Rob Edwards was a key member of a Bristol City promotion team and made over 200 league appearances during eight seasons with the club.
But that did not look likely to be the case when the versatile Wales international first broke into the team in the early stages of the 1991-92 season.
Edwards had been purchased from Carlisle United for £135,000 at the age of only 18 the previous March and was initially confined to the reserves by manager Jimmy Lumsden.
When Rob was finally bloodied in the Second Division more than five months after signing, he was hardly an instant success. His first five starts saw City concede 14 goals and fail to register a win.
Things weren't about to improve when the Robins travelled to face this weekend’s opponents Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on January 11, 1992.
It was always going to be a tough assignment. Rovers, under the management of Kenny Dalglish and backed by multi-millionaire businessman Jack Walker, were starting to assemble the squad that would make them Premier League champions little more than three years later.
They went into the game top of the second tier of English football. Edwards was recalled by Lumsden, having spent three months back in the reserves, and was about to be on the wrong end of another heavy defeat.
City had begun employing a sweeper in a bid to plug holes at the back, so Mark Aizlewood lined-up behind a back-four of Andy May, Matt Bryant, Russell Osman and Martin Scott.
Edwards was picked on the right of a midfield trio also featuring David Rennie and Mark Gavin, while Bob Taylor and Wayne Allison started up front.
Both sides had been boosted by good FA Cup results in their previous games. While Rovers eased past non-league Kettering 4-1 in the third round, City held First Division Wimbledon to a 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate.
Lumsden’s men were on a four-match unbeaten run. But hopes of extending it suffered a blow as early as the second minute.
Scott Sellars had been singled out as Blackburn’s dangerman by the manager before the game. Yet when Rennie’s poor pass was intercepted, the winger was allowed to run 80 yards, eluding just one token challenge, before setting up an unmarked Mike Newell to shoot past Andy Leaning.
Newell, a £1.1 million signing from Everton, went on to enjoy the freedom of Ewood Park as City’s sweeper system was torn apart.
It was his cross from the left on the half hour that led to Rovers doubling their advantage through the softest of own goals, the stretching Scott deflecting the ball beyond Leaning’s despairing dive.
By the 43rd minute, the game was over as a contest, the inspired Newell taking advantage of weak tackling to make space on the edge of the box and hammer home a glorious strike.
City were as poor going forward as in defence. Taylor had scored only once in the previous seven games and looked a shadow of the player who had netted 34 goals in the 1989-90 promotion season.
“SuperBob’ suffered the indignity of being substituted at half-time, along with the out-of-sorts Rennie, who had hit the bar with a deflected 17th minute shot, as Lumsden desperately tried to inject some fire into his lacklustre team.
Nicky Morgan and Junior Bent were sent on as replacements. But, while the former’s control and the latter’s pace brought more penetration, there was no one to apply a finishing touch to some threatening balls into the box.
Rovers squandered several chances by looking to play one pass too many. But their superiority was confirmed on 73 minutes.
Former Chelsea striker David Speedie, recruited by Dalglish from his former club Liverpool, rose unchallenged to head home a Jason Wilcox corner.
The goal completed an embarrassing afternoon for City and in my Evening Post match report I called on Lumsden to give more of the club’s promising young players like Edwards a chance.
Rob had produced some skilful touches on the afternoon and run himself into the ground in a hopeless cause. Bent also impressed in the second half and there were players like Micky Mellon and Gerry Harrison waiting in the wings.
May and Rennie had already signalled their desire to leave Ashton Gate, while other experienced players were struggling. Lumsden, who was little more than a month away from the sack, offered no excuses for the margin of defeat.
He said: “Blackburn were in a different class. They have a number of quality players and we gifted them just the start they needed to play with confidence. It was almost as though we were in awe of them. There were some poor individual performances and Blackburn had the talent to capitalise.
“I had to make changes at half-time because it was threatening to become a rout. We could have done with a bricklayer to brick-up our goal. There were no plusses from our point of view, although I thought Robert Edwards was our best player.”
Blackburn went on to win promotion through the play-offs, which enabled them to compete in the inaugural season of the Premier League, while City finished 17th, with Denis Smith having replaced Lumsden as boss.
Edwards did not have to wait long for his first win as a City player. Three days after the Blackburn game, a May goal knocked Wimbledon out of the FA Cup and put City in the fourth round. After that game, a relieved Rob said: “I was beginning to think I was a jinx.”
He went on to win promotion with the Robins under John Ward in 1997-98 before leaving for Preston North End in the summer of 1999.
Blackburn Rovers: Mimms; Brown, Hill, Moran (Hendry 81 mins), Wright; Wilcox, Cowans, Atkins (Reid 68 mins), Sellars; Speedie, Newell.
Bristol City: Leaning; Aizlewood; May, Bryant, Osman, Scott; Edwards, Rennie (Bent 46 mins), Gavin; Taylor (Morgan 46 mins), Allison.
Referee: Alan Wilkie (Chester-le-Street)
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