| Full name | Bristol City Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Robins, The Reds, Cider Army, The City. | ||
| Founded | 1897 | ||
| Ground | Ashton Gate, Bristol (Capacity: 21,497) |
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| Chairman | Colin Sexstone | ||
| Manager | Derek McInnes | ||
| League | The Championship | ||
| 2010–11 | The Championship, 15th | ||
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| Current season | |||
Bristol City Football Club is one of two football league clubs in Bristol, England (the other being arch rivals Bristol Rovers). They play at Ashton Gate, located in the south-west of the City. They were promoted to the Football League Championship in the 2006–07 season after finishing second in League One but failed to make a second consecutive promotion to the Premier League after they were defeated by Hull City in the Championship Play-Offs.
Bristol City won the Welsh Cup – despite being an English team – in 1934. In 1907 they finished runners-up in Football League Division One, which is their highest-ever final position.
In 1982, Bristol City became the first English team to suffer three consecutive relegations but by 1990 they were back in the old Second Division. Another relegation followed in 1995, when City finished second from bottom in the new Endsleigh League Division One and a return to that division three years later lasted just one season. Most of their seasons between 1999 and 2006 were spent challenging for promotion in the upper half of the Football League Second Division.
The club's nickname is "The Robins", and a robin featured on the club's badge from 1976 to 1994. Official club merchandise, including replica kits, still has a label showing a robin. An attempt by the club to alter the club's badge was abandoned after the club was criticised fiercely by fans.[1]
Bristol City currently play at Ashton Gate stadium in the Ashton/Bedminster area of the city of Bristol, which has an all-seater capacity of 21,497. Bristol had been chosen as a host city for the 2018 World Cup, but England were not awarded host nation status. Bristol City plan to build a new 30,000 capacity stadium at Ashton Vale, to be completed in time for the 2012–13 season. The club is affiliated to the Somerset County FA and Gloucestershire County FA.
The club was founded in 1897, when Bristol South End turned professional and changed its name to Bristol City, and were admitted into the Southern League, finishing as runners-up in three of the first four seasons. In 1900 the club merged with local rivals Bedminster, who had been founded as Southville in 1887. The side joined the Football League in 1901 and were the only non-London League side south of Birmingham until 1920. Their first game in the Football League was against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road on 7 September 1901. City won 2–0.[2]
They first entered Division One in 1906 as Second Division champions, and as newcomers became known as the "Bristol Babies", a nickname that would last into the thirties. They were runners-up to Newcastle United in their first season in the top flight, and in 1909 reached the FA Cup final, where they were beaten by Manchester United at the Crystal Palace in London. But these achievements were not consistent, and in 1911 City were relegated back to the Second Division. They have not repeated the heights of the 1906–1909 era since, and did not even return to the top flight for 65 years.
The 1920s were a rocky time as City bounced between the Second Division and the Southern Section of the Third Division. By the 1930s they had slumped into the lower division, and stayed that way until the Second World War. Harry Dolman became chairman in 1949, a post he would hold for over 30 years. An engineer who had bought out the firm he worked for, he designed the first set of floodlights installed at Ashton Gate in the early 1950s. The late 1950s were a better time for City, with a five year stay in the Second Division, a league they returned to for a further spell in 1965.
In 1967, Alan Dicks was appointed manager, and things gradually began to improve,with promotion to the First Division finally being achieved in 1976, ending a 65-year exile from the top flight.
Between 1975 and 1981 City were regular participants in the Anglo-Scottish Cup, winning the trophy in 1977-78, beating Hibernian in the semi-finals, and winning 3-2 on aggregate in the final against St Mirren (managed at the time by a relatively new manager, Alex Ferguson). St Mirren had their revenge 2 seasons later, with an aggregate 5-1 victory over City to become the only Scottish team to win the trophy.
City's second stint in the top flight was less successful and memorable than the club's first, with 13th position in 1979 being their highest finish during this era. Stars of this era included Geoff Merrick, Tom Ritchie, Clive Whitehead, Gerry Gow, Trevor Tainton and Jimmy Mann.
In 1980, the City team went back to the Second Division in the first of three relegations, their debt mounted and their financial losses increased, with two successive relegations following. Thus, in 1982, they both fell into the Fourth Division, and were declared bankrupt. BCFC (1982) Ltd acquired the club's player contracts, and the highly-paid senior players Julian Marshall, Chris Garland, Jimmy Mann, Peter Aitken, Geoff Merrick, David Rodgers, Gerry Sweeney and Trevor Tainton, who became known as the 'Ashton Gate Eight', each accepted termination of his contract for half the amount due to him.
