A tale of two City's
Highs and lows, promotions and relegations; Manchester City and Bristol City's similar history
9 January 2018
It’s easy to forget that Manchester City were plummeting head first into what was then called Division Two this time two decades ago.
A 3-0 victory over fellow Division One strugglers Portsmouth at Fratton Park on 10 January 1998 was Frank Clark’s last win as City manager as the club went on to pick up just three points from his last five games in charge.
Joe Royle was appointed to steady the ship in mid-February and prevent the Blues from becoming the first winners of a European trophy to be relegated to the third tier of their respective football league.
The former England international, who played for City in the 1970s, was unable to turn things around at Maine Road as his side suffered damaging defeats against Oxford United, Port Vale and Bradford City in March.
Despite a 5-2 win at Stoke City on the final day, the Blues succumbed to relegation as Portsmouth secured their Division One status with a 3-1 victory over Bradford at Valley Parade.
It was a dark day for City, who had secured two successive fifth place finishes in the top flight of English football between 1990 and 1992.
But one club seemingly on the rise was Bristol City, who were flying high under John Ward in Division Two. The Robins’ attack was spearheaded by Shaun Goater, who joined Manchester City for £400,000 on transfer deadline day (26 March 1998) in a bid to help Royle’s side stave off relegation.
The Bermudan had bagged 16 league goals for the Ashton Gate club that season and was also named in the Division Two PFA Team of the Year.
Goater would go onto become a cult hero at Maine Road, scoring over 100 goals while in Manchester as the club rose from the brink of oblivion back to an established top flight team.
His former club, meanwhile, secured promotion back to the second tier following relegation in 1995. Defeat at Preston North End on the last day meant that the Robins were pipped to the Division Two title by Graham Taylor’s resurgent Watford.
Euphoria wouldn’t last long as just three wins in 16 league games saw the end of Ward’s tenure at the helm, with Benny Lennartsson brought in to save the Robins from an immediate return to the third tier.
It was a baptism of fire for the Swede, who faced high flying Bradford and Wolverhampton Wanderers in his first two games. The Reds were thrashed 5-0 at Valley Parade before being thumped 6-1 by Mark McGhee’s Wolves side at Ashton Gate.
The strike partnership of Ade Akinbiyi and Soren Andersen was not enough to keep Bristol City in Division One, as they finished bottom of the table and five points from safety (with Portsmouth and Queens Park Rangers surviving by the skin of their teeth for the second consecutive season).
Manchester City, meanwhile, were enjoying a revolution. After a 2-1 defeat at York City on 19 December 1998 (their sixth of the campaign), Royle’s men would only lose two more games en route to securing a dramatic play-off victory over Gillingham at Wembley as the Blues returned to Division One at the first attempt.
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Another promotion would follow for Royle as Goater finished the season with 23 league goals to help fire City to the Premier League as runners-up to Charlton Athletic.
The Blues lasted just one season back in the top flight, before winning promotion as champions in 2002 – with Goater instrumental once again as he finished the campaign as Division One top scorer with 28 goals.
He was joined in the Division One PFA Team of the Year by teammates Ali Benarbia and Eyal Berkovic, who had been brought in by Kevin Keegan to play an enthralling brand of football. It worked, as City scored an astonishing 108 goals and amassed 99 points.
It took until 2007 for Bristol City to return to the second tier. After two failed play-off attempts in 2003 and 2004, the Robins eventually won promotion as runners-up from League One behind Scunthorpe United.
Gary Johnson, father of current City boss Lee, almost led the club to unprecedented back-to-back promotions, but saw his side beaten by Hull City in the Championship play-off final.
That began a steady decline for Bristol City, who were eventually relegated back to League One in 2013 – bottom of the table and 14 points from safety.
Further north, backed by wealthy owners from Abu Dhabi, Manchester City, under Roberto Mancini had claimed a first league title in 44 years and were slowly establishing themselves at the top table of European football.
A second Premier League title soon followed, this time courtesy of Chilean maestro Manuel Pellegrini, who also delivered the League Cup in his first season at the helm.
The two clubs, set to meet on Tuesday night in the Carabao Cup semi-final, were, seemingly, worlds apart.
But, under Steve Cotterill, the Robins were taking League One by storm and swept the competition aside to win promotion as champions in 2015, rounding off the campaign with an emphatic 8-2 victory over Walsall.
The Robins suffered just five defeats all season, with respective 16 and 15-game unbeaten runs book-ending their title winning campaign.
After flirting with relegation for the past two seasons, Bristol City are currently fourth in the Championship and aiming to secure promotion to the top flight for the first time since 1980.
Tuesday night’s clash at the Etihad Stadium is the first meeting between the two sides since 2007. Goals from Emile Mpenza and Rolando Bianchi, either side of a Bradley Orr strike, gave Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side a 2-1 win at Ashton Gate in the League Cup second round.
The Robins have already eliminated Watford, Stoke City, Crystal Palace and Manchester United to reach the semi-final stage, but Manchester City are a different animal under Pep Guardiola, who has played down talk of a potential quadruple this season.
It appears to be another David and Goliath battle, but as Bristol City have shown already in this competition, reputation and stature counts for very little.
No matter the result of this tie, it is important to remember where both sides have come from in the past two decades.
