Bristol City chairman Keith Dawe: This is the chance to create some great memories By ANDY STOCKHAUSEN please log in to view this image Bristol City players and backroom staff on the pitch at Wembley on a visit yesterday ahead of Sunday's Johnstone's Paint Trophy final. Bristol City please log in to view this image chairman Keith Dawe believes it has taken the club seven years to truly recover from the devastating effect of losing the 2008 Championship play-off final to Hull.One game from the promised land of the Premier League, the Robins saw their dreams dashed at Wembley as Dean Windass scored the only goal of the game to propel the Tigers into the top flight please log in to view this image . City have since experienced the bitter disappointment of relegation from the Championship and the collapse of an ambitious scheme to construct a new stadium at nearby Ashton Vale. But manager Steve Cotterill is leading a concerted revival in fortunes on the pitch and City will return to Wembley looking to secure their first silverware in more than a decade when they take on Walsall in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on Sunday. Victory at Wembley will represent the first part of a long-targeted double of Johnstone's Paint Trophy and League One title. And chairman Dawe believes the team has an opportunity to make new memories. He said: "For me, going to this particular final is one of the objectives we set in pre-season. "I felt we had had a very difficult few years and I felt the fans had had equally difficult years. I felt this was an opportunity to obtain a final, which the manager has managed to achieve. "Football is all about memories and finals, particularly Wembley finals, tend to produce memorable moments and instances. That's what you really talk about when you are a fan. Maybe we are climbing a smaller mountain please log in to view this image than we were in 2008, but we are in a final, we are looking to win the League One title and we are on the move again." Although Dawe and his fellow directors are delighted to be returning to Wembley after an absence of seven years, he admits there is no comparison between the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and the Championship play-off final. And he concedes that victory over Walsall on Sunday will in no way make amends for losing the biggest prize of all to Hull. He said: "I have to be honest and the events are very different. We were going for a Premier League place, the ultimate achievement, and a lot of money and work had been invested. But the effects of losing in 2008 will never leave me and going to Wembley in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy does not compensate for it. The 2008 final was scarring. It was just too big. "I cannot describe my disappointment. Steve Lansdown (majority shareholder) and I had come together and found ourselves in a position where we genuinely had control and we worked tremendously hard to achieve what we did. I think the play-off final was the zenith of our achievements. "I remember Steve and I sitting together after that game and we suddenly realised that we were not really talking to each other, but sharing our own private thoughts. Everyone else had gone to bed and we were still up, because we were the ones it had really hit. "Losing on that day was a little like falling back down a mountain and I think it took the club a little while to recover from it." http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Dawe-chance-create-great-memories/story-26203025-detail/story.html#ixzz3UufkX4E9
Who is he trying to kid ? It's taken 7 years and a relegation (almost 2 relegations) and all because of BAD, NO TERRIBLE, SENIOR MANAGEMENT from within the club and even worse decision making. And how does he think we felt on the day against Hull.....? To be frank, I'm still bitterly disappointed 7 years on from that game, when more bad decisions that season threw away almost a certain place in the Premiership because we didnt invest in the squad when we had the chance.
I truly believe that we were not in any shape at the time to sustain a season in the Prem and it could have been a lot more disastrous than what happened in subsequent years. Just saying that you want to be in the top flight isn't any near sufficient unless you have a sustainable plan, which we clearly did not and unless you have all your ducks in a row then you haven't got a hope of survival. Times, and hopefully Bristol City Football Club, have moved on and some of the unrealistic dreams we harboured have gone with them, so let's get back to the reality that we have a wonderful visit to Wembley tomorrow. Enjoy the day and let the rosier future take care of itself because we are in good hands finally.
I agree with Mike, we punched well above our weight in 07-08, and we were nowhere near ready for the Premiership, we didn't have the right manager or players for that level at the time, and It would have taken significant investment on the pitch to make a go of it, and we probably would have still failed and been in a real financial mess, despite parachute payments. We are on the way back and now we will be able to see if Dawe and SL really have learnt the lessons of 07-08??
Burnley, QPR, Barnsley, Bradford, Swindon and back in the day us, Luton, Carlisle and co weren't ready for the top flight but all were promoted. There were no massive TV rights and parachute payments in those days. You either stayed up or you didn't. Any regime that introduces austerity at BCFC even in L1 is blind
And now look where Swindon, Bradford and Barnsley are, and where Blackpool are about to be. All never set for the Premiership and have paid for it ever since, that said we are marginally better off and didn't get anywhere near the money they all got, so I think we have done well as a club this season.
And Portsmouth, all paid way beyond theirs means to stay up there all struggled regardless of the financial parachute. If we went up that season, how many players did you really believe would be prem stars? We would of done excatly the same as others paid over the odds for players who won't want to stay if times were hard.
