The Exiled Robin

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 ...

And there it is. A first league defeat in controversial circumstances at old rivals Swindon Town.  Now comes a true test of this team’s seemingly strong belief and character, moreso than during games where a defeat had looked on the cards as this team now needs to show how it reacts to a loss, especially one which angered and frustrated manager, players and fans alike. Steve Cotterill’s temperament and approach will be critical this week.   If he has spent the week getting the players to channel their emotions productively, then Preston could feel the backlash.   If it’s been a week of feelings of injustice and despondency, the outcome could be somewhat different.    Being 'up for it' seems to be most fans' desire after such a defeat, but without control, that can sometimes be an approach which loses you the sense of purpose and planning with which we have achieved so much this season.   When you throw in the loss of your captain and midfield lynch...

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...

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 ...

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...

I'm delighted to say that after a short break,  Easyodds.com  football tipster and Bristol City fan Ross Casey is back this week with a betting column on City’s trip to Oakwell to face Danny Wilson’s Barnsley. After the late slip-up preventing us of three points at Ashton Gate in midweek, can we take the win at Barnsley like we have in three of our last four visits?  Keep reading below for Ross’ full betting preview including his most pertinent trends and oddities… BEST MATCH ODDS: BRISTOL CITY – 11/10 (Multiple) BARNSLEY – 59/20 (MarathonBet) DRAW – 13/5 (Multiple) BRISTOL CITY: It doesn’t take a genius to see a trend in Bristol City’s matches that we score goals. In sixteen matches this term we have only failed to hit the net once and that was against Orient when Baldock’s goal was disallowed for no reason at all. It is not just the fact we are scoring that is so pleasing – 14 of our 20 outfield players to play first team football this season have h...

“If you wanna be the best, if you wanna beat the best, oh-oh dedication’s what you need” The Bristol City class of 2014-15 wrote their own piece of history on Tuesday night when their draw against Bradford meant that a club record that had lasted exactly sixty years had been broken, and we had gone 14 matches unbeaten from the start of a season.  To put that in context, it’s nearly one-third of the way through the season – a quite remarkable achievement which glossed over some of the disappointment in ‘only’ gaining a point on a windy night in BS3. The record-breakers take their status on the road again this weekend to Oakwell, home of Barnsley, who have the son of an ex-City striking legend and an ex-City manager looking to put one over on the Robins. Stu Radnedge spoke to Andy White  of the ‘Love Barnsley, Hate Football’ blog to find out more: “My beloved Barnsley FC. Relegated last season, currently hovering above another relegation zone and shipping goa...