Bristol City Football Club is a professional men's football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system.
Founded in 1894 the club competed in the Southern League and Western League, being crowned Western League champions in 1897–98. They were admitted into the Football League in 1901 and won the Second Division in 1905–06. They finished second in the First Division the following season, three points behind champions Newcastle United, and went on to lose to Manchester United in the 1909 FA Cup final. Relegated in 1911, they dropped to the third tier in 1922, though would claim the Third Division South title in 1922–23 and again in 1926–27. They were returned to the third tier in 1932, remaining there until they won the Third Division South again in 1954–55. Having been relegated in 1960, Bristol City won promotion from the third tier in 1964–65 and then from the second tier in 1975–76. They played four seasons in the top-flight before being relegated in three consecutive seasons by 1982.
Bristol City spent just two seasons in the Fourth Division and went on to win the Associate Members' Cup (Football League Trophy) in 1986. Promoted out of the Third Division in 1989–90, the club were relegated in 1995 and again in 1999 after another promotion in 1997–98. Bristol City won the Football League Trophy again in 2003, and were promoted from League One in 2006–07. Relegated after six seasons in the Championship, they won the Football League Trophy for a third time in 2015 on their way to the 2014–15 League One title, and have remained in the Championship since that promotion.
They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The club's home colours are red and white, and their nickname is The Robins—a robin featured on the club's badge from 1976 to 1994 and from 2019 onwards. Their main rivals are Bristol Rovers, with whom they contest the Bristol derby, and Cardiff City, with whom they contest the cross-border Severnside derby.
History
Early years and early successes (1894–1922) The club was founded in 1894 as Bristol South End and changed their name to Bristol City on adopting professionalism three years later when they were admitted into the Southern League. Finishing as runners-up in three of the first four seasons, in 1900 the club amalgamated with local Southern League rivals Bedminster F.C., who had been founded as Southville in 1887. Bristol City joined the Football League in 1901 when they became only the third club south of Birmingham (following in the footsteps of Woolwich Arsenal and Luton Town) to perform in the competition. Their first game in the Football League was on 7 September 1901 at Bloomfield Road, when Blackpool were beaten 2–0.Calley, Roy (1992). Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887–1992, Breedon Books Sport
Winning the Second Division Championship with a record number of points when they became the first club in Football League history to win 30 league games in a season (out of 38 played) as well as equalling Manchester United's achievement of the previous season in winning 14 consecutive games (a record until 2017, also accomplished by Preston North End in 1950–51). Nicknamed the Bristol Babe at this time, they finished as runners-up in their inaugural First Division campaign (1906–07) as the only southern club to finish in the top two prior to World War I.
In 1909 they won through to their only FA Cup final, though they were somewhat fortunate that a last-gasp spot-kick saved them from defeat in the semi-final versus Derby County at Stamford Bridge. In the final at the Crystal Palace (now the National Sports Centre) Bristol City lost to Manchester United 1–0. After a five-season stay in the top flight, despite winning 1–0 at Newcastle at the start of the 1910–11 campaign, failure to beat Everton in the season's finale brought City's first-ever taste of relegation and it was to be 65 years before top-flight status would be regained.Bristol City The Early Years 1894–1915 by David Woods published by Desert Island Books 2004; The Bristol Babe by David Woods published by Yore Publications 1994; Bristol City The Complete Record 1894–1987 by David Woods with Andrew Crabtree published by Breedon Books 1987; David Woods the Official Bristol City Club Historian.
Bristol City would then go on to stay in Division 2 until three years after the First World War had ended, and in that time they reached the semi-finals of the 1919–20 FA Cup before being beaten 2–1 by Huddersfield Town and finished third in the Second Division in the 1920–21 season. However, in the next season they were relegated to the Third Division South.
The yo-yo era (1922–65)
The 1920s were a rocky time as City bounced between the Second Division and the Southern Section of the Third Division. The season after City were relegated, they achieved promotion back to the Second Division, before being relegated back to the Southern Section of the Third Division again the following season. After successive high finishes in the league, they were promoted again in 1926–27. However, by the 1930s they had slumped into the lower division and stayed that way until over 10 years after the Second World War. During this stay in the Third Division South, they won the Welsh Cup in 1934, beating Tranmere Rovers in the final. However, in the same year they also suffered their biggest ever league defeat, a 9–0 loss to Coventry City The 1937–38 season was the most successful season for City since they were relegated to the Third Division, coming second in the league and reaching the final of the Third Division South Cup, before losing 6–2 to Reading on aggregate. They then came eighth in the Third Division South in the final full season before the war, in which the Grandstand of Ashton Gate was destroyed by a German air raid.
