‘Anyone can beat anyone on their day’

International breaks take on little or no meaning for me nowadays. I use to, or at least I think I did, pay attention to who was in and out of the England squad, who would make the starting eleven and which overpaid Premier League primadonna would take on the captaincy.

But nowadays, and this season in particular, international breaks serve as an oasis of stress free time where my attention is concentrated elsewhere: work, family and the general day-to-day nonsense that makes up modern day life.

I still enjoy the big international tournaments, don’t get me wrong. But meaningless friendlies and one-sided qualifiers can, as a colleague at work would say, ‘do one’.

My interest was slightly raised, of course, by two of or own going head-to-head in Dublin last week. Hordur Magnusson’s Iceland triumphed over Callum O’Dowda’s Republic of Ireland’s side in a narrow 1-0 victory following a sumptuous free kick from the six-foot-plus blond City centre-half.

Anyway, enough of the international drabness. Back to the important matter of Championship survival. I have not had the pleasure to address you good people since our stunning 4-0 victory over Huddersfield under the lights and Sky TV cameras just prior to the two week break.

A lot has been written and discussed about how such a strong performance could come from a team doing so badly in the league. Well, first and foremost, this is Championship football, and, as we know, anyone can beat anyone on their day.

But, I would also like to suggest that there were one or two contributory factors that played their part. Firstly, the formation was right: 4-2-3-1. This meant one of our most gifted players, Tomlin, was played in his correct position, just off the striker.

We also had two ball-winning central midfielders in Pack and O’Neil, who worked tirelessly throughout, plus an option on either wing in the shape of Cotterill and O’Dowda, not to mention Korey Smith at right-back, who has been nothing short of a sensation.

Ashton Gate was, thankfully, a cheerful place to be for the first time in some time, which must have had a huge affect on the players’ morale.

City are now on a four match unbeaten run and a look at the table sees us in the mix with maybe six other teams for what will most likely be just one relegation place, assuming Rotherham and Wigan are now left with too much to do.

Those odds don’t sound too bad, do they: one in seven to go down. We will see, though, as I predict two away losses in out next two games against Brentford and Preston that will no doubt see us back in the thick of it and will lead to the situation looking much more precarious.

Before I leave you good folk, I want to raise something that caught my attention in recent days: the news that the first of City’s two away clashes at Brentford is to be shown in the awfully-named Bar and Grill facility at Ashton Gate. This is a good thing, I’m sure you’ll all agree.

One of the reasons the club stated for doing so was ‘on police advice’ – presumably to try and deter fans from attending the game in the Brentford end, as City’s allocation sold out some time ago. This seems like a sensible way to try and prevent flashpoints.

Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Lee Johnson. He has had a tough few months being in charge at the Gate, and although the naysayers and doubters still have their misgivings, as do I, he has presided over our last four matches that saw us pick up eight points, from a possible 12.

Most of the teams around us have changed managers recently, and although it remains to be seen whether or not our choice to stick with the current management team will pay off, things have been going well recently. This must be, in part, down to the good stewardship of Johnson, Holden and McAllister. Fingers crossed things continue in this upward trajectory.

Read more: Are we staring relegation in the face?