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Game #35 (34 for our West Country visitors) and a welcome return to the CCS for the visit of our Severn Side rivals Bristol City for this Sky "Red Button" game.
Our near neighbours come to us in decent form having not lost a league game for some 8 games, though of those 8 only 3 have resulted in victories with the other 5 all drawn.
Scoring doesn't seem to be an issue for the Robins with several promising youngsters coming through this season and even the loss of Antoine Semenyo (older brother to City's very own Jai) to Bournemouth in the transfer window not appearing to have knocked them off their recent stride, however, clean sheets have been far less frequent for them, despite a bit of "tightening up" at the rear.
Of course, it wasn't so long ago that the Ashton Gate outfit were also nervously looking over their shoulders at the bottom 3, but credit where it is due, Nigel Pearson and his coaching staff appear to have turned things around in pretty solid fashion.
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Nigel Pearson and his coaching team - certainly not scared to crow about their team's performances recently.
Earlier this season, we tasted defeat at Ashton Gate by a 2-0 scoreline, but although the West Country team probably deserved all 3 points in that one, the result could so easily have gone the other way had Max Watters and Rubin Colwill not spurned some glorious chances of our own. That game of course also saw replacement left back Joel Bagan forced off in the opening quarter with a head injury, meaning an unhelpful re-shuffle for the Bluebirds.
Last season's corresponding fixture also saw the Bluebirds slip up at home by a 1-2 margin, allowing the Robins to record their 2nd win in a row at the CCS after many failed attempts.
Thinking of the history of this fixture, it's certainly one that used to fill me with dread in my younger days as our opponents really seemed to have a bit of a voodoo sign over us, however, most recent games aside, the last 2 decades have seen us triumph more often than not over our country cousins.
For me, the turning point appears to have been that huge 2003 play-off semi-final win over 2 legs that saw the Bluebirds later go on to gain promotion at the Millenuim Stadium v QPR.
The 1-0 win at Ashton Gate with a Peter Thorne header, combined with excellent goalkeeping from Neil Alexander and the following 0-0 at Ninian Park set us on our way and seemingly broke the jinx that we'd been suffering.
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Thorne in their side - The man with the magic hat nods the Bluebirds in front with the goal that ultimately took us to the play-off final.Historically we still have some catching up to do, with the Bluebirds tasting defeat on 42 occasions, winning 36 times and drawing 21.
Hopefully scenes like this will prevail this time around and help us close that gap....
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Rather than seeing us trip up again.
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If the players can't react quick enough.... maybe the Wurzels should have got Gary Johnson playing instead of son Lee???
Early Bluebird Team News
Top scorer Callum Robinson is once again missing and news has now filtered through that Ebou Adams is unlikely to be seen this season, meaning he will have missed the entire campaign along with long term absentee Jamilu Collins who was injured just prior to our away fixture against this weekends visitors.
I would anticipate a further midfield re-shuffle after the disappointing loss at Norwich, with potentially Rinomhota to return in place of the ineffectual Ralls in order to combat the energetic midfield of our visitors.
Up front I would imagine we will try start with both Etete and Kaba in order to try trouble a wobbly West Country backline.
Prutton & Co Predict
Oh ye of little faith Davey boy... don't you know this is the game that will see us once again revived?? Why on earth do you think that we'll go down by a 1-2 scoreline?
The bookies appear to differ though (they know their stuff);
Home Win 5/4 Draw 23/10 Away Win 11/5
Mrs Brizzle Speaks
So, my better half believes she has some insight (not after checking my crystal balls I might add) and she was keen to let you all know what wisdom she had to impart (in her best Bristolian accent)...
"Personally I thinks our Scott and Sykes will cause trouble for you lot down your left hand side with their pace and our gert lush long balls to them. We was unlucky against Man City and think we could have got a draw with a bit more luck and if we'd got our clear penalty. The boys will come out fighting though and we're gonna win 1-0."
Of course, this game probably divides a few households, not just ours, so let battle commence and lets give our visitors a "warm" welcome and hope its a blockbuster!!
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Moving on from any marital strife and split households....
Sharing The Love
Having covered the likes of Clarke, Tomlin, Flint & Heaton in the away game, we still have quite a few names left on the list... I just have to pick out one of my favourite players from the mid 80's though as this coincided with me just starting to go down to Ninian Park on a regular basis.
The super sexy Paul Wimbleton was a combative midfielder with marvelously flowing locks who played in our promotion winning side in the 87-88 season. after leaving the Bluebirds he had a brief stint with our opponents.
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Back in a time when players were "real" men and we all wanted to look like Bono!
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So, will our (not so) sharp shooters down the Red Red Robin? Can we turn the recent tide and avoid a Severn Bore draw?? Will we once again experience the joy of six and romp to victory, consigning our visitors faint play-off hopes to the Jack's Larder???
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All I know is for the sake of my sanity and a peaceful evening, our SAS management duo MUST turn around the recent results against our tractor driving visitors (no offence Remote) and give us a win.
Blooooooobirds!!
