The Exiled Robin

Justice. 27 long years, almost to the day after the dreadful tragedy on that warm, spring day, the families of the Hillsborough victims finally had their loved ones’ names exonerated this week. Having spent a lifetime being told their criminal activity caused the disaster, their names are finally clear and they can truly, for the first time, rest in peace. As the truth has slowly seeped out over the last two decades, the outpouring of highly emotive comments from football fans far and wide has been hugely prevalent and that’s not only because it was such an awful event, with such obvious injustice. It’s partly because anyone who attended games at that time, and indeed, anyone who still does now, knows that it could have been them. Their friends, their parents, their children. I personally remember sitting in Block E of the Dolman Stand on that day. City were losing 2-1 at home to Blackpool in front of a little over 5,000 of their own fans – which tells its own story...

Wembley Stadium. The White Horse, Stanley Matthews, Wimbledon, Pearce’s redemption, Live Aid, Broken goalposts, Gazza’s knee, Coventry, Gazza’s flick over the Scots, Ricky Villa, Queen, Liverpool’s white suits, Di Matteo, Gazza’s screamer, 4-1 v Holland, Moran’s red card and, of course, some people who were on the pitch. If anyone tries to tell you Wembley has lost some of its old magic, that the multitude of club level games now played there means the mystique has somewhat disappeared, then try telling that to the 40,000 Bristolians who will be on the march up the M4 this weekend to watch our fifth appearance at the stadium. Let alone the nearly 30,000 Walsall fans who are delighted and overwhelmed to be making their Wembley bow. And yes, it’s ‘only’ the JPT, isn’t it? Well maybe, but to become the first team to win this competition three times would be a great achievement, albeit one soured by the evidence it offers that we have spent far too many recent seasons playing ...

Last week perhaps signalled the start of a bright new dawn at Ashton Gate, and I’m not talking about the remarkable and dramatic victory at Hillsborough.   When Joe Morrell committed his most formative of years to the club – spurning interest from five-time European Champions Liverpool in doing so – the moment gave the club their launch pad to go on the offensive about the investment in the new Academy. For too many years, millions of pounds have been sunk into an under-performing, unproductive system doing nothing to justify its worth.   Since the class of late-90’s produced the likes of Tommy Doherty, Aaron Brown and Matt Hill, only Cole Skuse has come through and established himself in the first team.   Dave Cotterill & Leroy Lita spent a little time with the Robins before moving on and earning the academy some much needed ‘profit’, whilst recently the likes of Christian Ribiero, Joe Edwards and James Wilson have all threatened the senior squad without ever ...