able to go to games. Awful because of the never-ending stream of injuries, serious injuries, repeat injuries. Awful because of the inability to take enough shots on goal. Awful for the basic inability to pass the ball which has blighted our performances throughout the season. Awful for the apparent lack of care from a number of senior professionals in the last third of the season. Despite their constant references to fans being missed, I suspect there is a fairly significant contingent of players, staff and directors at Ashton Gate saying a little prayer of thanks that fans haven’t been allowed in during these last few months. The atmosphere would have fluctuated from frustration to anger to sheer vitriol, certainly...

Bristol City v Manchester City betting tips Ross’ debut on The Exiled Robin started with an agonising (but very fortunate for us) loss as his Derby to win to nil recommended best bet didn’t come in thanks to the wrong decision not to give Derby a late penalty for a foul by Aden Flint on Cameron Jerome. He did however, point out that Derby have the best home defence in the league and ushered you in the direction of a home clean sheet at 17/10. Over to Ross for the betting preview of our Carabao Cup semi-final second leg on Tuesday night… Bristol City head into this tie on the back of a gutting late 2-1 defeat at The Etihad in the first leg. The Robins were on a five-match losing streak heading into the match with Derby on Friday, so Lee Johnson was delighted to end that unwanted streak ahead of this massive fixture. Annoying for me is the ruling that away goals count AFTER extra-time, so if the game does go to 120 minutes, Man City will have that long to secure an away...

The second fantastic performance in four days at Ashton Gate, last night's win was about as comfortable cup upset as you can get against a Premier League team. Here are my thoughts on the eleven who played, plus Lee Johnson. Luke Steele, 7: Had a surprisingly quietish debut but did everything he was asked. There were one or two moments of uncertainty when balls fell in the dead zone between him and the back four, but that's to be expected on his first appearance. Zak Vyner, 6: May seem harsh, but whilst he mainly did ok there were three moments where he misjudged his positioning, leaving Stoke with chances to capitalise. But largely did well against quality opposition. Aden Flint, 9: Almost faultless. The fact that Peter Crouch shook his hand and applauded him when he was substituted after a completely fruitless evening said it all. No real pace or trickery to threaten his usual weaknesses and made a superb clearance off the line at 0-0. He was the one shouting and ...

It’s been a summer of huge excitement at Ashton Gate with the completion of the West Stand setting the perfect backdrop to the most extravagant outlay of our existence. Millions of pounds we know about, plus plenty we probably don’t in loan fees, signing-on fees and wages have led to a glut of exciting signings of mainly young players, a nice mixture of experienced mid 20-somethings and younger, high potential players. Having already snapped up players from Juventus and Bayern Munich, Lee Johnson and Mark Ashton have turned their attention closer to home with the latest loan signing and could have just landed the most exciting signing of them all, from Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea. Whilst there may be a touch of self-congratulation around it, both Johnson and Ashton have talked about the lengths they’ve gone to so as to snap up the teenage striker who was also being linked with a move to Spanish La Liga side Real Betis. As is often the case with these sorts of things, it was as ...

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 ...

I'm dreading the sort of autobot tweets that might head my way calling this blog post that, but as I review Cotterill's policy of not picking a youth player to fill the bench, you'll understand the heading! The bulk of the article looks at the nervousness and lack of confidence seeping through the club at a pace right now, whilst I finish on what is sure to be a topic to get you talking - Cotterill's lack of willingness to put a youngster on the bench when there's a spare spot, something I personally feel quite strongly about. http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-CITY-BLOG/story-27966626-detail/story.html Please let me know you thoughts, via the blog comments, the Post comments box or via more traditional channels such as Twitter/Facebook Thanks all for reading! The Exiled Robin Follow me on Twitter  --- 'Like' us on Facebook http://exiledrobin.blogspot.c om www.facebook.com/theciderdiaries --- www.twitter.com/th eciderdiaries

I was wrong.   I generally like to feel I have a good, well-balanced and reasonable handle on football matters, usually resulting in a non-emotional and fairly rational opinion which doesn’t waver far from the truth, but on this occasion I was very, very wrong. One year ago today, Steve Cotterill became the Bristol City manager to a somewhat underwhelming murmur of excitement.  I was particularly disappointed for a number of reasons, including the fact I hadn’t wanted Sean O’Driscoll sacked and had hoped we would cast our net wider in our search for a new manager – having been promised a comprehensive review by Jon Lansdown, only to go for the first – and only man – we considered. I didn’t think Cotterill was the right man for the job.  I had seen and read too many horror stories and embarrassing tales from his time at Forest, whilst his main success seemed to be entrenched almost a decade earlier.  I felt there were better options out there.  I was...