No. 65: Ashton Gate [Bristol City]

Tuesday, 12th August 2014.
Bristol City v. Oxford United [Capital One Cup, 1st Round]

Ashton Gate, Bristol.

So - the season is away and my first in-road into the 92 completed, with the visit to Bristol City's Ashton Gate for the Capital One Cup 1st Round fixture.

As fortune may have it, my team Oxford were drawn away to Bristol in the 1st Round of the League Cup so it was easy enough to get along to this game for me, a simple 2 hour drive down the M4 from South Oxfordshire.

Bristol City can probably rightly lay claim to true "sleeping giant" status - being the bigger club in one of England's largest cities, you might expect them to have the demographics & catchment area to support a team in the Top Tier of English football.

However, but for a top flight few glory years from 1976-1980, this 'sleeping giant' has spent his years pretty comatose.

Indeed, the 'slump' that followed those glory years saw City become the first club in history to drop from the top flight to bottom flight in consecutive seasons. Were it not for the actions of the "Ashton Gate 8" (Eight players who agreed to tear up their contracts to save the club from going into administration), there may not be a Bristol City anymore.

But things are looking up in South Bristol. The recent slump may seem from the outside a decline from the high of the 2007-08 season, when they were one game away from the Premiership. But most fans are not worried at all it seems.

With the Billionaire Financial Services guru Stephen Lansdown in charge, the view seems to be that the money won't dry up, and the investment in a Bristol 'brand' of sporting franchises (Basketball, Rugby & a Women's WSL team), plus recent wiping off of an estimated £35m of the club's debt, the owners have shown a commitment that goes beyond the norm.

Bristol Sport Brand: Franchisetastic

Couple that with an investment to turn Ashton Gate into a 27,000 seater multi-purpose stadium - the future does look particularly rosy for the Robins.

On the pitch - expectations are also high. A top 6 finish would be the minimum they would expect in League One this season - with some even saying they have by far the best squad at this level and ending the season as Champions should not be an unrealistic aim.

Well - we shall see. It is of course early days, but as I got into my car to drive to the game, I certainly I wasn't expecting much out of the Capital One Cup clash for my beloved Oxford this evening, in the face of such optimism form the home fans.

Bristol is a fantastic city. One I've spent time in before and has plenty to offer the visitor. Isambard's Clifton Suspension Bridge is one of the most beautiful structures that came out of the Industrial Revolution - and the view of it lit up at night overlooking the city is a sight to behold.

Clifton Suspension Bridge: Beautiful.

Then there is the Cathedral, reminiscent of Paris' Notre Dame, and  - more Brunel - the SS Great Britain. The largest vessel ever built when it first hit the water in the 1850s, Isambard's great folly now sits in the dry dock where she was originally built - now a ship museum.

Sadly, I didn't have time for any of this sightseeing malarkey last night, and instead spent the hour or so I had spare before the game walking around the Southville district of Bristol that Ashton Gate is in, looking for somewhere to get some food and a beer.

Although I've never been to watch City, I have been to watch their bitter rivals Rovers a few times, and without fail it's always bloody raining in Bristol when I visit. As it was on this occasion, and I managed to get monumentally fucking soaked in three separate short bursts of monsoon-like rain. Looking for a pub that wasn't "home fans only" proved fruitless around the ground, so I ducked into a very nice little Indian Restaurant chain called "Thali" for a beer and a curry as I dried off a little.

This place was just a 5 minute walk from Ashton Gate - and I heartily recommend it if you are looking for more than the usual burger or bag of chips pre-match.

"Thali" of Bristol: Excellent authentic taste of India.

Then it was into the Bar BS3 by the ground. I sneaked under the "Home Fans" only radar by virtue of being alone and also possessing in my repertoire a pretty decent imitation of the Bristol accent. I also made sure that when inside, in my thickest Bristolian, I ordered a pint of Thatchers Gold cider. I'd have clearly given myself away immediately had I gone for my usual real ale or premium lager - the cider really does flow like rain in these parts. I reckon 95% of all the City fans in that pub were on the cider. And who can blame them, frankly.

I was hoping to meet one of my questionnaire respondents in Bar BS3, but sadly for whatever reason he never turned up. Or perhaps he did and just saw this odd man affecting a Bristol accent and drinking alone and thought he'd give me a wide berth. And who can blame him, frankly.

I did get the opportunity to be in the presence of one of the 'legendary' fans of City though in this bar. I was told to look out for a man called Stoney Garnett, who wears a lovely red hat with a feather in it. Stoney is a part-time comedian who also worked for over 2 decades at Bristol City, and apart from his outlandish get-up, he's also known for his rants of "Get someone on the halfway line!". He even has his own Facebook Appreciation Group.

Stoney Garnett: City Legend

Sure enough, Stoney walked into the beer garden and greeted the assembled with a scream of his above catchphrase in thick Bristolian. I realised my attempt at the accent had probably fooled nobody!

Stoney was dressed in a spangly "crocodile-skin" style jacket in bright Bristol red, the aforementioned red feathered cap & a pair of quite lovely red-and-white Two-Tone shoes.

Everybody knew him and he seemed to know everybody too, as he went around glad-handing the lot of them. I didn't get myself a picture with him sadly, as I was of course still very much undercover in enemy territory.

So I downed my Thatchers and went off to the game.

First impressions were of course, that it was a bit of shame that one end of the ground was a pile of rubble, having been knocked down at the end of last season as part of the ground redevelopment.

A pile of rubble where the Wedlock Stand used to be.

But you can clearly see that this ground has scale and substance, and understand why this would have been the site of a candidate stadium for England's failed 2018 World Cup bid.

Dolman Stand: Where most of the City fans seemed to be.

Despite the ramshackle and dated feel to the three existing stands at Ashton Gate - give me a ground like this over a modern identikit 'bowl' stadium any day. Behind the goal you had a sense of 'scale' that you were in a slightly larger stadium than the norm at this level, but still close enough to the pitch to get a decent view.

The match itself, well I wasn't a neutral on this occasion, so obviously I thought it was a cracking game, considering Oxford scored an 87th minute winner!

The Atyeo Stand: Housing 500 Oxford fans.

When Bristol City went up with only a minute on the clock, I must admit I was not expecting much from the evening other than a stroll in the park for the home side, especially given the optimism the City fans had shown me earlier in the week. But actually, and I hope this isn't the rose-tinted glasses, Oxford began to boss the game pretty early on, and showed composure on the ball and quality I'm sure Bristol hadn't been expecting.

The Williams Stand: Quiet.

Bristol City I'm sure will not flinch too much at this defeat, with a few changes since their opening day victory at Bramall Lane it was clear the league campaign, as with all, will be their priority. But for Oxford, the psychological boost of getting their first win of the season at higher league opposition, plus both of their newly-signed forward line scoring - cannot be over-stated.

All in all, a good start to the experiment. I enjoyed Bristol, only wish I could have spent more time in this great city. And it was an entertaining, fast-paced game of football that put a smile onto face.

I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than "Scrumpy" the Robin, the Bristol City mascot apparently did.

With thanks to: Ashton Adams (@ashtonadamsbcfc), Ben Wilson (@BENWlLSON) & Stuart Radnedge (@stu_radnedge) for their help.

Next ground on the 92 Club Trail: Doncaster Rovers' Keepmoat Stadium [30th Aug 2014].
Can you help answer a few questions about your club? Please email me fantasticmrox@mail.com