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FORM GUIDE
BRISTOL CITY 3 PRESTON NORTH END 11

LAST TIME OUT LEAGUE

LUTON TOWN 2 BRISTOL CITY 1


PRESTON NORTH END 0 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1



CITY NEWBIES

Chris Martin, Chris Brunt, Joe Williams, Alfie Mawson and rhe less talented of the Sessegnon brothers

Head to Head

First visit in 1902 which we lost 2-0 our first victory was in 1908 last season we drew 1 all, City's last home victory was in 2010 a 4-2 win.

It may only be four weeks since we faced Bristol City in an EFL Championship encounter, but it’s been a busy period since for both teams.

Dean Holden’s Robins go into the game on the back of an FA Cup success at home to Portsmouth on Sunday, but their rescheduled clash with Brentford on Wednesday night was called off for a second time due to Covid in the Bees camp.

North End, meanwhile, have also had a week without an evening game, giving them time to get the new faces acclimatised, with Ched Evans and Daniel Iversen both available for selection, along with midweek recruit Ben Whiteman.

Manager Alex Neil will have his staff back alongside him too, after a number of them isolating when they travelled to Adam Park in the Cup last weekend, but subsequently testing negative for Covid.

Team News
Manager Alex Neil will be able to call upon Ched Evans, who was cup tied for last week’s trip to Wycombe and he will also have Daniel Iversen available; the Danish international not involved at Adams Park, having only had one session with the squad.

Ben Whiteman will also be available after completing his permanent transfer from Doncaster Rovers on Wednesday and receiving clearance from the EFL and FA to allow him to join up with his new team-mates.

Daniel Johnson, Ben Davies and Ben Pearson will all be assessed, but Tom Barkhuizen is back after missing the third round tie due to isolating, after a close contact tested positive for Covid-19.

Declan Rudd underwent surgery earlier this week and he joins fellow long-term absentees, Patrick Bauer (Achilles), Billy Bodin (knee) and Louis Moult (ACL) on the sidelines.

For Dean Holden, he welcomed Alfie Mawson back last weekend, but is without Jamie Paterson, Liam Walsh and Joe Williams at present.

No midweek game may allow the Robins to also have back Nathan Baker, plus Kasey Palmer – who was back off loan with Swansea City should be clear after testing positive for Covid-19, whilst defender Jack Hunt may also return.


Match Officials
Saturday’s game sees Dean Whitestone appointed as match official, his third PNE game this season – all away from home - having taken charge of the 4-2 away win at Brentford back in October and December’s trip to Barnsley.

He refereed four North End games in 2019/20, including the home game with QPR and our home win over Charlton Athletic in late January.

The Northamptonshire official has refereed PNE games on 15 previous occasions, the first of which was at Bramall Lane back in October 2008.

He has officiated 16 games so far this campaign, issuing 23 cautions and no red cards – including Bristol City’s goalless draw with Watford back in November.

Two of the stand-out PNE games he has been in charge of, were a previous 3-0 victory at Barnsley in August 2009, and a 3-1 triumph on the road at Doncaster in October 2012.

The rest of Tuesday's official will be made up of assistant referees Adam Crysell and Mark Pottage, whilst the fourth official will be Martin Woods.

MACS VIEW

Apart from a visit in August 1986 which we lost 3-1 highlight of the game Jim Branagan giving a display of such ineptitudeat left back which promptly led to him being released visits to Bristol have been succesful, last five times I've been we have won.
Sadly will not be able to cast a view on Nelson Mandela house as with last season we are still stuck with eth Covids
Safe to say in recent games both sides have been in and out although to be fair to City their last league game was last year due to a Covid out break.
Over the years the ground has improved tremendously and this week became a venue for mass injections of whatever vaccine they have down there, every credit for opening their facilities for that.
Game wise let's hope our socially distance cup defeat can be consigned to being one of those things, newbies galore, question is will Ched bag?

FAMOUS BRISTOL FOLK

Dino Dini (born 5 June 1965) is a British video game developer and creator of the Kick Off series of football games.[1][2] He was a lecturer at the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, teaching game programming.[3]
In 1988, Dini was hired to code a top down football game from a Steve Screech idea.[4] In 1989 Kick Off was then published by Anil Gupta's publishing house Anco for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. The original version was designed and programmed by Dino Dini with graphics, playtesting and tuning by Steve Screech,[5][6] it was critically acclaimed[7] and sold very well. Dini followed it with Player Manager and Kick Off 2. Goal! (also known as Dino Dini's Soccer) was then released after Dini left Anco and moved to Virgin Games in 1993.[8] Goal! was critically acclaimed worldwide.[9] Goal! introduced more user friendly controls compared to Kick Off 2 and entertained a wider audience than its predecessor. It was also called the real Kick Off 3 by the Kick Off fans. In 1996, Dini moved to the United States to work as Project Director for the Z-Axis football game Three Lions. It was released in 1998.