City spent two seasons in the Fourth Division before winning promotion under Terry Cooper in 1984. They consolidated themselves in the Third Division during the later part of the 1980s, and in 1990 Cooper's successor Joe Jordan achieved promotion as Third Division runners-up.
There was a tragedy for the club, however, in that promotion campaign. In March 1990, two months before the club sealed promotion, striker Dean Horrix was killed in a car crash barely two weeks after joining the club, and having played three league games for them.[3]
Jordan moved to Heart of Midlothian in September 1990, and his successor Jimmy Lumsden remained in charge for 18 months before making way for Denis Smith. Smith's first signing was the 20-year-old Arsenal striker Andy Cole, who was an instant hit with fans and quickly established himself as one of the finest goalscoring talents ever to wear a Bristol City shirt. But he was sold to Newcastle United in February 1993 and later established himself as a world class goalscorer, most prominently with Manchester United, where he collected five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the European Cup.
Meanwhile, City remained in the new Division One (no longer the Second Division after the creation of the Premier League in 1992) and Smith moved to Oxford United in November 1993. His successor Russell Osman was sacked within a year, being a very unpopular figure with fans. One of Osman's few successful moments with City came in January 1994 when he led them to a shock 1–0 victory over Liverpool in the third round of the FA Cup.
Joe Jordan was brought back to Ashton Gate in September 1994, but was unable to prevent relegation to Division Two.
Jordan remained at the helm for two seasons after City's relegation, but left in June 1997 after failing to get them back into Division One. Former Bristol Rovers manager John Ward took over, and achieved promotion in 1998 as Division Two runners-up. But City struggled back in Division One, and Ward stepped down in October 1998 to be succeeded by Benny Lennartsson. City were relegated in bottom place and Lennartsson was dismissed in favour of Gillingham's Tony Pulis, who lasted six months before leaving to take over at Portsmouth. During his time at Ashton Gate he was manager of perhaps the worst City side since the one that completed a hat-trick of successive relegations almost 20 years earlier. Coach Tony Fawthrop took over until the end of the season, when Danny Wilson was appointed. Wilson was arguably the most prominent manager to take charge of a City side since Denis Smith, as he had guided Barnsley to promotion to the Premier League in 1997 and Sheffield Wednesday to a 12th place finish in 1999.
City were regular Division Two playoff contenders during Wilson's spell as manager. City failed to reach them in 2002, although Wilson almost took them to automatic promotion, and winning the Football League Trophy in Cardiff in 2003. The taste of the play-offs was bitter though, losing to rivals Cardiff City 1–0 on aggregate in the semi-final. In his final year – 2004 – they reached the final, but lost to Brighton & Hove Albion. He was sacked within days and replaced by veteran player Brian Tinnion.
City just failed to make the playoffs in Tinnion's first season as manager, finishing seventh, and he stepped down in September 2005 after a poor start to the season culminating in a 7–1 defeat at the hands of Swansea City. City's form had slumped despite the addition of high profile players including Marcus Stewart and Michael Bridges. Yeovil Town manager Gary Johnson was recruited as his successor.
Johnson arrived in September 2005, making the move from Yeovil Town, with whom he had gained two promotions. His first game in charge (only hours after meeting the squad) saw City win away at Brentford 3–2. After a short spell of decent results, City were plunged into the relegation mire, enduring a club record of nine successive defeats, leaving them at the foot of League One. Much criticism was aimed at Gary Johnson at this time; the Chairman of Bristol City Supporters Club labelled him a 'Conference Manager' and contended that he was 'totally out of his depth'. The run was brought to an end with a 2–0 victory at home to Huddersfield on 10 December. City then lost just three of their next 16 games, and this fine run of form was capped with a 6–0 win over Gillingham, in which defender Louis Carey scored a brace. This was City's most emphatic league win since beating Charlton by the same score in September 1969, and was an encouraging sign of things to come, although they did not quite make playoffs in 2006.
