The Exiled Robin

The prospect of raiding the under 14’s for squad members seemed  to finally jolt City into transfer action this week, as they swooped for the double loan signing of Derby County centre-half, Alex Pearce, and QPR’s ex-Swindon attacking midfielder, Ben Gladwin. To say caretaker boss John Pemberton moved quickly is perhaps masking the truth somewhat as I have it on very good authority that the Pearce signing in particular was lined up by Cotterill for last Friday morning, only to be delayed following his dismissal the evening before. We all saw what Gladwin could do last season, in the games against us in particular, but also in Swindon’s other televised games during the run-in. His challenge is two-fold; to prove that the great run of form at the end of the season wasn’t a flash in the pan, and, if it wasn’t, to prove he’s got the intelligence, pace and ability to show it at Championship level. With Alex Pearce, however, our experience is probably more limited, aside from reme...

Amidst an ever-foreboding aura of gloom and despair surrounding Ashton Gate, Thursday evening’s creaking shut of the loan transfer window proved considerably more exciting from a Bristol City point of view than the permanent equivalent in January.   True, we didn’t have our top scorer and main headline-grabber leaving us for a couple of million quid, but that was all a bit of an anti-climax anyway for us in the West Country. This time, taking prominence instead of Maynard’s departure was the arrival of three players in a move that looks certain to be boss Derek McInnes’ final gamble.   With an incessant series of injuries and suspensions in defence – which will be exacerbated again following the credible point at Middlesbrough being earned despite McGivern’s sending off – contributing to a run of form as bad as many can remember, this could be seen as the tough Paisley-man’s equivalent of putting the house on black (or red, for City of course). A more in-depth analysis ...

I wanted to share some of my recent offerings on other websites. Hope you enjoy! Firstly, a review of the big winners and losers of Transfer Deadline Day on @The72Football : http://theseventytwo.com/football-league/championship/2012/02/02/the-football-leagues-winners-and-losers-in-the-january-transfer-window/ Next up are two previews of the home game against Leeds for two different sites; 'The Scratching Shed' and 'The Offside - Leeds' : http://www.thescratchingshed.com.customers.tigertech.net/posts/away-fans-views-bristol-city-a-2/ http://leeds.theoffside.com/team-news/interview-with-an-away-fan-bristol-city-2.html Finally, just to act as Mr. Smarty Pants, my preview of the last week's Reading game for @TheTilehurstEnd , including an unfortunately accurate prediction of the impact the signing of  @JasonRoberts30 would have on the outcome (and a pointer towards Peterborough's prospects that seem far more real after a heavy home defeat)... http://t...

The latest publication of my 'On the Social' column from the Bristol City matchday programme, Red Alert : Reading, Setpember 15 th 2011 This week I’m delighted to welcome Reading fan Rob Langham, co-founder of the excellent www.thetwounfortunates.blogspot.com website, which comprehensively covers all things Football League. Follow them on Twitter @twounfortunates Your blog specialises in the Football League, why did you decide to set up specifically excluding the Premier League? My fellow blogger and I both supported then Championship clubs in Reading and Plymouth so that was our main area of interest.   The Premier League was already well covered by a range of excellent blogs. Until a couple of years ago bloggers were fairly niche, known to each other in quite a small world, but Twitter has allowed some fairly major-scale expansion and PR. Would you agree and how have you used Twitter to benefit your site? I still think it is quite a small world compared to online ...

Well the quiet summer period is nearly over and the first game is looming large on the horizon. In the football blogosphere - I think that's now officially a word - season previews have gone mad, with Twitter offering fans the chance to easily interact with each other and get a series of comments on the other teams in the league. Below I've attached links to a few of the previews I've contributed to for your perusal. Enjoy! I've got to start with this quite incredible collaborative effort between top football league bloggers @twounfortunates http://thetwounfortunates.blogspot.com/ and @the72Football http://theseventytwo.com/ They have pooled their considerable resources, links, contributors and acquaintances and put together a simply fabulous 108-page, printable blogzine (I'm pretty sure that's not a word!). Go to either of their homepages and look for the Seventy Two Unfortunates football league preview. More than 18,000 people have read it to dat...