Bristol City v Ipswich Town
Wednesday 25th October 2023 – 19:45
Ashton Gate - 15:00
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Friday nights trip to Rotherham turned into a complete and utter farce with the game seemingly given the go ahead by the club themselves, despite the best efforts of storm Babet, only to have it called off less than Three hours before kick off thanks to the nearby River bursting it's banks, something the locals had warned all and sundry was about to happen throughout the day, sadly in this day and age Money and TV talks and and while we all have our own opinions on the events I personally feel that game would have been called off in the morning had it not been scheduled for TV, either way the handling of it all beggars belief.
I suppose it has to be said that there is a positive side to this as far as Town are concerned, we get another Five days break for any niggles or travel fatigue to be sorted out, we also don't go into battle on a pitch which would, without question, have suited the home side far more than it would Town, with their high ball nonsense and direct style being far more effective than Town's cultured build up play on the deck so in that sense we can take positives from a bitterly disappointing evening, especially for those that rolled into depressing Rotherham just as the decision was being made.
As it turned out the weekend was a pretty decent one without us even kicking a ball, yes Leicester City & Leeds Utd both won but defeats for some of our nearest rivals leaves us in a pretty healthy position, Preston, Birmingham, Hull, Sunderland and West Brom all dropped points meaning should we win our game in hand we would actually have improved our position going into the weekend by a further point with the potential gap widening to Nine points, of course by the time we play the Rotherham game the situation will most likely have changed but you get the point.
I read somebody's comment that already this Championship season is starting to resemble last season's league One where Town, Plymouth and Sheff Weds ran away with things in a Three horse race, this time Leicester, Town & Leeds are being touted as potentially doing the same again and while that is so premature at this moment in time One cannot help but feel that scenario would be most welcome, I actually think at present we would benefit from that as for me we are more consistent than Leeds, yes on their day they can blow teams away but they do have off days, something we really haven't had too many of thus far, already Leeds have failed to beat Cardiff, Birmingham, Sheff Wed, Hull and Southampton, Four clubs we have dispatched already so there is no need to fear going head to head with them at all.
Wednesday evening should see us back in action after a fairly lengthy break with a trip down to Bristol City, now this would normally go down as a pretty routine run of the mill fixture but just take a look at the the City forums to see how much they want to beat us and how much they hate Mark Ashton, in their eyes it is massive and a bit of a grudge match, there has even been the odd veiled threat aimed at our CEO from the odd few brain dead's so this is for sure not going to be a low key affair, certainly not in their fans eyes anyway, the last time I had a peak their thread on all things ante Ashton had reached around page Seventy Five, sad or what ?
Leaving all that nonsense aside I feel this is a tricky game anyway, the Robins have had a pretty decent start to the season as their Eighth place standing in the table suggests, Eighteen points from Twelve games has them just a single point off the play off zone and while they may not have captured any big scalps so far they have been winning against the middle order to lower teams in the division. The City team does not appear to be blessed by household names, Nahki Wells being the most recognisable to me, but so far they appeared to be pretty solid and fairly hard to beat.
Whoever Town come up against these days I find myself asking the question, just how will they live with our attacking options, we always look to have goals in us and they come from all over the team, defensively away from home we are very solid too, only Two goals conceded in Five away games is not to be underestimated by any means and shows our cavalier approach is saved for Portman Road.
I certainly don't envisage a high scoring affair Wednesday evening but then again a single goal has already been enough at St. Mary's, Loftus Road & Hillsborough so why not again here, I do feel if we keep a clean sheet we win the game as I always fancy us to score, a draw would not be a disaster but Three points would be be most welcome in our quest to keep that gap at the top of the table bearing in mind Sunderland go to Leicester, Hull to Birmingham, Preston host Southampton and in form Middlebrough travel to scumville points in and around us are going to be dropped, taking advantage of that by way of victory would be another big plus for our season so far. Town to hopefully nick it. COYB'S.
The Opposition – Bristol City
League
Second Division
Champions: 1905–06
2nd place promotion: 1975–76
Third Division South / Third Division / League One
Champions (4): 1922–23, 1926–27, 1954–55, 2014–15
2nd place promotion: 1964–65, 1989–90, 1997–98, 2006–07
Fourth Division
4th place promotion: 1983–84
Western League
Champions: 1897–98
Cup
FA Cup
Runners-up: 1908–09
Football League Trophy
Winners: 1985–86, 2002–03, 2014–15
Runners-up: 1986–87, 1999–2000
Welsh Cup
Winners: 1933–34
Anglo-Scottish Cup
Winners: 1977–78
The Manager – Nigel Pearson
League Table as at 22.10.2023
Form Guide
Bristol City
23 Sep Leicester City 1 - 0 Bristol City
30 Sep Bristol City 2 - 3 Stoke City
4 Oct Rotherham 1 - 2 Bristol City
7 Oct Leeds Utd 2 - 1 Bristol City
21 Oct Bristol City 1 - 0 Coventry City
Ipswich Town
23 Sep Ipswich Town 4 - 3 Blackburn
30 Sep Huddersfield 1 - 1 Ipswich Town
3 Oct Ipswich Town 3 - 0 Hull City
7 Oct Ipswich Town 4 - 2 Preston
20 Oct Rotherham pp. Ipswich Town
Head to Head
Match Referee – Josh Smith
BRISTOL CITY 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2
If the Rotherham game had been played I had been told by the boss that I could only watch it with a blindfold on and earplugs in.
How anyone can allow this sh*t to have space in their head. Just do not get it. 
We are aware of an issue with the Ipswich Town Official App at the moment. This is being investigated but is unlikely to be fixed this evening.
I will still be able to watch it.