Things looked like they would get worse, as it was the away side who took the lead after 17 minutes. Darren Ferguson no doubt delighted by Boyd’s strike, as were the small contingent of Peterbrough fans who leapt to their feet in the away section of the Wedlock stand.

The night got worse for young-left back Christian Ribeiro, who upon making his full City debut, was stretchered off after 26 minutes. Reports suggest that he has suffered a severe Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury, which could keep him out for a year.

However, his team was able to recover from the horrific incident and collect a hard-thought win. Captain, and centre-back, Louis Carey equalised with a header after 53 minutes, while man of the moment Steve Brooker won it for the Ashton Gate side with just 5 minutes to go.

Nicky Maynard was again unable to hit the target - but will get a chance to score against the side he’s just left in the next round - Bristol City have been given an away draw to Crewe Alexandra in the second round.

Substitute Steve Brooker scored in the 89th minuite to give Bristol City a hard-fought 1-0 win at Blackpool this afternoon.

The former Port Vale man slashed the ball away after a scrappy free-kick, to the delight to the 1,500 travelling supporters.

Many reports have suggested that Blackpool did not deserve to lose, something that makes the victory even sweeter for the Robins.

City manager Gary Johnson called the opening-day win, “the perfect result.”

Johnson added, in an interview with bcfc.co.uk, “Blackpool at home always represent good opposition and we had to work very hard, throwing ourselves in front of things.”

In other news from the game, it appears that Adriano Basso has suffered from a recurrence to the calf injury which nearly kept him out of the game from the start. Passed fit to play, Basso took his usual position in the starting-lineup and made some good saves in the first half. However, as the second half kicked off, the Brazilian had been replaced by his deputy Chris Weale. No more news on Basso’s condition has been released as of yet.

Club-record signing Nicky Maynard was also denied the dream league debut, as he was unable to get himself on the scoresheet. Following his hattrick against Royal Antwerp in last week’s friendly, Maynard would have been hoping to carry on in the same vain against Blackpool. however, while threatening on various occassions, the £2.25 million signing couldn’t hit the back of the net. His best chance came in the 65th minute, when he headed a sitter narrowly wide, to the dismay of fans and manager alike.

However, the future does look promising for the youngster, and City fans will be hoping for goals galore as the season progresses.

The away trip will be followed by a tantalising home tie against Derby, before another home game with QPR and then an away trip to Coventry. September sees City face-off against title favourites Birmingham, along with Doncaster, Wolves and Plymouth.

Robins manager Gary Johnson has stressed the importance of a good start. Although Hull City rose up the league to eventually take third spot, and defeat City at Wembley in the play-off final, Johnson still feels that the top-6 spots will most likely be taken by those who occupy them in October.

He told the Bristol Evening Post: “A good start is so important. If you look at the statistics, they show that those teams in the top six or seven after 10 games or so are generally in the same positions come the end of the season.”

“You really do have to put a lot of effort into your early games, because a large percentage of teams that do that, stay there.”

“We made a very good start to last season and were never out of the top six from September onwards. That’s how important a good start is.”

“If you start strong, it gives you the impetus and the belief to stay there. That’s what we did last year.”

Johnson’s side goes into Saturday’s season opener with a couple of injury worries. Marvin Elliot is most likely out, with Cole Skuse ready to deputise, while Adriano Basso is reportedly not 100% fit. This could see Johnson go with Chris Weale between the sticks instead.

Excluding the goalkeepers’ position, the rest of the side will probably line-up as follows:

Defence: Orr, McCombe, Carey, McCallister
Midfield: Williams, Johnson, Skuse, McIndoe
Forwards: Maynard, Adebola
Formation: 4-4-2

Johnson insists that the club had inquired about Maynard at the start of the Summer, making a £1.5 million pound offer, which was snubbed by Crewe.

Aborted Transfer 1: Emad Meteb

Since then, the Robins have suffered some huge disappointments in their search for a new striker. Firstly, having seemingly agreed upon a £1.5 million pound switch to the 2008 Play-Off runner-ups, Egyptian stiker Emad Meteb broke the terms of agreement by going back to play one more match for his club Al-Ahly. Despite the pleas of Meteb’s agent that it was just a ‘misunderstanding’, Bristol City cancelled the transfer.

Aborted Transfer 2: Mifsud

Then came the Mifsud affair, with the Maltese hitman’s transfer being cancelled after he apparently made over-arching demands. Gary Johnson felt that the striker had failed to show any loyalty to the club, and Johnson did not want to disrupt the positive team spirit at Ashton Gate.

Maynard: Third time lucky

But eventually, Bristol City got their new striker, in the form of 21 year old Maynard. However, it took a club-record £2.25 million to prise him away from Crewe Alexandra.

The deal apparently coming after City had renegotiated Crewe’s asking price of £3million. However Johnson has been quick to iterate that it was not a last-ditch move on his part.

“Nicky was the first one we made an offer for but Crewe quite rightly turned it down, saying they wanted double the £1.5m we had bid,” he explained on bcfc.co.uk.

“Later on we managed to agree on £2m, with the extras on appearances. We’re delighted to have him on board and he’ll be great addition to the squad,” he added.

The Maltese striker handed in a transfer request yesterday after being subject to interest from City, Norwich and Crystal Palace, but it seems Mifsud is more likely to join up with his former team-mate Dele Adebola at Ashton Gate rather than head East.

The speed demon will arrive sometime tomorrow to hold talks and take a medical before becoming either City’s second or third signing of the summer.

Meanwhile, little information has been disclosed on the futures of trialist Alan Maybury and Egyptian Emad Meteb.

Coventry City boss Chris Coleman today spoke to the Coventry Telegraph about the pint-sized strikers intentions to pursue his career away from the Ricoh Arena.

