I was sitting with six friends from Hull in the Club Wembley section next to the players and there were several Bristol City fans mixed in with us, and they were great all game and congratulated us in very friendly fashion when the game ended. I was amazed how quickly the Bristol half of the stadium emptied out at the final whistle. They must have been devastated as we were under enormous pressure in the last 20 minutes. Its really sad to see them at the bottom of Div.1 and i hope they recover and stay up. The fans we met that day were real gentlemen.
it does rather put into context those who, last season, would have preferred to stay down and strengthen the team, rather than go up and risk humiliation. Bristol's decline after missing out at Wembley should be a lesson - I suspect Bristol fans would have much rather had a season in the prem, however bad, instead of what has happened.
Three events come to mind for me: The fantastic way Bristol fans behaved at Wembley, even the Police commented on in. When I met a former chairman of the club on holiday and how he described being shunned by the club he had financially supported for years. Being at Ashton Gate when their chairman left the club stating as he could not develop a new stadium, it was the end of the road for him. No matter who owns a club, pumping money into football is a massive gamble. Without being able to see a return, most, if not all owners will look at how much they are expected to fund and ask "is this really worth it?" Lets face the fact that one goal changed our fortunes forever. It seemed like a disaster when we dropped out of the PL, but in reality since that one goal was scored we have been in the top 30. Bristol are now in the bottom 30. I can only wish the fans the best of luck.
Word. It's impossible to over-emphasize this point. Thanks to Phil Brown, Deano and co., we are now a yo-yo club (like Bolton, WBA, West Ham, Blackburn etc) that is struggling to stay up and establish itself at this level. This seemed a barely credible scenario 10 years ago when the Allams had never heard of us, when Steve Bruce would never have even considered being our manager. Every month that passes sees the nation growing accustomed to us belonging at this level rather than being a Cinderella flash in the pan club that fluked promotion in 2008. I am aware of how that goal catapulted us upwards and condemned Bristol to a slow continuing decline. Spooky really, and if we'd have lost where would we be now? Same as them? (On the subject of their fans, regardless of how their once in a lifetime fans comported themselves that day in 2008, every time I've visited Ashton Gate (always to see us lose), their regular fans have gone out of their way to enjoy our defeats and remind us of the result.I hope they're still enjoying their football )
