This was the first time it had ever happened so they were totally confused. They didn't help us in any way." I really enjoyed my time at Bristol City and while I was there I was looked after. It was just a brilliant experience playing among those senior players. They were such a fantastic group, great camaraderie, great spirit and they really looked after the young boys. It was a pleasure to be around - proper, proper pros. Their promotion, confirmed by a nervous home 1-0 win over Portsmouth, was no less than the team deserved; as they had been the outstanding side throughout that 1975/76 season and proof positive that a successful team did not need superstars to shine. A rare Clive Whitehead goal early in the game on 20 April 1976 clinched the Portsmouth victory, who belied their already relegated status by putting up a mighty struggle, before Bristol City clinched their long awaited return to the top division of English football.

I don’t know how well the Arsenal thing would have gone but I’d always regret not being involved in City’s promotion. I was in for a big disappointment. I was one of the people interviewed for Geoff’s book, as were many other former Abbey Road employees. We all came to understand that these interviews were arranged because he had very little recall of those days, and his co-author would use our memories to buttress Geoff’s own meager memories.The Robins had run out of road at the bank, and the only option to stave off apocalypse was for the club captain and the seven other highest-paid players to take voluntary redundancy.

Gerry Sweeney with his City award (Image: Photo by Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images) However, in the words of Match of the Day commentator Jonathan Pearce, who worked for BBC Radio Bristol in 1982, the players had "absolutely no choice" but to surrender their contracts. The media was relentless. There was a picture of us coming out of our house and saying, this is the reason why Bristol City going into liquidation and, you know, they spent all this money on houses. My house was owned by the Bridgewater Building Society and I lost that. It was all so wrong and the people that were running the club were encouraging it. The octet - including Gerry Sweeney, Dave Rodgers, Peter Aitken, Chris Garland, Trevor Tainton, Jimmy Mann and Julian Marshall - have since gone down in City folklore as the 'Ashton Gate Eight', hailed locally as heroes. One of the directors came up to me and said ‘Jim, I want these players in the boardroom at 10am Monday morning - I said ‘oh yeah, what for?’ and he said ‘you’ll find out when you get there.’

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What it boiled down to, you know, was calling their bluff. If we don’t do it, what will happen? Will the club go bankrupt? If it does, and it folds, then it will be seen to be our fault? Not anyone else’s fault. It's all about encouragement. It's all about trying to help people, just getting through the small crises you get on a Saturday afternoon. Read More Related Articles It was a pretty grim time and it got quite nasty,” he said. “I had two or three phone-call death threats and so did my wife. It was scary.

I don’t think anybody knew whether it would have happened. But we weren’t in a position to call the bluff. We could have all got together and said, ‘we’re not having this, let’s call the bluff and we’re not going to do it.’ And when we take a walk around the pitch on Saturday, I'm sure my eyes will fill up with tears and it will be very emotional. But Taylor said that statement is "far from the truth to say the least", as the PFA had experience of a similar situation from March 1962, when Accrington Stanley went bankrupt. But the tale from behind the scenes is a far less fantastical one - threats to the players and their families, mounting pressure from the local press and the impending possibility of financial collapse.

SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate Read More Related Articles The message was loud, clear and brutal. It was an ultimatum - tear up your contracts or there won’t be a club to play for. It was the biggest moment of my non-illustrious career,” he laughs. “It was something really special. I’m a Bristol boy, my parents were both Bristol City supporters and I first went when I was about seven. And nobody had seen them in the First Division for 60 years. If you don't do this, the club dies, the fans will suffer and the other younger players will suffer - and it's your responsibility to save them," recalls Pearce. I don’t think any player would want to be in a position where to say you either agree or this football club is gone. They don’t want to be a pawn in a political game, they just want to play football.