When Bristol City’s players reconvened on Monday, there was only one place to start in the team meeting: those scenes of euphoria at Ashton Gate after the club secured a Championship playoff spot for the first time in 17 years, and the search party for Yu Hirakawa, who, as the captain Jason Knight puts it, was getting thrown about on the pitch as teammates waited in the dressing room for him to be retrieved. Liam Manning shared with his squad images and videos of supporters to underline the wider meaning, and footage of the Japanese winger crowdsurfing. “It got a laugh from the lads,” says Manning. “He was in a state of shock … I asked him: ‘Would that happen in Japan?’ He said: ‘No, never.’”
Now City, who entertain Sheffield United in the first leg of their playoff semi-final on Thursday, are hoping to enter uncharted territory. The Robins have not played in the top flight since May 1980 and Manning has heard the line about Bristol being the biggest city not to host Premier League football “a million times”. He is not the only one. The defender Zak Vyner, the longest-serving player who joined aged eight, was in the crowd at Wembley, aged 11, for the playoff final against Hull City in 2008, when Dean Windass volleyed in to break City hearts.
