The Exiled Robin

With two cup games in four days, I fully expect boss Steve Cotterill to give some of the players who have been on this amazing unbeaten and ever-present run a break and get some of the fringe players involved, with the likes of Adam El Abd, Karliegh Osborne, Greg Cunningham, Marlon Pack, JET & Wesley Burns likely to feature prominently and try to propel City into the next round of the respective competitions. First up is another cup trip to Kent as Gillingham have once again been drawn out of the hat as our opponents, as they were in the league cup last season.   Stu Radnedge spoke to Gills fan James Tong https://twitter.com/jamesthegill to find out more about our potential banana skin. “After scraping our way to a respectable 17 th  place last year after promotion the year before, most fans were hoping for a slight improvement this time around, without necessarily pulling up trees. Reducing the number of goals conceded was a priority – we had the joint 2 nd ...

Fresh from a stunning first day victory at title favourites Sheffield United, City appear at three-sided Ashton Gate for the first time this season when they face League Two Oxford United in the League Cup. What used to be a regular fixture has ceased to be so in recent times as Oxford slipped through the leagues, but recent years have been kinder to the once top-flight club and they're sure to be motivated for a game against a side they'll see as a bit of a benchmark to aim for, in the interim. Stu Radnedge spoke to Jack Willows, writer of the the  90 minutes up blog which mixes news of the Oxfordshire side with analysis of the greater game:  http://90minutesup.blogspot.be/ Over to Stu... The last time these two clubs faced each other was again at Ashton Gate in the first round of the League Cup of 2002/03, with the visitors progressing to the second round draw after winning 1-0. Oxford have historically done well on visits to the Gate, will it be the same ag...

It’s not very often that Bristol City play a team that are placed higher in the league than Manchester United, or have just won at Liverpool, but that’s the fate to befall us on Tuesday when we travel to what has been a successful stomping ground for us in recent history. There is little doubt the Saints have moved on somewhat since a Christmas-time backs-to-the-wall 1-0 win there in their promotion-winning season, but those recent good outcomes (City have won four consecutive matches against Southampton), along with the expectation that many of the starting XI who won at Anfield on Saturday will be rested for the cup-tie, has led to some raising of hopes ahead of the journey down to the south coast. To put this in some perspective, Southampton rested nine players for the last round, and won 5-1 at Championship side Barnsley without the likes of Osvaldo, ex-Bristol Rovers and England striker Rickie Lambert and Wanyama, whilst City may also make some changes – O’Driscoll hin...

In his first post of the season, Stu Radnedge returns to The Exiled Robin with a take on City's latest cup failure "Always believe ­- two words that should resonate with the Ashton Gate faithful. I’m sure we can all recall that match where we sunk in our red plastic or wooden seat in the BS3 side of Bristol thinking ‘it can’t get any worse than this’. I’m not even going to begin this, the first of my blog contributions to The Exiled Robin this season, by saying that was how I felt on Tuesday night when I witnessed one of those performances. Put simply we didn’t look like we wanted it and the Gills, put simply again, did. Our visiting opposition did their travelling supporters proud. Credit where it is due, they took the game to us – in our back yard! Now I am not a scaremonger, and am known to always back my team through thick and thin. But what is a concern is, when will we break that City tradition? Not the goal scoring in the first round of the cup one, as ...