The Exiled Robin

Just when City’s attempted activities in this transfer window appeared to be heading towards a similarly disastrous outcome as the summer’s opportunity, then the signing on loan of ex-Peterborough forward Lee Tomlin from Bournemouth certainly ignited some excitement into proceedings. Warmly welcomed almost universally, the temperamental character who tends to play just off a main striker, joins with a point to prove having been given little chance on the South Coast during the Cherries’ hugely impressive start to life in the big time. He is somewhat notorious to the Ashton Gate faithful already, of course, having been sent off in the opening quarter of an hour in a game against ‘ The Posh’ during Derek McInnes’ time in charge, for an elbow on Greg Cunningham. We went on to win 4-2 against a tiring ten-man side, and it’s not the first, and probably won’t be the last time that Tomlin’s fiery nature causes him problems on the pitch.  However, despite a far from spotless ...

Two defeats in two, albeit both with excuses or reasons of sorts, have dented City’s lead at the top and you’ve got to think a win at London Road in front of the Sky TV cameras is necessary to keep us there with Swindon and Preston breathing down our necks.  It's the least they could do on my birthday, after all!! That won’t be an easy task though. Peterborough remain one of the favourites for promotion, despite a patchy start that has led to some unrest amongst fans and the now much-anticipated post-match Twitter tirade from outspoken owner Darragh MacAnthony. Stu Radnedge caught up with friend of the blog, Jamie Jones – one time host of Posh podcast ‘Standing on the Glebe’, which sadly hung up its headphones in the summer and for the music buffs amongst you now hosts an intriguing looking blog (and published book!) named I Blame Morrissey! http://iblamemorrissey.wordpress.com/ Big thanks to Jamie for this detailed overview of the situation. "The Posh – They ...

After a brief hiatus from the league and an all-too-rare level of success in the two cup competitions, City return to league action this weekend in the first of a trio of mouth-watering clashes at the top of league one.  Preston North End and Peterborough United are on the horizon, but for now a classic local derby looks to be on the cards, as Steve Cotterill takes his unbeaten league leaders to the County Ground to face Swindon. Stu Radnedge caught up with Dan Johnson www.twitter.com/danwjonson - a blogger for the Swindon Advertiser, to get the other Robins’ take on their own great start to the season. “As the new campaign got underway in August it was hard to predict what sort of season was on the horizon. Due to a courtroom battle over the clubs ownership the club had only signed a handful of players in time for the big kick-off. However, despite suffering a chaotic pre-season, Town began with a win, beating Scunthorpe 3-1 at the County Ground.  The opening mo...

League One Betting Questions With just a few days to go until the start of the new football league season, Easyodds.com’s top football tipsters Simon Hopper and Tom Powell have joined forces with the blog to answer your betting questions about all things Bristol City and the upcoming League One season! Follow Simon and Tom on Twitter: Simon:                  @hopperfootball Tom:                      @tompowerpowell We start with the obvious question, how are Bristol City going to fare this season – Mat Hynds on Facebook asked if there was any point betting on anyone else to win the league! [ER: We haven’t won a league title in 50 (fifty) years!] Simon Hopper:  Given Bristol City never win leagues (!) their straight ‘To Be Promoted’ odds of 3/1 make much more appeal.  As for...

League One club Yeovil Town swept to an expected comfortable win against their non-league neighbours in a friendly last night, which left both managers praising their clubs management for getting the fixture arranged. A goal in each half from striker Ajay Leitch-Smith sealed the win for the Somerset side who used last night’s occasion to ease into their more serious upcoming pre-season programme.  Leitch-Smith said afterwards “It’s always great to score a goal whoever you’re playing. The fact it’s a local non-league side doesn’t make a difference to me, it will just give me more confidence when we start facing better opposition". Chirpy Glovers boss Gary Johnson was pleased with his side’s performance, stating “Whoever you play you’ve still got to go out and perform and win. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Manchester Untied or a local smaller outfit like Bristol Rovers, you’ve still got to turn up and we did that tonight”.   Ex-Bristol City boss Johnson - who is lo...

More than seven weeks after the last campaign ended with gloating celebrations at Crawley, City’s close season exploded into life this week with the capture of three players to bolster manager Steve Cotterill’s options for the new season.  Wade Elliott’s signature was the least surprising (but still very welcome) deal, whilst Luke Freeman was a name many of us had hoped for but few dared believe we might get, with reported interest from several Championship clubs for his services. His pace, direct running and eye for a goal couldn’t have failed to any watching Robins fan in our encounters with Stevenage last season, despite him ending on the losing side on both occasions. The other signing is a player many may not know much about.  Mark Little may be getting on a bit, I remember watching him in Neighbours when I got home from school at the end of the 1980’s but with Bouncer in tow I reckon we’ve got a great signing…. Mark Little Ah, OK, not him? Right, right…Lit...

After a win against the G*s and a refreshing international break, it’s back to the serious business of the league as City welcome a familiar face in Peterborough United to Ashton Gate. The Posh have hit the ground running so far with a flood of goals and currently sit in third position with all but one of their squad having played Championship football last term.  Whilst I'd love to say this was a top-of-the-table clash against our promotion rivals, i n contrast City boast a bill of fresh faces and are very much a work in progress with a mixed set of results to date. Posh also boast one of the longest-running and betterclub podcasts  around and I’m pleased that Lewis Hancock sought out two of its stalwarts, host Jamie Jones  and regular contributer John Verrall to introduce us to one of the favourites for the League One title. You were relegated alongside us last campaign. Whilst ours was warranted, did you consider your demotion to be unlucky (P...