City reach the summit...and stay there

All too often this season, when Gary Johnson’s Bristol City side have reached top spot of the Championship, we have been knocked off it within a few hours. But on Saturday, after our 2-1 success at home to Hull City, we stayed top. Before the game, Johnson described the match as a ‘must win’ game as we face a tough March with an away trip to promotion chasers Charlton, and host Watford on 11 March. The match was important and there was big crowd waiting in anticipation, although it was not a sell out and I can’t understand why not.

We are in a fantastic position, the highest the club has been for 28 years yet we still have not had a 19,000 plus crowd cheering on the lads. I know I have mentioned this before but there are few home games remaining and we are on course to achieve the biggest feat this season. To be fair to City fans, the 15,859 spectators present were mostly made up of home supporters with Hull City bringing probably less than 1,000 supporters. With Watford and Plymouth likely to bring support in the region of 3,000 fans, I am sure Ashton Gate will be sold out for some games this season.

Back to Saturday, and Phil Brown’s Hull City side made life very difficult for City and could have easily taken the lead after just 50 seconds when an unmarked Caleb Folan found his way into the box, only to slice his shot wide of Adriano Basso’s left hand post. The miss proved crucial on 14 minutes when a Jamie McAllister long ball forward was misjudged by defender Neil Clement and Dele Adebola lashed the ball on the half volley into the top corner of the net from 15 yards.

It was a fantastic finish from a player many City fans questioned the signing of when Gary made a bid for him in the January transfer window. But three goals in six appearances speaks for itself and this may prove to be one of the smartest signings of Gary’s reign if his goals send us into the Premiership. Personally, when we signed him, I looked at his record at Coventry City, which revealed he had scored six goals this season, and I was unconvinced. Many friends, one a Coventry fan, couldn’t speak highly enough of him, while others believed he was too old. But I think all his doubters can agree they were wrong.

After the first goal, as has been the case so often this season, we struggled to score a second and the visitors equalised on the stroke of half time through a Liam Fontaine own goal. The goal did not come as a surprise as Hull gained in confidence as the half progressed and City seemed to sit on their one goal advantage. I’m sure Gary gave the players a roasting at half time as their performance was not up their usual high standards. His team talk worked again, as it has on so many other occasions this season, as defender Jamie McCombe scored with an over head kick which any striker would have been happy with. From then on the team grew in confidence and could have scored more with Adebola going close and David Noble shooting over the bar.

The atmosphere inside the stadium was fantastic, one of the best all season, as fans began singing and dreaming of promotion as we headed to the top of the league. With Stoke City losing to QPR on Sunday, we are still top and there is now a real belief that we can achieve promotion and with just six more wins needed from 11 games according to Johnson, it is certainly achievable.

ANDY DAVIES

'Boom boom' McCombe steals a point

For the first time this season Bristol City had the opportunity to go top of the Championship and stay there on Monday night. Although Gary Johnson’s team have reached the summit on a number of occasions this season, we always seem to be knocked off the top within hours due to a late kick off, usually involving Watford or West Brom. However, on a freezing cold Monday night against Neil Warnock’s Crystal Palace side we had the chance to sit top of the pile. Sadly as most City fans and others fans will know, having watched it live on TV, we failed. Many Championship supporters will however look at our position and say ‘we should be happy where we are’, but are we really satisfied?

At the beginning of the season, all the talk and expectation on fans forums were of staying up or perhaps finishing in mid-table. Some cheeky supporters said we should even push for a play-off spot but many of us were quick to stress survival was the priority. If someone had told me at the start of the season that we would be third in the league, only one point behind the leaders and with a real chance at promotion, I would have called for the men in the big white coats to take them away. Since I have been supporting City, which is for over 15 years now, there has always been an expectation, certainly when were in League One, that we were a big club and deserved better. Which is why for many years, under the likes of Danny Wilson and Brian Tinnion, that we failed in numerous promotion attempts – because of the attitude of some of our players.

Under the guidance of manager Gary Johnson, who has built a fantastic team spirit at the club, we are finally achieving what most fans expect. Now we are in the Championship that expectation, I think, has disappeared. The fans are just happy to be playing bigger teams again and travelling to brand new stadiums like the Ricoh Arena. There is a buzz around the club and this has rubbed off on the players. They are able to play with a freedom, even more so now given that we have virtually retained our status as a Championship club for next season. But we now found ourselves in a position of being in touching distance of the promise land and the question is: Do we go for it?

We have seen many clubs go up to the Premiership, spend a fortune and come down a broken club. Under the guidance of Johnson and wise chairman Steve Lansdown I doubt this would happen and I hope many other City fans would agree. For instance, if we were relegated after only one season we would bank at least £50 million and a further £30 million from parachute payments. Who wouldn’t want to go up? Take Watford for example, they managed two years ago to gain promotion and although they failed in their quest to stay up, they have returned to the Championship a much richer and bigger club.

Anyway, back to Monday’s game. After two straight wins against Sheffield Wednesday and Scunthorpe, confidence was high. I expected three points as our home form has been fantastic this season and Crystal Palace had not won a game since they had beaten us 2-0 in January. Revenge must have been on the minds of the players and I hoped for a good game of football. Unfortunately, Palace seemed intent on hitting the ball long and direct at every opportunity, and we were unable to get our passing game going.

It was a poor first half with the best chance for City going to Nick Carle who shot just wide. Palace improved in the second half and scored with a fine half volley from Lee Hills after 60 minutes. City were awarded a penalty with just five minutes to go after a foul on Darren Byfield. Bradley Orr stepped up to take the penalty, confident after scoring two previous penalties, unfortunately his effort and rebound were saved but in the last minute of injury time Jamie McCombe rescued a point with a bullet header from a corner.

On many occasions this season we have scored late goals to either rescue a point or win the game. With just 13 games left the league is very tight and with Stoke City now leading the way it looks to be a four-horse race for who will gain the two automatic spots. I’m sure City can achieve the play-offs and maybe automatic promotion. As Adriano Basso says, "Always believe."

ANDY DAVIES