‘I am starting to dream that maybe promotion is a realistic target’

I have been racking my brain this week to try and remember how it felt ten years ago when City last had a realistic chance of promotion to the Premier League. In that famous season – the best City have had in my lifetime – we were one game away from the Holy Grail and only lost out in the play-off final to Phil Brown’s Hull City.

Looking back at the table from the 2007/08 season, City finished fourth in the League having occupied the automatic promotion places for much of the campaign. The teams that went up that year were Stoke City, who have been there ever since, and West Brom, who have been out of the top-flight just once since that promotion.

How different things might have been had Dean Windass’ shot gone wide that day. Our average attendance that year, according to Wikipedia, was just 16,275. I seem to remember that the latter half of the season saw City sell out almost all their home fixtures in double-quick time, and, given capacity was only around 18,000, match day tickets were hard to come by.

Gary Johnson’s side was a bit of a mismatch of experienced professionals and few youngsters with a star Brazilian keeper. In assessing where the club and playing squad are now, compared to ten years ago, you would have to say that we are in much better shape to sustain Premier League Football, should we achieve promotion this time around.

The stadium is, of course, the most obvious difference from yesteryear, with Ashton Gate being the brilliant leading light of Steve Lansdown’s Bristol Sport project. I would also argue that the playing squad at present is a fair bit better than the likes of Dele Adebola and Lee Trundle, who overachieved for us a decade ago.

All this hypothesising is, I think, permissible given the fact Lee Johnson’s side currently sit third in the Championship table after 20 matches. By Christmas Day we will be at the half-way point of matches played. Should City still occupy a top-six spot, thoughts will no doubt turn to potentially strengthening of the squad in the impending January transfer window.

I have discussed in recent weeks that I am not too confident of maintaining our promotion push well into the new year, and that a top-half table finish would show marked improvement from previous years. However, as the games go by and we continue to win matches like the Middlesbrough game, I have to admit I am starting to dream that maybe promotion is a realistic target.

In relation to any business in January, I can’t see Lansdown wanting to go out and break the bank to acquire the missing piece of the jigsaw. As we know, prices can be inflated in the mid-season window and the club will be wary of not wanting to upset the apple cart in relation to the obvious camaraderie that the team have.

A loan or two of real quality might be the answer, and, given how well Tammy Abraham did here last year, I would hope Premier League bosses would see City as a good place to send their potential stars of tomorrow.

City face high-flying Sheffield United for another match to be televised live on Sky. The Yorkshire club have surprised a some, and although they have dropped a few points of late, I would be expecting a tough game where avoiding defeat would have to be considered a success.