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Next ! 1996-7 video up


1960maaan

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Just watched it properly... 

2 points I need to make.

Tinman's shocking suit at 59 and a half mins in-ish. Teal green/blue. Awful.

And my first ever game I saw live was the Notts County game where Goater scored a hat trick. I was in Block A or B of the Dolman. Obviously couldn't see my 10 year old self but I was there somewhere! Never seen it before via footage. Only memories I had were live ones. 

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Off the pitch Scott Davidson, a millionaire pop star, led a consortium who took over the boardroom. They ensured a greater degree of democracy so that if an investor came along, he would be allowed a say in the running of the club. This heralded the 1996-97 season which was deemed to be the Centenary year of Bristol City F.C. and publicity was made of the fact. The Carling Atyeo Stand had been opened on the Centenary of Bristol South End's first ever game and Bedminster had been in existence before that, so the emphasis was on Bristol City, not it's predecessors. Paul Agostino had a shorter break than his team mates as he played for Australia in the Olympic Games during July. For this season, Martin Kuhl took over as Captain from Mark Shail and the team played in a 4-4-2 formation with Nugent at Centre forward and Agostino as strike partner. David Seal would come on as a substitute for either of them if required. Four of the team were now Bristolians and two others came from nearby. Towards the end of the previous season, Rotherham had visited and one of their players, Shaun Goater impressed spectators and management alike. £175,000 brought him to Ashton Gate in July and he scored in his first two games. Vigard Hansen was now third choice for a defensive position and returned to Norway. Keith Welch was unsettled and declined to go on a pre-season tour so that he was available if other clubs made an approach for him. To compound the looming goal keeping crisis, Matt Bryant was bought by Gillingham  and Southampton boughtt defender Martin Dryden for £300,000 shortly before the season began. His debut for Saints saw him marking the Italian international forward Gianluca Vialli.

                 The hole in City's defence was shown in the first two games, a 3-2 defeat at Gillingham who had Bryant playing in their defence and a 3-3 draw in the Coca-Cola Cup at Torquay. The goal keeping was being done now by Stuart Naylor who had arrived from West Brom as Dryden left. It appeared that Welch would go to Blackpool, but the deal fell through on the personal terms. He signed a weekly contract for City and made a return to the first team against Blackpool! They had two players sent off, but still won 1-0. Rob Edwards and Scott Paterson had both missed this game through injury. Jason Cundy was loaned from Spurs to strengthen the defence and he scored in the next match when they bounced back and a Bermudan, Greg Goodridge, scored twice on his debut as Luton were beaten 5-0. Clayton Blackmore was also loaned from Middlesborough. He got on really well at Ashton Gate, but was recalled when injuries depleted the ’Boro squad. He played in the F.A. Cup final at the end of the season. The League games had been intended as a glorious march to promotion, but the first six games had only produced two victories. Scott Davidson called Joe Jordan to a meeting on Thursday September 12th and warned him that performances must improve. Two days later City were away to Rotherham who were bottom of the division with only one point. and their manager was under the same threat as Jordan. At half time the game was goal less, but Rotherham soon scored and in the 54th minute went two nil up from a penalty. Two minutes later Agostino went on as a substitute and shortly after passed the ball to Gary Owers to score with. Ten minutes later Owers equalised from a corner and that was the end of the scoring. Two days later Rotherham replaced their manager. This was to be a precedent for the return fixture in April.  As a reward for beating Torquay, the second round of the Coca-Cola Cup was a tie with Bolton who had been in the Premiership the previous season and were now top of the first division. After a goal less clash in Bristol, there was a 1-1 draw at Burnden Park where Bolton scored twice in extra time. It was no disgrace as Bolton ran away with the First Division championship by scoring 100 league goals and amassing  98 points. City’s league performances did improve though and at the start of October they and Brentford were the top two scorers in the division with 18 and 19 respectively. They then clashed at Ashton and Brentford deserved their 2-1 win. City’s defence as a whole played well and five consecutive clean sheets were kept as a long unbeaten spell unfolded. For the next few months Bristol City were the top scoring team of Division Two.

 In December, Sky T.V. broadcast the Bristol derby live. Minutes from the end, Rovers equalised an earlier Agostino goal and their fans ran onto the pitch to celebrate and jeer at the City fans. The home fans then invaded the pitch and mounted police were called on to disperse them. The Football League decided to punish City, but not Rovers. This was followed up by the fixture at Wrexham. They scored twice, the second a controversial penalty, City then scored, had a penalty appeal in identical conditions turned down and a late goal disallowed for offside. But Santa does exist and City won both of the Christmas games. When the F.A. Cup came around, City disposed of Swansea with an Agostino goal after 17 seconds in a first round replay. St. Albans City visited for the second round and were on the receiving end of City’s best score for many years, 9-2. A trip to Chesterfield was the reward. This was the year for shocks and Chesterfield went on to reach the semi-finals after disposing of City 2-0.

                The Winter saw City win three consecutive away fixtures, then several weeks were lost to bad weather and City lost their momentum. In a bad spell City lost 5 out of 7 fixtures. Strugglers Peterborough won 3-1, promotion chasing Crewe fell 3-0, but then came some defeats and City slipped from 3rd to 10th. After bottom placed Rotherham won 2-0 at Ashton gate, Joe Jordan resigned. Gerry Sweeny was appointed caretaker and the next two matches were won 2-1 away to the Rovers and Crewe. John Ward was then appointed manager, but a home defeat by Gillingham started his tenure and it would now be difficult to reach the play offs. The next two fixtures saw a 2-2 draw away to 3rd. place Luton and a 1-0 win at home against new leaders Bury. Other results went City’s way and they won the next four games as well and finished the season in fifth place. They had been watched by over 16,000 for the final home game and had the division’s best average gate of 10,347. Over the second weekend of May 1997, Gloucestershire had a resounding win at the County Ground and went to the top of the County Championship, Bristol Rugby Club, who had been struggling, made sure of staying in Rugby’s elite by winning both legs of a play off, but City could not make it a trio of successes for Bristol when they faced Brentford at Ashton Gate. Brentford took the lead, Owers equalised and Brentford regained the lead to become favourites in the return leg. On the Wednesday night Darren Barnard gave City the lead, but the Londoners then scored twice and progressed to the final. To prepare for the next season Martin Kuhl and Paul Allen were then released on free transfers.

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16 hours ago, RedSA said:

What a goal by the Goat at 40:43!

Funny player Goater. A mate was a Man City season ticket holder and after seeing out highlights was excited when they signed him. Saw him live and thought he looked lazy and didn't get involved, then when he saw their end of season highlights he saw the magic of Goat's agin. Didn't do much outside the box , but came alive inside. When he got a chance hardly ever missed the target.
Wish we could have kept him longer.

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13 hours ago, Sergio Georgini said:

TIL that absolute knob on talksport Jason Cundy played 6 times for us on loan.

His ex wife comes into my shop she's a hottie!!

great year this, started so poor but picked up near the end. I still love that lovely away kit we wore against Brentford in the play off away game, anyone wanna sell me one? :laugh:! 

Its amazing to think Gerry Sweeney became caretaker boss and I never realised Welch wanted to leave either, glad he didn't till much later, good memories there

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