With just one year remaining on his contract Coventry have agreed to allow the Malta international his money move instead of risking last season’s top scorer leaving on a free contract.

Coleman told the local paper: “I’ve spoken with Michael this week and he has agreed with his agent that it’s time to move on. He’s said he will hand in a trransfer request and there’s nothing we can do about that.

“We have to move on ourselves and if a club comes in and offers the right money then we’ll have to look at it. We risk having an unhappy player on our hands and then losing him for nothing.

If he feels his career is going to progess elsewhere there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Gary Johnson revealed two weeks ago that he wished to bring in two new strikers, and with Emad supposedly on his way, it looks like Mifsud is the man to fill the second vacancy.

City had been chasing both Nathan Tyson and Nicky Maynard but it seems that the players have been priced out of City’s reach meaning the swap in targets to the Maltese international.

It is likely that Coventry would listen to offers as the Sky Blues have brought in Freddy Eastwood and are more than likely to sign Clinton Morrison by the end of the week, pushing their last seasons top scorer further out of the picture.

Also their rather public financial situation could help City recruit speedy striker as Coventry will look to regain the reported £1.2million spent on ex-Wolves striker Eastwood. But City will first have to see off opposition from Championship rival Norwich City and Crystal Palace.

Mifsud, whose main attribute is his pace, scored 17 goals last season the majority scored when he was upfront with Dele Adebola - who signed for City in January last year.

He caught the eye of Micky Adams, who was in charge of Coventry at the time, when he was playing for Lillestrom. The striker bagged 17 goals in 48 games for the Norwegian club and was voted the best foreign player in Norway in 2006.

The player also began his career at Sliema Wanderers where he scored 60 goals during a 4 year spell in Malta. During his time at Sliema, Mifsud made earned his first international cap - the first of 56 to date, in these he has scored 19 times making him Malta’s second top goal scorer in their history of internationals.

It was soon after his debut he made his big move to Kaiserslauten where he stayed for just two years. The move was a brief one after he failed to make an impact in Germany, scoring on just 2 occasions, and he ventured back to Sliema but only for a year as Lillestrom came calling.

The two time Maltese Sports Personality of the Year does look a likely candidate for Gary Johnson’s team - he could be the pace ‘Golf Club’ that out bag certainly requires and it would be hard to believe after Coventry’s recent signings that Mifsud would be priced out of the market.

However at Ashton Gate, nothing is spoken of - until it’s official.

The match was a pre-season friendly but both fans and players alike took the match very seriously. First half bookings went out to both Marc Bircham and Nathan Jones of the Glovers and City’s own Ivan Sproule found himself in the Ref’s hand book.

City opened the scoring with 22 minutes on the clock as a Jamie McAllister cross found Adebola with a free header in front of goal which he duly finished. Chris Weale stopped a Gavin Tomlin strike as Yeovil look for an equaliser but the goal keeper would have a very solid match.

The game wasn’t of the highest standard but City began to take more control in the second half, and they doubled their advantage on the 53rd minute when Adebola was brought down in the box. Michael McIndoe, a former Yeovil Town player, stepped up cooly slotted home.

Gary Johnson’s men finished the scoring as Adebola broke through the defence and cooly lobbed the keeper, there was some unrest from the hosts as Yeovil felt a decision for offside was missed in the build up to the goal.

The win was City’s first of pre-season and tomorrow the Robins take on Hereford up the M5. Jordan Walker made a brief appearance replacing Bradley Orr.

City: Weale; Orr (Walker 87), Carey, Skuse, McAllister; Sproule, Noble, Johnson, McIndoe; Adebola, Myrie-Williams (Plummer 79).

Dean McDonald’s 34th minute goal was enough to end City’s tour in disappointment.

City failed to win either of their matches in Portugal during their five day stay in the country, but more of a worry could be an injury to Liam Fontiane. The defender had to be replace by James Wilson just ten minutes into the contest after he injured his ankle.

The performance had left City boss Gary Johnson wondering about whether his squad was still not Championship quality. Johnson told the official site:”We’ve still got a few injured lads to come in, but we need to get to a group of 20 Championship players. We’re proving at the moment that we haven’t got that yet.

“We’ll have to have a look at that. I think we already knew that we need another two or three new faces.
“I wouldn’t say anything I’ve seen so far has changed my opinion (regarding signings). We give all the lads the chance to prove themselves - that’s what pre-season is about.”
Adriano Basso returned to the team for the first time during pre-season and was replaced at half time by Chris Weale.

City: Basso (Weale 46); Orr (B.Wilson 46), Fontaine (J. Wilson 10), Carey (Orr 69), McAllister (Skuse 69); Murray (Sproule 46), Artus (Noble 46), Skuse (Johnson 46), McIndoe (Betsy 46); Adebola (Myrie-Williams 46), Trundle (Brooker 46).

The fee makes the Egyptian international City’s record transfer into the club, taking Ade Akinbiyi’s claim at £1.2 million. The powerful striker has bagged 89 goals in 172 games back in his native land, but today left those stats behind him as he signed a three year deal.

However City will have to wait until Meteb is granted a work permit before he can put on the red shirt, although that shouldn’t be a problem. Emad will return home to Egypt to say good bye to his fans against Zamalek however he will NOT play in the match, this was confirmed by Gary Johnson.

The 26 year old told the official site: “I’m happy to be here and I hope to give all my best for Bristol City. I want to give my best for the manager (Gary Johnson), who I like very much.

“I am a natural striker and I know all about Bristol City. I know the kind of supporters that are waiting to see me play. It has been a difficult decision to leave the club where I grew up and learnt my football.

“But this is a professional life and I’m sure they will understand my decision in Egypt. I hope to realise all my dreams with Bristol City.”