The Exiled Robin

Wednesday night marks not only another step in City's remarkable season, but the return to the scene of his greatest triumphs for manager Steve Cotterill.  As explained by Cheltenham fan and Gloucestershire Echo sports reporter Mark Halliwell below, a heroes welcome is likely from both sets of fans for the West-country-man who is fast burnishing a similar reputation just down the M5 as he did more than a decade ago at Whaddon Road. It's a great, informative read so I won't rattle on any longer - my thanks to Mark for the response and to Stu Radnedge for prompting the answers. "When former managers and players go back to their former clubs, they will usually expect a hostile reception. But not this time. When Steve Cotterill comes back to Cheltenham Town on Wednesday, the Whaddon Road crowd will be welcoming back a hero - one of their own who took the club to places they could only have dreamed about when he took over. To understand this, you have to go bac...

Delighted to welcome back John McGee to the pages of The Exiled Robin, as he answered Stu Radnedge's questions on Carlisle United... Ex-Bristol City "favourite" John Ward was responsible for one of the worst runs of results in Carlisle United's history and was replaced by Greg Abbott, who I believe at the start of this season was the third longest serving manager in the football league (behind Arsene Wenger and Paul Tisdale). So why was the club’s start to this season so bad? That's a good question, and one which isn't easy to answer. My own view is that Greg's management at Carlisle had become a bit stale. He took quite a while to get going; he was naive and made mistakes and that turned quite a few people off him who he had never quite won over, but it's inarguable that he turned us into a pretty good side. His problem was being unable to build on finishing 8 th .  His summer business in 2012 was absolutely disastrous and he never recov...

It's been 2,379 days since some Fat Scouser who has done nothing in his career since scored a penalty to guide the G*s to a fluky win. Now it's time for revenge. There was a feeling of inevitability as we faced our first Johnstone Paint's Trophy draw since that semi-final. Six-and-a-half years has done nothing but heightened the feeling of expectation, the tension and the anticipation ahead of Wednesday night's clash live on Sky TV, something borne out by the brisk ticket sales - the crowd will almost certainly be a record for a non area-final/Final of this competition. City will undoubtedly be favourites, being the bigger and better club 'n' all, but what can we expect? We were favourites in 2007 after all, and look where that left us. Stu Radnedge has interviewed top G*s blogger Nathan Bees and asked him for his views ahead of the unusually anticipated first-round tie Derbies are what every football fan lives for. The media loves it as well. W...