Despite a slow start to the following season, which saw a vocal minority of fans calling for Johnson to be sacked after a 4–2 home defeat by Blackpool (who were eventually also promoted), City were in the top six of League One by November and at the end of the month began an 11-match unbeaten run which drove them to the top of the division. They also hit the headlines with an impressive FA Cup run, being knocked out in the 4th round on penalties after a replay in which they held Premiership side Middlesbrough to a 2–2 draw in both ties. They knocked out Championship side Coventry City in the 3rd round. They also reached the Southern Area Final of the Football League Trophy, but were knocked out over two legs by local rivals Bristol Rovers after a 0–0 draw at Ashton Gate and a Rickie Lambert goal condemned the Robins to a 1–0 aggregate defeat in the second leg. Promotion to the Championship was confirmed on the final day of the season with a 3–1 win over doomed Rotherham United. David Noble scored two goals and Alex Russell scored once, securing runners-up place in the division and resulting in automatic promotion and joyous scenes of celebration in the city and even more so on the pitch at the full time whistle. 2007–08 is the first season in almost a decade that has seen Bristol City playing at this level of English football.
In the summer between City's promotion and the start of the Championship season, Gary Johnson made a number of signings. However their pre-season form did not start well, losing 4–2 to Forest Green Rovers. However City got off to a good start going unbeaten for a number of matches and briefly topping the Championship after beating Coventry City 3–0. City then suffered a slight blip after losing 3–0 to Barnsley before beating a variety of big name teams including Sheffield United live on Sky Sports and Southampton. In November, City's form dipped and they endured a run of 4 games without a win, including a 6–0 thrashing at the hands of Ipswich Town. In December, City's form picked up again and went unbeaten all the way to Boxing Day when they lost to West Bromwich Albion 4–1.
After a stop start run of form including victories over Blackpool and Coventry City and losses to Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace, City went top of the Championship on 1 March, after a 2–1 home victory over Hull City. After some indifferent results City went back to the top after a last gasp winner from Steve Brooker, who was just returning from injury, in a 2–1 win over Norwich City. However a poor run ended City's chances of an automatic promotion place. On 4 May 2008, a 3–0 home win against Preston North End on the final day of the league season ensured a play-off place and a semi-final fixture against Crystal Palace. On 13 May 2008, a 4–2 aggregate win over Crystal Palace with goals from Lee Trundle and Michael McIndoe confirmed City's trip to Wembley, where they were beaten 1–0 by Hull City.
After a poor start in the first half of the 2008–09 season, City recovered after Christmas. After winning 4–2 away at Watford on Boxing Day, they took 13 points from five games in early 2009 to reach 8th place in the league by early February. City had a memorable away victory against Reading which saw them jump up to their highest position of the season to 4th. After a lot of draws, the season eventually petered out and City finished the season in 10th place.
The 2009–10 season saw some good results in the Autumn, but heavy defeats to Cardiff City (0–6) and Doncaster Rovers (2–5) in early 2010 lead to much dissatisfaction amongst fans.[4] On 18 March 2010, the club issued a statement that Johnson had "left his post as manager of Bristol City by mutual consent".[5] Assistant manager Keith Millen took charge as caretaker manager, starting well with a draw against title favourites Newcastle United and a 5–3 win against Barnsley. After that, City beat Peterborough United 1–0, which was the first time they had gone three matches unbeaten in the league since the end of October.
In a brief press conference on 22 April 2010, it was announced that former Reading manager Steve Coppell would become the new City manager at the end of the 2009–10 campaign, when he would start a 12-month rolling contract, and that Keith Millen, who had guided the club to Championship safety in his brief spell as caretaker manager, would remain at the club as his assistant.[6] Coppell's first game in charge was a 1–1 friendly draw with Swedish side IFK Gothenburg. His first win as manager was an 11–1 win against Swedish fourth division side Vallens IF on the same pre-season tour.
It was announced on 12 August 2010 that Coppell had resigned as manager with immediate effect. This followed his only two competitive games at the club, a 0–3 home defeat by Millwall in the opening game of the 2010–11 Football League Championship and a 2–3 loss at League Two Southend United in the Football League Cup.[7]
Keith Millen was announced as manager of Bristol City on a three year deal after Coppell stepped down.[7][8]
Bristol City parted company with manager Keith Millen on 3 October 2011.[9] City struggled to find form at the start of the 2011–12 Championship season picking up just 6 points from 10 games. His sacking comes after their 5–0 defeat by Blackpool on 1 October 2011.[10] Millen's last game in charge was his heaviest loss since his appointment the previous year. The club installed Steve Wigley as caretaker manager following Millen's exit and stated that they would take their time in finding a new manager.[11]
On Wednesday, 19 October 2011, Scotsman Derek McInnes was appointed Bristol City manager after Keith Millen's departure. The 40-year-old joined from Scottish Premier League side St Johnstone on a contract until the summer of 2014. McInnes was highly respected at St Johnstone after his 2008/09 season triumph when St Johnstone finished at the top of the First Division taking them up into the SPL. Assisting McInnes will be Tony Docherty, who was his assistant manager at St Johnstone. McInnes arrives at Ashton Gate with a 40 per cent win percentage, with 53 victories, 41 draws and 38 defeats in his 130 games in charge at McDiarmid Park.
