The 1999/2000 Auto Windscreens Shield 

Bristol City have had some success this season, in the form of the Auto Windscreens Shield. Here is the review of the Robin's first trip to Wembley for almost 15 years.
 
 
 

DATE OF MATCH	OPPOSITION	ROUND	HOME/AWAY	SCORE
12th January 2000	Cheltenham Town	Round 2	HOME	3-1
25th January	AFC Bournemouth	Round 3	HOME	1-1 (Won 4-1 on pens)
15th February	Reading	Southern Semi Final	HOME	4-0
29th February	Exeter	Southern Final 1st Leg	HOME	4-0
14th March	Exeter	Southern Final 2nd Leg	AWAY	1-1

THE FINAL

After making it through the competition, beating the above opponents, City were through to thier first Wembley final since 1986. On April 16th 2000, around 35,000 travelling City fans, along with a similar number of travelling Stoke Fans, made the trip to the capital to see the final. On a friendly ocassion, thier was a brilliant atmosphere inside thw Twin Towers as 'Abide with me' was sung in memory of the late Stanley Matthews. Also before the game were several youth matches involving schools, as well as a celebrity match involving well known stars representing the two finalists.
The match then finally got underway. City went 1-0 down in the first half, and then went in at half time still on the wrong end of the score. The team equailsed through a Paul Holland goal which was later found to have been defelected off of the youngster Damian Spencer.
The crowd now had a game on thier hands, with barely 20 minutes to gom, who could tell what would happen next. Louis Carey committed a foul, and whilst protesting (rather stupidly) to the referee, Stoke quickly took the free kick, leaving City completly bewildered as to what was happening.
The game ended 2-1 to Stoke, with Carey apparenly inconsolable at the end.
Anyway, even though the scoreline was disappointing, a good day was most certainly had by all (most anyway), and it would prove to be the highlight to an otherwise uneventful (on the pitch) season.

Back to Index
Ashton Gate: What a Venue
The Current Season
2000/2001: Fixtures and Results