‘It’s going to be an exciting end to the season’

Even the most optimistic of Bristol City fans would not have predicted where the club finds itself going into this late March international break. We currently sit seventh place in the Championship, one point off both fifth and sixth place. Whatever happens I suggest it’s going to be an exciting end to the season.

Derby County, who occupy the fifth spot at the moment are doing their annual capitulation, which is pleasing to see. For the last few seasons they have flattered to deceive in the early stages of the campaign and had the season been 36 games, not 46, surely they would have been promoted some time ago.

Tony Pulis’ Middlesbrough sit just one place above City in sixth and I urge any supporter of our great club in need of a boost to have a look at their run-in. The North East club are set to face ourselves, leaders Wolves, fellow top-six rivals Derby County and in-form Millwall between now and May 6 – the final day of the season.

So, there is certainly reasons to be optimistic despite a slightly unconvincing win against Ipswich in what was a pretty poor game at Ashton Gate last week. But I – like most City fans – couldn’t have cared less about the scrappy nature of our victory. The old adage sprung to mind that to win when not playing well is always something to give one heart.

Given our ultimate goal is promotion to the Premier League, and given this is an International week, I am going to spend some time speculating as to where we might want to strengthen – should we make it to the promised land.

Firstly, I would suggest we would need to buy a new keeper. I like Frankie a lot, and it would be sad to not give him a chance at the highest level, but I feel there are areas of his game that are simply too weak. His distribution shows no sign of improving and I always feel he is prone to an error or two.

You’d have to say our defence is one of the strongest areas of the squad and given there is a decent chance both Flint and Bryan could be playing Premiership football next season whether City go up or not, they could no doubt do a job for us. I would also argue Baker has been the most consistent player in the squad this season so we may only need to look at a right-sided defender as cover or competition for Pisano.

Our midfield is undeniably talented. As Johnson said post Cardiff, we have a group of skilful ‘footballing midgets’, and of this fact we should be proud. We do however lack a bit of physicality and should we make it to the Premier League one or two powerful midfielder’s wouldn’t go a miss in my view.

This leaves us to our attacking options. City currently have more strikers on their books than I care to recall, most of which, I would suggest, are almost certainly not capable of making the step up. I would, however, love to see Bobby Reid at the top level and I think Djuric can pose a threat against any defence around.

Lastly, I want to make a final comment on the season ticketing debacle. Enough has been written and said on the matter so I’d just like to put in my two final thoughts. The first thing is that I can’t for the life of me think of a logical explanation as to why we are raising prices for fans with disabilities. The revenue that the price rises will raise is minimal and as far as I can see there is no moral justification for them.

The last thing I will say on the matter is that I think the club have handled the whole situation pretty poorly. Moving forward they would be wise to consult fans prior to such changes to give us a sense of involvement in the decision-making processes. Fingers crossed the club can learn from their mistakes.