In 2001, Dini moved back to Great Britain and started to work with his new development company, Abundant Software. In 2004, Dini signed with DC Studios to develop a new soccer game[10] which was code-named Soccer 3 and later Total Control Football. The game was cancelled during the summer of 2005.[citation needed]

After 2005, Dini worked as a contractor on a government-funded project. In 2009, he became a lecturer for the International Game Architecture and Design programme at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, teaching game programming. At the 2009 Game Developers Conference Europe (GDCE) in Cologne, (Germany), Dini was guest speaker on the subject of video game design.[11][12]

In 2010, Dino ran unsuccessfully for a position on the International Game Developers Association board of directors.[13] In August of that year, he announced via his blog that he was working on a sequel to his game Player Manager as an independent project.[14] In 2011 he contributed articles and the beta version of his browser-based game Letteroids 3D to DevilsMMO, a website for MMO and MMORPG games.[15][16]

On 14 October 2015, Dino Dini announced a new game entitled Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival. It was released on the PlayStation 4 on 24 June 2016, with poor reviews from game journalists,[17] and from players.[18] Metacritic judged Dino Dini Kick Off Revival the 2nd worst game of 2016,.[19] Vice elected Revival as the worst football game ever made.[20] A PlayStation Vita version was delayed and released nine months later in March 2017[21] with bad reviews.[22]

The PC version was released in Steam in September 2017 and it was an exact port of the PlayStation 4 version. Whilst maintaining an overall "mixed" summary status, it has similarly received bad reviews for being a very basic game missing many features of the original Kick Off games.

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1 down what’s that all about

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Bow locks 2 down

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Bristol City 2 Preston North End 0
A goal in either half from Famara Diedhiou and Zak Vyner gave Bristol City the points at Ashton Gate.

Diedhiou headed home a corner after only eight minutes and Vyner sealed the points for the hosts with 13 minutes left with a sliced effort from 15 yards out.

Manager Alex Neil handed debuts to Daniel Iversen in goal and also to Ben Whiteman, alongside skipper Alan Browne in the centre of midfield.

However, the hosts started the brighter of the two sides in the opening half. Kasey Palmer, who had just returned from a loan at Swansea City, as well as a period of isolation, fired an effort just over the top right corner of post and bar from 25 yards.

But his side were ahead on eight minutes when the third of a trio of corners in quick succession was curled into an area eight yards out, in a central position, by Tommy Rowe and striker Diedhiou rose highest to head into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, giving Iversen no chance.

The loanee ’keeper did well just after the half’s midpoint to keep it at 1-0, pushing another effort from Diedhiou over the bar, the forward shooting from the left corner of the penalty area, after checking inside past Darnell Fisher.

But as the half wore on, PNE came into the game and had a good chance to draw level. With nine minutes to go in the opening period, after some patient build-up play, eventually Sean Maguire found Tom Barkhuizen out on the right.

The winger who fizzed the ball in that found Scott Sinclair 12 yards out, but his shot was straight down the throat of Daniel Bentley in the Robins’ goal with his left foot, after a clever flick into his path by Browne.

The Lilywhites were on top at the start of the second half, playing in the City half, with a lot of intent high up the pitch and Browne’s superb ball from the left touchline in behind the home side backline almost found the run of Barkhuizen, inches away from creating a good opportunity to level up.

Daniel Johnson then forced a block by home captain Tomas Kalas, before Maguire saw an effort put behind by Alfie Mawson. From the resulting corner Whiteman found Paul Huntington 15 yards out, his header beating Bentley and the man on the line, but it came off the cross bar and behind.

The pressure continued to come from the Blues; Maguire and Fisher both seeing shots blocked before Johnson and Barkhuizen were replaced by a third debutant Ched Evans and Brad Potts at the half’s mid-point.

A rare foray forward saw the hosts test Iversen when Han Noah Massengo, on for Palmer, shooting from 20 yards, but the Leicester City man made a fine stop to keep it out on 76 minutes, but from the recycled corner the home side made it 2-0.

Rowe’s left-wing cross was initially cleared by Andrew Hughes, but put back into the penalty area by Jack Hunt, Hughes again heading it away, but on the volley Vyner sliced the ball with his left foot into the bottom left corner of Iversen’s goal on 77 minutes.

North End continued to press, Browne firing a right-footed effort just wide from Hughes’ cross from the left-hand side in the closing minutes, before Jayson Molumby, on for Maguire, drilled a low ball across that almost found SInclair, however, a goal did not come and the home side took the three points.

Bristol City line-up: Bentley, Hunt, Nagy, Mawson, Martin, Diedhiou (Wells, 79), Kalas ©, Rowe, Vyner, Adelakun (Bakinson, 86), Palmer (Massengo, 70). Subs not used: O’Leary, Mariappa, Moore, Morton, Bell, Edwards.

PNE line-up: Iversen, Fisher (Ledson, 86), Hughes, Whiteman (Riis, 78), Huntington, Davies, Barkhuizen (Potts, 67), Browne ©, Maguire (Molumby, 78), Johnson (Evans, 67), Sinclair. Subs not used: Ripley, Earl, Gallagher, Rafferty, Ledson.

Referee: Mr D Whitestone

Bristol City manager Dean Holden told BBC Radio Bristol:

"(I am) really pleased with a clean sheet, really pleased with two goals at home against a tough opponent.

"I've just been told it's been quite a while since we beat them. They always give you problems with the physicality and energy that they play with and I thought we handled that really well today.

"We knew they would come out on the front foot a little more in that second period. We really stepped on it in that final 20 minutes of the game and seen it out pretty comfortably.

"It sets us up nicely to go to Norwich and to try and put in a similar performance."

Preston North End manager Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"I didn't think there was a great deal in the game in general throughout the 90 minutes.

"I thought the first 20 minutes we didn't get started really. To be fair to them I thought they were really quite aggressive to start with.

"They get the goal from a set play which is extremely disappointing. Right in the middle of box, we should be clearing that.

"For 30 minutes in the second half we were completely dominant, totally dominant in the game and we didn't create enough. I didn't think we deserved to lose but we certainly didn't do enough to win."

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