The Exiled Robin

Ross Casey, formerly top football tipster of EasyOdds and a lifelong City fan, returns to take a look at the Bristol City betting markets to help you beat the bookies. Ross’ latest article on The Exiled Robin comes ahead of this weekend’s home fixture against the struggling Sunderland at Ashton Gate. Over to Ross… Bristol City return from their warm weather training in Dubai looking to improve upon a disappointing performance in their 1-0 loss to Bolton last Friday . The Robins were uncharacteristically wasteful in possession and Lee Johnson was correct in suggesting that we deserved nothing from the game in his post-match conference. The current run of one win in nine is certainly a worry, but it is hoped the break in Dubai will do the squad plenty of good ahead of our fixture against The Black Cats on Saturday. Last week we pointed out under 2.5 goals and no in the both teams to score market as valid bets, which would have both come in. I hope some of you got on those! ...

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 ...

At first glance, the signing of a striker who can't get into Fulham's matchday plans may seem a strange one by Lee Johnson. After all, not only must there be a question over how capable he is based on that scenario, but despite the departures of Lee Tomlin and the pair of Hams this summer (Tammy Abraham and Aaron Wilbraham), City have what appears a top-heavy eight strikers on their books still. However, that's not the full story. Famara Diedhiou and Bobby Reid have started the season together, with Freddie Hinds acting as cover. Milan Djuric, Matty Taylor and Arnold Garita (remember him?!) are currently injured. That's six, but half are injured. Then you have Gustav Engvall who has gone back to Sweden, probably for the last time, while under 23 goal machine Shaun McCoulsky is (rightly) learning his trade in League Two with Newport County. The other reason Johnson would have been after an extra body is that although he is 'only' six foot tall, he's ...

Exitlude Sam’s Town, the excellent second album from Nevada’s favourite sons, The Killers, includes a song titled ‘Exitlude’. It involves the lyrics: “Regrettably, time’s come to send you on your way We’ve seen it all; bonfires of trust; flash floods of pain……We hope you enjoyed your stay….It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day” Well BS3 isn’t Sam’s Town, it’s Steve’s Town, and despite Mr. Lansdown’s seemingly unwavering fondness and loyalty towards the Johnson family, now is the time to bite the bullet, so to speak, and bid farewell to Johnson Jnr before too many days are out. He’ll regret it, of course. As surely will almost everyone associated with the club. Whatever your views of the job Lee Johnson has done, surely no fan wants to see a manager sacked in the grand scheme of things, because that means you’re not performing as a club where everyone feels we should be? On a personal note, I have always felt the appointment a risk which m...

How to solve a problem like Lee Tomlin: The signing of Lee Tomlin in the summer was supposed to be the big signal of intent. Lee Johnson and Mark Ashton have received plenty of plaudits for their work in adding young, talented players to the squad, and had contract extensions been handed out to the pair of them at the end of September, the news would have been widely acclaimed. However, a couple of months on, we can’t buy a win – or even a draw come to that – and many of those exciting signings haven’t had the impact everyone would have hoped for. To address that first, I think it’s clear the policy in the summer was to make a number of signings ‘for the future’. Certainly Calum O’Dowda, Taylor Moore and Gustav Engvall fall into that category to a greater or lesser extent, yet many are now questioning why we spent over £5m on that particular trio. Rightly or wrongly, they were bought for potential and I think any major impact this season from any of them would have been s...

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 ...

Easter is so often a critical time in the shake-up for key issues, with two games in three or four days, but with so much of 2015 being that way for City, and the lead at the top remaining in double-digits for now, it’s probably more a case of not having a disaster than needing two wins. Saying that, wouldn't it be fantastic to grab a pair of victories, and all but seal promotion back to the Championship in the first week of April?! But at this stage of the season anyone still remotely involved in the shake-up for any positions fits the bill as tough opposition, and Oldham won’t be wanting to roll over. They’re five points off the top six, and defeat in this game would probably destroy their hopes of making the end-of-season jamboree once and for all. Josh Bowker gave Stu Radnedge a Latics view of what’s been an eventful time at Boundary Park since we last met... “It’s been a crazy few months since our last fixture, way back at the start of November. Latics went into ...

Well, what a week! Six days after 42,000 of us returned home from one of those special days at Wembley, City return to their ultimate target with a league match against Lee Johnson’s Barnsley. Little Lee just can’t keep away from Ashton Gate, can he. Perhaps a portent of times to come…   This week Stu Radnedge spoke to Andy White, a Tykes fan who has renewed hope for their new regime. “It's been a difficult season back in the third tier for we Barnsley supporters. The football on the whole has been poor/dull, results little better and we've had to say goodbye to yet another manager, the greatest we've ever had. First time around. Unfortunately, results and the failed product put paid to his second coming a couple of months ago now. Lots of us found it a harsh decision to remove Danny Wilson. We were mid table, anything could have happened. But the board sacked him after a 2-1 home defeat against Fleetwood Town. The caretaker managership then oversaw a 5-1 humiliat...

Comparisons with Chelsea and Jose Mourinho, articles on his lucky pants and an obsessive search for magpies and brief links to jobs at a higher level.  It’s been an interesting week for Bristol City manager, Steve Cotterill. And that’s all because it’s November and City are STILL unbeaten. Being nearly one-third of the way through the season and still to register a ‘L’ in the results column is a remarkable achievement.  Yet in the last couple of weeks – as Preston North End maintain their own outstanding winning run and close the gap – more and more questions have been raised about the conceding of soft goals, the carelessness of protecting leads, and dropped points in recent games. Is this unfair criticism of a team who are taking all before them and remain, for now, in the highest possible position they can attain? Or is it justifiable concern of what might lie ahead, should these shortcoming not be addressed?  Probably a bit of both. I have seen some peopl...

Just when you thought a manic week of signings was over, Bristol City pulled another surprise out of the bag with Friday evening's capture of Oldham Athletic captain Korey Smith, the 23-year old moving to Ashton Gate with Liam Kelly moving the other way. Kelly was seen by many as a hot prospect at City but his injury last season clearly hampered both his progress and his chances of establishing himself. Much as he could turn out to be a huge loss, I find it personally difficult to reconcile a couple of decent performances in pre-season friendlies with the 'great white hope' some fans seemed to be associating. He may have made some difference last season, but I think it was certainly one of those cases where he was better off well away from the firing line and his stature only grew with inept performance after inept performance. So he leaves with many well-wishers hoping he can put his injuries behind him and establish himself in English football's third tier, w...