Bristol City become dark horses for promotion this season as they look to end decades-long exile from top flight

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It’s been an entertaining rollercoaster ride of a season in the Championship this year, and Bristol City are quietly putting together a play-off push that we have to respect.

The battle at the top of the Championship table looks to be a three-horse race now, and Leeds United are the most likely to win that fight as they pursue an all-time record points tally in the league.

Meanwhile, the play-offs have become perhaps the most interesting element of this season, with a whole host of teams still in with a shout of securing a top-six spot.

All it takes is one win and results to go your way and the table can flip on its head right now, with seven point separating fifth place and 14th place at this moment in time.

Among the chasing pack, Bristol City have emerged as a real contender for the play-off places. They’ve climbed the table while going under the radar, and it’s really time to pay attention to the great job Liam Manning is doing there.

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When were Bristol City last in the top flight?

It got us thinking and we decided to take a look through the history books to see exactly when Bristol City last made it out of the second tier and played in the top flight. Spoiler alert: It’s a very, very long time ago.

The Robins have now spent the last ten seasons in the Championship, largely floating around midtable, with their highest final position being an eighth-placed finish back in 2018/19.

Bristol City spent the 2013/14 and 2014/15 season in League One, after being relegated in the 2012/13 campaign as the bottom team in the Championship. They had been in the second tier for six seasons before that relegation.

You have to go back a massive 45 years, all the way to 1980, for the last time Bristol City were in the top flight, which was then the old First Division, long before the inception of the Premier League.

They’d spent four seasons there under the management of Alan Dicks, after being promoted in 1975/76, before dropping down again in the 1979/80 campaign.

Prior to this, you’d have to travel back in time to the 1910/11 season to see Bristol City in the top flight. The Robins were placed in the First Division in 1906, spending five seasons there before being relegated to the old Second Division.

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Bristol City are quietly going about their business this season

Bristol City seem to have come from nowhere to launch an assault on the play-offs this season, just slowly but surely putting together a run of results and grinding out wins.

They don’t particularly have any standout players — although Anis Mehmeti is in the running for the Championship Golden Boot this season — but what Bristol City do have is a well-rounded squad of gritty, driven, hard-working players.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
5	West BromWest Brom	34	12	15	7	44	31	13	51
6	BlackburnBlackburn	34	15	6	13	39	34	5	51
7	CoventryCoventry	34	14	8	12	46	42	4	50
8	Bristol CityBristol City	34	12	13	9	43	38	5	49
9	WatfordWatford	34	14	6	14	45	48	-3	48
10	NorwichNorwich	34	12	11	11	55	47	8	47

That togetherness and team spirit, combined with the highly-organised setup from Manning, has carried Bristol City far already this term. At the time of writing, the Robins are just two points away from the top six, meaning one more victory could see them break into the play-off spots.

While teams like Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday have fallen away in their own pursuits of the play-offs, while Bristol City keep ploughing on.

Momentum is key in this league, and Manning’s men certainly have that on their side with just one defeat in their last seven, and if they can keep up this consistency they are definitely going to be one to watch in the race for the play-offs.