The ideal Christmas present for any City fan

Last year, the Trust published 'City 'Til I Die', a book of memories of the joys and anguish of supporting City from fans young and old.  It makes an ideal Christmas present for any City fan - and if you buy the book now, you get our booklet in honour of the Ashton Gate 8 absolutely FREE!

Buy online:
To buy the book online for Christmas please act now! Select postal delivery or collection and click the 'Buy Now' button.

Postal delivery - £12.50 For Xmas delivery*, please order by midnight on 17th December (UK only)
Collection - £10.00 For collection in Bristol on December 22nd (see below)
FREE Ashton Gate 8 booklet We will add a free copy of the AG8 booklet to your order (don't worry that this doesn't appear on the payment page). Buy now / Collect later If you select the 'Collection' option, you can collect your purchase from us on Thursday evening, 22nd December between 7.30 and 8.30pm at Bar BS3.

Read a review of the book by Ed Furniss, BCFC Head of Media:

Every City fan has his or her cherished memory of supporting the club they love. City Til I Die gathers some of these stories together to help raise funds for the John Atyeo Statue Fund. City Redz to Senior Reds have contributed their own tales from the City in an entertaining volume, now on sale online and at the club Megastore.

Some of these anecdotes come from the dressing room. Louis Carey recalls watching Liverpool play a friendly with his dad, who had his "John Motson sheepskin coat burnt by the chap behind us smoking a cigar". Former City centre-forward Roy Bentley, who would go on to skipper Chelsea to their 1954/55 Football League title win, reveals how a bad tackle from a Cardiff player during the war ultimately saved his life - a broken ankle forcing him to miss a doomed trip with the Navy.

Other contributors missed out on their dream of playing for their boyhood club: Steve Sutor recollects his excitement at being called up for the reserves after impressing in goal for City Colts only to be passed over in favour of a left-back called Ray Cashley. Fred Staniforth, who played for City in the 1909 FA Cup final, is no longer around to recall one of the club's greatest hours – but his grand-daughter Mary James provides candid Edwardian-era pictures of Fred and his team-mates in her affectionate family tribute.

Most of those featured in the book, however, have followed City from the other side of the advertising hoardings, whether it was in the old Cowshed, "Crackers Corner" or shiny new seats at Wembley.

Some of the stories are written for laughs. Mike Patten recalls a snowball fight between City and Leyton Orient fans while Joanna Baggs accidentally sits on an older supporter's false teeth which had flown out of their mouth celebrating a goal. Others get in hot water - Ian Hall recalls how a trip to Birmingham led to an early-morning police visit to his parents' house; while former ballboy Andrew Marshfield continues to feel guilty about giving the ball away too quickly to allow York to score an equaliser – "the look I got from [goalkeeper] John Shaw was priceless".

A number of younger fans show us that this fanaticism - such as Dawn Hallett sleeping out in a caravan for Wembley tickets last May  - will continue for another generation at least, including eight-year-old Amana Parsons who says she has defied her family of Gasheads to follow City because "Rovers players aren't very good".

The mood of the book is best summed up by Pete Lomas who asks "Why Do We Suffer?" but concludes: "For all the heartaches there are undescribable [sic] ecstatic moments." 

But the overall impression is how Bristol City Football Club has acted as a bond between dads and sons, grandparents and grandchildren and strangers on the terraces who have become lasting friends; and as a rock for those whom life has handed genuine heartbreak, not just the sentimental kind usually written into back-page or website headlines.

Lifelong supporter Pat Baldwin has lost a son, suffered a marriage break-up and redundancy and was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but says "attending Ashton Gate has helped lift us throughout all these troubles". She writes: "I really look forward to seeing the friends I have made who sit around me, and if one of us missing for a game or two, there are always phone calls to make sure everything is okay. This side of football is never publicised – only the few idiots who cause problems seem to get highlighted".

Tim Leigh, who lost his wife last season and who continues to attend games with his teenage boys, offers a perspective often lost in the hysteria that follows every weekly up or down. He writes: "Did I cry when we lost the play-offs to Hull? Of course I did; I cried because we lost, I cried because my wife wasn't there with us, I cried because football is more than just a game, it is the glue that binds families like us together."

* Last postage date. If you order by the date shown above, we will be able to post your order by the 'last postage date' for Christmas delivery being advertised at the time of writing by Royal Mail.  Please note, however, that the Supporters Trust cannot be held responsible for any failure to deliver by Christmas caused by industrial action, Acts of God or any other form of delay.