QPR-Bristol City Previews & Past Connections

Ah yes: Mr. "four-and-a-half-year contract" Agyemang

Sieb Dijkstra

Mick Harford

Brian Williams

Two players we used to be linked to in the early 70s - but didnt in the end come - Chris Garland and Geff Merick

Football League

THIS WEEKEND'S TV GAMES
Posted on: 21.10.2010

Armchair viewers are in for a treat over the coming few days with a triple header of televised matches in the npower Championship to look forward to.

First up on Friday night is a top versus bottom clash as league leaders Queens Park Rangers travel to Ashton Gate to face Bristol City.
The Hoops equalled their best ever start to a league campaign on Tuesday night with a 0-0 draw against Swansea City. Whilst they are unbeaten in their opening 12 league matches they have failed to score in three of their last four games, allowing Cardiff City to close the gap to just two points at the top of the npower Championship.

At the opposite end of the table, the Robins finally broke their duck on home soil, winning their first match at the sixth attempt in midweek and they will undoubtedly be keen to experience that winning feeling again when the action gets under way at 7.45pm on Sky Sports.

The Ashton Gate outfit will be hoping for a repeat of their 1-0 win over the R's at the beginning of last season. A similar result this time out would see Keith Millen's side climb out of the relegation zone, for a few hours at least.

The BBC are broadcasting live coverage on Saturday afternoon (5.15pm kick-off) of the Yorkshire derby between Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield United.

Both sides have a win, a draw and a defeat to show for their three matches so far in October. Doncaster lost 3-2 to Derby County in midweek while the Blades earned a narrow win 1-0 over Hull City.

In the fixture last season the sides drew 1-1 when James Harper's late strike cancelled out James Hayter's early opener at the Keepmoat. With little to choose between the clubs on their current form it looks like being another close encounter.

Completing the bill on Monday night, Leeds United play host to Cardiff City for a 7.45pm kick-off on Sky Sports.

The sides are currently separated by nine points and 10th place Leeds will be looking to bounce back from the disappointment of a midweek loss at home to Leicester. The Bluebirds are on a run of three straight victories and will be looking to extend that knowing a win, depending on how Queens Park Rangers get on on Friday night, could take them top of the table.

The teams last met at this level back in February 2007 when Cardiff ran out 1-0 winners at Ninian Park. They were victors by the same scoreline in the reverse fixture at Elland Road earlier in the season and had won the two games the season before by one goal margins as well.

You have to go all the way back to February 1984 for the last time Leeds beat their Welsh opponents so recent history and the current form book leans towards a close match and the likelihood of a fifth successive win for Cardiff over their hosts. Make sure you tune in to see what happens this time out.

www.football-league.co.uk/championship/news/20101021/this-weekends-tv-games_2248204_2191092

The Bristol City Fans/Players will have a problem with lovable, grandfatherly Uncle Neil!

Bristol Evening Post

Millen plays down Warnock's Ashton Gate return

BRISTOL City manager Keith Millen has attempted to play down Neil Warnock's impending return to Ashton Gate.

Then manager of Crystal Palace, Warnock incensed City by branding their players "cheats" in the wake of the Freddie Sears goal-that-never-was incident in August last year.

Now in charge of undefeated Championship leaders Queens Park Rangers, Warnock tonight returns to BS3 for the first time since that controversy.

And the outspoken Yorkshireman is guaranteed a hostile reception from angry City fans when he leads his team out in front of the Sky TV cameras for a contest between the Championship's top and bottom sides.


Sears had an apparently good goal ruled out by Derbyshire referee Rob Shoebridge in that infamous game, which City went on to win 1-0.

But Warnock and Palace chairman Simon Jordan fanned the flames of controversy with their after-match comments, sparking a vehement response from City chief Steve Lansdown, who leapt to the defence of his players.

Warnock may have changed clubs since then, but City fans have neither forgotten or forgiven him for his comments.

Yet Millen claims the episode is water under the bridge and insists he and his players have moved on.

He said: "Whenever Neil Warnock is in town, it adds to the atmosphere and tonight will be no different.

"But to suggest what happened last season will have any bearing on this game is wrong.

"Neil and his chairman said some unfortunate things back then and it caused some bad feeling.

"I think he likes to stoke things up and use it is a motivational tool.

"But it's water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned and you won't hear any talk of revenge from us. Neil is at a different club now and things have moved on."

Former Palace captain Shaun Derry, now with QPR, sought to defuse a potentially combustible situation by admitting City's players were not at fault.

He said: "It was a ridiculous decision by the officials, but that was the officials, not Bristol City.

"I would not blame them one bit for anything. It was not for them to say it was a goal and I would have behaved exactly the same."

Millen prefers to focus on the task of trying to achieve back-to-back wins for the first time this season – and he believes the presence of the TV cameras could inspire basement club City to spring a surprise by ending Rangers' 12-match unbeaten run.

Recalling outstanding televised performances against promoted clubs Newcastle and West Brom earlier this year – City held the Magpies to a 2-2 draw and beat the Baggies 2-1 – Millen said: "We always seem to rise to the occasion when the cameras are here.

"It lifted us for those games against West Brom and Newcastle and I'm sure it will have a similar effect on Friday night.

"Because of those games last season, I know we are capable of beating any team in this league."

City approach the contest with renewed confidence following Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Reading, their first success in six matches on home soil this term – and Millen is again urging City loyalists to pump up the volume inside Ashton Gate this evening.

He said: "The crowd were brilliant for us on Tuesday and we are going to need them to get behind us like that again.

"When the atmosphere is like that insides the stadium, we know Ashton Gate is a difficult place for visiting sides to play."

Midfielder Cole Skuse has still not recovered from the bruised heel that ruled him out of the Reading match and Millen is expected to announce an unchanged line-up.

City (probable): James, Carey, Caulker, Fontaine, McAllister, Adomah, Elliott, Johnson, Campbell-Ryce, Haynes, Stead.

www.thisisbristol.co.uk/sport/Millen-plays-Warnock-s-Ashton-Gate-return/article-2788703-detail/article.html