On 29 November 2011, the club announced a loss of £11.45 million[12].
Football League Honours
Other Honours
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Colours, crest, mascot & anthemBristol City have played in red and white since the 1890s, occasionally also including black.[13] The 2010–2011 season's kit is made by Adidas (The 1st year of a 4 year deal).
RivalriesFurther information: Bristol Derby
Further information: Severnside Derby
Further information: Westcountry Derby
Bristol City's traditional and biggest rivals are Bristol Rovers. The clubs have met 105 times, with the first meeting in 1897. Bristol City have the most wins on 43. However, the clubs have not been in the same league for a number of years, and meetings have been inconsistent in the 21st Century. They were last in the same division in the 2000–01 Season. Since then, they have only met twice, in the two-legged southern final of the 2006–07 Football League Trophy. City's other main rivals are Cardiff City, who play in nearby Cardiff. Despite being a local derby, it crosses the Wales-England border, making it one of the few international derbies in the United Kingdom. Both clubs have been at similar levels over the past 10 years, except between 2003 and 2007 when Cardiff were a division above. This has meant frequent meetings in the league including in the semi-finals of the 2003 Second Division play-offs. Both clubs are currently in the championship with Cardiff winning their most recent encounter 3-1 on 14th August 2011. Other clubs have been seen as 'third rivals' by the fans and media. Swindon Town are seen by many as rivals, being nicknamed 'Swindle' by City fans. Plymouth Argyle have also been considered rivals despite a distance of over 100 miles. The rivalry has developed in recent years as the two clubs were the highest ranking West Country clubs for a number of years, and meetings were seen as a decider of the 'Best in the west'. Swansea City and even Yeovil Town have previously been mentioned as rivals, but very rarely. Shirt sponsors
Current management
PlayersFirst-team squadNote: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
On LoanNote: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Notable former playersFor a list of notable Bristol City players in sortable-list format see List of Bristol City F.C. players.
Managerial history
StadiumMain article: Ashton Gate stadium
Bristol City play at Ashton Gate in the south-west of Bristol, just south of the River Avon. The ground has an all-seated capacity of about 21,500, with an effective capacity (depending on how many away tickets are allocated, and how they are segregated) of around 19,100. It was the home of Bedminster until the 1900 merger, and the merged team played some games there the following season, but it did not become the permanent home of Bristol City until 1904. In the past plans were considered for expansion work to be carried out at Ashton Gate. There were also proposals to build a new 36,000-seat stadium at Hengrove Park. This was turned down in a local referendum in December 2000.[24] In 2002, the local council was looking at possible sites for a new 40,000-seat stadium which would house both City, Rovers and Bristol Rugby, but these plans were scrapped and it is widely accepted that this would not have been welcomed by the majority of supporters from all clubs.[25] Ashton Gate's current capacity is an average size for Championship grounds, however in November 2007 the club announced plans to relocate to a new 30,000 capacity stadium in Ashton Vale plans were also in place to increase capacity to 42,000 had the England 2018 World Cup bid been successful.[26][27] As well as football, Ashton Gate has played host to many major music concerts in recent years, including those of The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, Elton John, Neil Diamond, The Who, Ronan Keating, Meat Loaf, Bon Jovi and Westlife. GalleryBristol City Women's FCThe women's team was formed in 1990 supported by the club's community officer. Their greatest achievement was reaching the semi-finals of the FA Women's Cup in 1994 and winning promotion to the Premier League in 2004. Following the decision by the FA to fund only one centre of excellence in Bristol, the two senior teams were disbanded in June 2008 and the girls youth side merged with the Bristol Academy for girls at Filton College.[28] The majority of the senior players, with coach Wayne Roberts, moved to the University of Bath in summer 2008 and now play as AFC TeamBath Ladies in the South West Combination Women's Football League.[29] Notable fansNotable fans of Bristol City include:
Records
Most appearances
Most club appearances including substitute appearances in all competitions (excluding Gloucestershire Cup). Updated 1 January 2012. References
External links
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