Next Up: Bristol Rover at home. Season Opener

After the 2012/13 campaign ended in disappointment with a poor run culminating in a 4-0 defeat at Chesterfield and an eventual 10th place finish, it is with renewed vigour but with an almost identical squad that City begin the 13/14 season. Whereas the summer often ensures a hive of revolving door transfer activity, Paul Tisdale has, by dint of a smaller squad budget, seen several more players leave than arrive, indeed City will take the field against Bristol Rovers with just one new face in ex-Chelsea and Swindon striker Sam Parkin. Out have gone the likes of Cureton, Bauza, Amankwaah, Tully and Evans, pointing towards a season where youngsters like Dawson, Gosling, Keohane, Reid, Chamberlain and Moore-Taylor will expect to feature heavily.

Saturday’s match will also see a welcome return to the line-up for Liam Sercombe. The 23 year old was a near automatic selection last season until suffering a season-ending injury against Barnet after Christmas. Going by Tisdale’s pre-season line-ups, Sercombe will expect to slot straight into a 4-man midfield with Gow supporting Parkin or O’Flynn up front. Aaron Dawson will fill the vacant right back slot. Jamie Reid should also be on the bench, having returned early from the Northern Ireland U19 side’s Milk Cup campaign.

It was a season of two halves and two managers (the two events not entirely uncoincidental!) for Bristol Rovers last time out. Having been installed as one of the pre-season favourites they made a dreadful start to the season under Mark McGhee, costing him his job. John Ward, a man with a history of success with teams out west, was on the train to that lot down the A38 to take over as Director of Football when he was persuaded to get off a few stops early to be installed as the Gasheads’ new manager. And what an inspired move that turned out to be, as Ward, helped by a couple of inspired signings (in particular John-Joe O’Toole from his former employers Colchester) he guided them not only away from the relegation zone but in fact until running out of steam right at the death they weren’t completely out of the playoff picture, eventually finishing 14th. With O’Toole now signed up on a permanent deal and with a move to a new stadium by the University of the West of England in the offing, things are looking up for Ward’s side and they have once again been named amongst the promotion favourites. Two familiar names in the Rovers squad are Dan Woodards and Matt Gill, the latter hoping to put an injury-hit season behind him although with a recent addition to the family he might have suffered some sleepless nights!

When the sides met at the Park last September, City were flying high and Rovers were winless. That all changed as Rovers won 2-1 – Clarkson with an early goal, Cureton notching an equaliser against his former club in the second half only for Eliot Richards to immediately restore the lead. It was a more straightforward win for Rovers in the return, Norburn and Brown scoring the goals in a match Artur Krysiak would want to forget. In Football League encounters it’s honours even, with 24 wins apiece (26 draws).

Details of the match officials. http://www.exeweb.com/2013/07/29/match-officials-bristol-rovers-at-home/