The story of Bristol City and Ashton Gate Eight

Hodgson was working in Sweden alongside Bobby Houghton who had taken Malmo to the European Cup Final in 1979 where they lost to Nottingham Forest. Houghton was brought back to England by the City board and he asked Hodgson to help him. Hodgson had been considering an offer from Dallas but decided on City where he, rather ironically, claimed

“I had to decide whether to stay on in Sweden or not. Bristol City seems well organised so I hope to able to concentrate on the coaching side with Bob”.

Unfortunately, in hindsight these words seem incredibly naive but perhaps they’re a measure of how much the City board were able to hide the problems inside. Houghton and Hodgson were confident in their own ability, but just didn’t have enough magic to halt the slide and further relegations ensued. Houghton seemed rather oblivious to the parlous state of the club’s finances and the critical effect large long term contracts could have in years to come.

The two enthusiastic coaches were keen to talk a good game. They’d transformed Swedish football during their 5 years there and firmly believed they could resurrect City. 1980-81 saw a second successive relegation.

The club was in freefall and the fans stayed away in their droves. Only 4,832 turned up to watch a home defeat to Burnley in November 1981 which left the club 6th from bottom in Division Three This was the lowest attendance since the War at Ashton Gate and a sign that things were going hopelessly wrong. But Houghton and Hodgson seemed intent to paint a positive picture and in some way they were probably guilty of either being duped by the board or simply choosing not to face facts. Hodgson would later admit.

“When we came the club was rock bottom and the first thing we had to do was sell players. We ended up with a junior team playing in a league of men. We were not made aware of the situation before we arrived. The club had only just been relegated from the old First Division. We thought it can’t be that bad, we’ll get them promoted. We were very confident in our coaching ability and thought we could turn the club around”.

Further evidence of the board’s efforts to paper over the cracks was the signing of Mick Harford in August 1981. Harford, a big traditional centre-forward had made his name at Lincoln City, earning him a big money move to Newcastle, who were in the Second Division, at the beginning of 1981. After just 8 months Harford moved to Bristol City for £160,000. It was a strange move for the player, who left a Second Division club to join a club who’d just been relegated to the Third. Moreover, it was a suicidal move for City themselves, although no one really knew it at the time. Yet around this time one or two people started to ask questions.

Local journalist, Peter Godsiff, had started to make noises about the fact the club had been spending far more than they were bringing in and he even reckoned the operating costs were probably five times the money earned at the gate. In October 1981 two local businessmen, Ken Sage and Deryn Coller, got together to find out more about the club’s finances. They attended an AGM and asked enough questions to eventually persuade the board to conduct an independent financial report.

Actually, Coller had managed to have a quiet word with Chairman, Archie Gooch, and he agreed Coller and Sage would pay for the report. The club had targeted gates of 8,000 to pay their way but they were struggling to get anywhere near that. In October they sold young striker, Kevin Mabbutt (Gary’s brother) to Crystal Palace for £100,000. This was a big blow for the club as they had pinned their hopes on the Mabbutt/Harford partnership. Clive Whitehead was then sold to West Brom for £100,000. Whitehead had been an instrumental part of the promotion side of 75-76 and the subsequent First Division years.