Derek McInnes & Bristol City

Being a Bristol City fan has always had its highs and lows through out my 19 year life span, but in the past few years the club seems to have lost its passion, fight and most of all stature. We used to be a club that teams feared playing against, especially at Ashton Gate.

With the unfortunate circumstances the club has had since Steve Coppell’s departure it has been up to Keith Millen to pick up the pieces and try to put them back together, but failed to do so during his time in charge. When Millen was sacked a few usual names were doing the rounds, such as Steve Mclaren, Martin O’Neil, the types of managers only a fan could hope for but deep down knew would never really become reality.

There were three names which were in the running that seemed more than possible. The first was ex-Cardiff manager Dave Jones, a very successful manager but failed to deliver the promotion Cardiff oh so wanted. The next ex-Barnsley manager, Manchester United player and brief Bristol City player Mark Robins, not a bad appointment either. The final candidate was a certain Derek McInnes, the then manager of St Johnstone in the SPL, a manager who excelled with the club. Personally this would be a very ambitious appointment for me as like many other Bristol City fans, there wasn’t a lot known about this rookie Scot.

However, on the 19th October with Bristol City lying bottom of the Championship the Paisley born Derek McInnes was appointed manager of The Robins. His first game in charge was home against a very strong Birmingham City side, with only four days to prepare his side it was no surprise to see Bristol City lose 2-0. Admittedly you are already hoping in your mind that this is just a blip and he hasn’t had any time to get to grips with the side yet.

With a six day gap before their next game away to Barnsley every fan knows this will be a hard game, I’ve been there before to watch a dismal 0-0 draw. This time though it would be different, with the McInnes touch on the team Bristol City came away with a 2-1 victory, whether they deserved it or not, that’s just what football is all about. This would be the start of a very impressive six game unbeaten streak under the Scot.

The picks of these six games would firstly be a well fought out 0-0 draw away to West Ham United, an extremely hard place to go and get any points, so one was fantastic considering the cubs recent form. The next pick of the results and the season was a fantastic 2-0 win against league leaders Southampton at home. A result know one in the league could see coming and shows just what an extremely good job McInnes is doing at the club and how well he works with the players.

The six game unbeaten run came to an end at home against Middlesbrough with a 1-0 loss on Saturday, although many people would agree this was a very sceptical result where the ref missed or got wrong a few very important decisions through out the game. 

With the next game away at Derby County this is a great way to see just how good McInnes is at picking the players back up and turning things around since the last game. And I personally think he’ll do just that, turn things back around and prove to be one of the best managers in the country, which can only be good things for Bristol City.

Steven Nash

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