‘City fans need to see better content on the club’s website’ 

I love football.

That won’t be a surprise to anyone who has read this article at least once before. And, for those who haven’t noticed already – I adore Bristol City. I adore the team I have supported since I was a child and I specifically enjoy watching them compete at the level they are now.

I would suggest the Championship/the second tier of English football is currently the strongest it has ever been. By my estimations, 16 of the current 24 teams in the division have enjoyed the lucrative spoils that accompany plying your trade in the world’s richest division – The Premier League. Countless billionaire owners have acquired teams at City’s current level in the hope they can get their new purchase to the promised land.

Because of this, the standard to player that City come up against each week seems to have increased year-on-year since our return to the Championship in 2015. This point was proved no more so than last weekend when City hosted a Stoke City littered with Premiership and international level players.

Just Stoke’s bench boasted the likes of Peter Crouch, who has scored an impressive 22 goals for England, Bojan, a Champions League winner with Barcelona, former Liverpool player Charlie Adam and Premier League star for Stoke Ryan Shawcross.

So, despite the quality Stoke clearly had among their number it was a joy to witness our second-half performance last week. I felt that we had done OK in the first-half, but only OK. Johnson’s tactical half-time switches and the introduction of Jay Dasilva and Liam Walsh transformed the side and those lucky enough to be there then witnessed our most impressive half of football this season in my view, and arguably this calendar year.

It will be interesting to see if City start either of the two young subs that made such an impact in this weekend’s forthcoming away trip to Reading. I doubt many would argue that Walsh deserves more first team football, but for whatever reason Johnson doesn’t seem to trust him in a two in the middle of the park. This could lead City to going with wing-backs this weekend enabling us to start with three in midfield, but we’ll have to see.

The other big impression off the bench was made by Chelsea loanee Jay Dasilva. The young left-back has had a string of impressive performances of late and I would suggest he has now over-taken Lloyd Kelly as our first choice in the position, quite a feat given the level of praise that the young Bristolian has courted so far this season.

I now want to talk about our beloved teams’ website and the content they provide on it for us addicted fans to follow the team that we all adore. In short, it has deteriorated this season and fans have been left scratching their heads as to why this could have happened. For anyone who listened to last week’s One Steam in Bristol podcast that the Exiled Robin and I featured in, this won’t be news to you, but I feel City fans need to see better content on the club’s website.

In recent seasons the powers that be would upload the various club press conferences in their entirety as well as several detailed pre and post-match interviews. This season however the new look media team have opted for shorter, sharper, more social media friendly content that has left many fans eager for more.

So…

Dear Dave Barton (Head of communications at Bristol City),

Would you please consider reviewing the level and quality of content that the club are putting out through its official media sites? Could you please post videos of any press conferences that take place, and could you also show the full interviews with players done pre-match as well as the minute-long social media videos that are currently being put together. The club are in the exclusive position to be able to provide such content, and I am sure it would further strengthen the relationship the fans feel towards the team.

Yours Sincerely

Dave Skinner

Follow Dave Skinner on Twitter @DaveMSkinner