[Lord Snooty]

Bristol City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday November 30th 15:00 ko
at Ashton Gate

Huddersfield Town travel to play Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon with high hopes of coming away with some points. Manager Danny Cowley will have at least one team change to make following the red card given to Trevoh Chalobah on Tuesday night. Hopefully Danny Simpson will be passed fit for this, thus allowing Juninho Bacuna to move back in to midfield. Or possibly a recall for Terence Kongolo at left back, meaning Lewis O'Brien can go take up his more usual midfield dynomo role. Whatever the manager does, it won't be predictable.

As for City, well they were well beaten on Wednesday night at West Brom and we have had an extra 24 hours rest and recuperation, so who knows?

Tickets: are available from the Town ticket office til noon on Friday at an extortionate £32. The match ia all ticket and there will be no pay on the day.



A brief history of Bristol City: Founded in 1894 and admitted to the Football League in 1901. They won the 2nd division title in 1906 and followed that with their highest ever league finish when they were runners up to Newcastle the season after. Then came their one and only FA Cup Final in 1909 when they lost 1-0 to Manchester Utd. But then in 1911 they were relegated and stayed out of the top flight for the next 65 years.
In those years they won promotion from division 3 four times, eventually getting back to division 1 in 1976 when they finished runners up to Sunderland, with Alan Dicks as manager. They had four seasons in the top flight but were relegated in 1980 and have never been back.
That relegation triggered a huge fall and two more relegations and bankruptcy meant that they dropped for the first time into division 4.
They spent two seasons at the bottom, but haven't been back there. They have spent the rest of their time in the 2nd and 3rd tiers, winning promotion back to the Championship when they won League One in 2015.
They have also been League Cup runners up twice (1971 and 1989), won the Anglo/Scottish Cup in 1978 and the Football League Trophy three times (86, 03 and 15).

Head to Head




Town lead in the overall head to head with 25 wins to City's 21, with 11 draws.

Ashton Gate hasn't been a happy hunting ground recently, losing 0-1 in the FA Cup last season and then two 0-4 defeats in the last two league visits. We did win in 2013, late in the season when they were on their way down to League One, beating them 3-1 with a James Vaughan hat trick.

I can't think of many memorable games down there, apart from my first visit in January 1982. The match itself was a dull 0-0 draw, but the snowball fight was immense. It took place on the open terraces throughout the match and on the way back to the coach park afterwards. We were ambushed on the way back by the home fans, with little chance of reply and I reckon they won that one.  

The first meetings were way back in the 1911/12 season and didn't start well for us with City doing the double over us.


So what's new at Ashton Gate?  Still managed by Lee Johnson, a little toss pot who once managed Barnsley.
Before that though, he played football mainly for clubs managed by his dad, notably Yeovil Town and Bristol City. It was whilst playing for Bristol City that the young Johnson managed to get our manager Peter Jackson sent to the stand after an altercation in the technical area. Jacko fielded the ball and Johnson tried snatching it out of his hands. Jacko wasn't happy and grabbed the little upstart round the throat, starting a bit of a melee. Jacko received a two match touchline ban.

Notable players in their squad:- Three of our former players are there. Kasey Palmer signed on for the Robins in the summer after being on loan there for the second half of last season, from Chelsea. He scored on his debut, much like he did for us, coming off the bench in a victory over Bolton Wanderers. Of course, his debut for us was very special, against Brentford, in the first minute of his introduction. He scored five goals in his time with us and has also had loan spells at Derby and Blackburn.
Got subbed at half time on Tuesday night at West Brom.

Jack Hunt signed for Bristol City in the summer of 2018 from Sheffield Wednesday. Earlier in his career he was a top class attacking right back for Huddersfield Town, but got ideas above his station, joining Premier league Crystal palace, for whom he never made a single appearance.
Wasn't even on the bench on Wednesday night at West Brom.

Helmet

Another ex Town player there is Benik Afobe. He joined on loan from Stoke at the start of the season and started well, scoring three times in five games, but then suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in training, ruling him out for the rest of the season. He of course, came to us on loan from Arsenal in 2010, helping us reach the 2011 Play Off Final.

Their leading scorer is Austrian striker Andreas Weimann with six goals. He formerly played for Aston Villa in the Premier League as well as Watford, Derby and Wolves in the Championship.
The captain is Australian international centre back Bailey Wright, who signed from Preston in 2017.
Famara Diédhiou came off the bench at West Brom to score what turned out to be a consolation.
And there is one name who will give shivers down the spine of many a Town fan. Tommy Rowe, not the pop star who gave us the song Dizzy in the 60s, but the one who scored the first goal against us for some posh bastards in 2011.

Recent Form: Town are 19th in the league with 18 points and City are 7th with 29.