In 1946–47, City recorded a record league win by beating Aldershot 9–0, although despite Don Clark scoring 36 goals in the League, City failed to get promoted that season. Harry Dolman became chairman in 1949, a post he would hold for over 30 years. An engineer who had bought out the firm he worked for, he designed the first set of floodlights installed at Ashton Gate in the early 1950s. The late 1950s were a better time for City, with a five-year stay in the Second Division, a league they returned to for a further spell in 1965.
Back among the elite (1966–80) In 1967, Alan Dicks was appointed manager, and things gradually began to improve, with promotion to the First Division in 1976, ending a 65-year exile from the top flight.
Between 1975 and 1981 City were regular participants in the Anglo-Scottish Cup, winning the trophy in 1977–78, beating Hibernian in the semi-finals, and winning 3–2 on aggregate in the final against St Mirren (managed at the time by a relatively new manager, Alex Ferguson). St Mirren had their revenge two seasons later, with an aggregate 5–1 victory over City to become the only Scottish team to win the trophy.
City's second stint in the top flight was less successful than the club's first, with thirteenth position in 1979 being their highest finish during this era. Stars of this era included Peter Cormack, Geoff Merrick, Tom Ritchie, Clive Whitehead, Gerry Gow, Trevor Tainton and Jimmy Mann.
Financial difficulties and revival (1980–2000) In 1980, the City team went back to the Second Division in the first of three relegations, their debt mounted and their financial losses increased, with two successive relegations following. Thus, in 1982, they fell into the Fourth Division, and were declared bankrupt. A new club was formed and BCFC (1982) Ltd acquired the club's player contracts. The highly paid senior players Julian Marshall, Chris Garland, Jimmy Mann, Peter Aitken, Geoff Merrick, David Rodgers, Gerry Sweeney and Trevor Tainton, who became known as the 'Ashton Gate Eight', each accepted termination of his contract for half the amount due. The club's previous owners had failed to pay its debts to many local businesses. The resulting ill will towards the club made it difficult for the new owners to obtain credit.
City spent two seasons in the Fourth Division before winning promotion under Terry Cooper in 1984. They consolidated themselves in the Third Division during the latter part of the 1980s, and in 1990 Cooper's successor Joe Jordan achieved promotion as Third Division runners-up to local rivals Bristol Rovers.
There was a tragedy for the club, however, in that promotion campaign. In March 1990, two months before the club sealed promotion, striker Dean Horrix was killed in a car crash barely two weeks after joining the club, and having played three league games for them.
Jordan moved to Heart of Midlothian in September 1990, and his successor Jimmy Lumsden remained in charge for 18 months before making way for Denis Smith. Smith's first signing was the 20-year-old Arsenal striker Andy Cole. He was sold to Newcastle United in February 1993 and later played for Manchester United, where he collected five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the European Cup.
Meanwhile, City remained in the new Division One (no longer the Second Division after the creation of the Premier League in 1992) and Smith moved to Oxford United in November 1993. His successor was Russell Osman. In January 1994 Osman led City to a shock 1–0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield in a third round replay in the FA Cup, a result that would cause the Liverpool manager at the time, Graeme Souness, to resign. Osman was sacked within a year of taking charge.
Joe Jordan was brought back to Ashton Gate in September 1994, but was unable to prevent relegation to Division Two.
Jordan remained at the helm for two seasons after City's relegation, but left in March 1997 after failing to get them back into Division One. Former Bristol Rovers manager John Ward took over, and achieved promotion in 1998 as Division Two runners-up. But City struggled back in Division One, and Ward stepped down in October 1998 to be succeeded by Benny Lennartsson, their first non-British manager. City were relegated in bottom place and Lennartsson was dismissed in favour of Gillingham's Tony Pulis, who lasted six months before leaving to take over at Portsmouth. During his time at Ashton Gate he was manager of perhaps the worst City side since the one that completed a hat-trick of successive relegations almost 20 years earlier.
Coach Tony Fawthrop took over until the end of the season, when Danny Wilson was appointed. Wilson was arguably the most prominent manager to take charge of a City side since Denis Smith, as he had guided Barnsley to promotion to the Premier League in 1997 and Sheffield Wednesday to a 12th-place finish in 1999.
21st century In the early 2000s Bristol City were regular Division Two play-off contenders during Wilson's spell as manager. They just missed out on the play-offs in 2002, finishing 7th. The following year, Wilson almost took them to automatic promotion, finishing 3rd and winning the Football League Trophy in Cardiff in 2003. The taste of the play-offs was bitter though, losing to rivals Cardiff City 1–0 on aggregate in the semi-final. In 2004, they finished in 3rd place again, and this time they reached the play-off final, but lost to Brighton & Hove Albion. He was sacked within days and replaced by veteran player Brian Tinnion.
City just failed to make the play-offs in Tinnion's first season as manager, finishing seventh, and he stepped down in September 2005 after a poor start to the season. Yeovil Town manager Gary Johnson was recruited as his successor in September 2005. Johnson led Bristol City to a 9th-place finish.