Comedian and lifelong Bristol City fan Mark Watson thinks the club showed guts to stand by under fire head coach Lee Johnson.
Watson was speaking at Ashton Gate as he joined Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling on his March for Men in aid of Prostate Cancer UK.
The comedian joined Stelling for the final stage of his second leg, walking the five miles between Ashton Gate and Bristol Rovers' home at the Memorial Stadium.
"It's a strange feeling actually," commented Mark when faced with the prospect of entering enemy Rovers territory.
"I can't think of any circumstances where you would walk from Ashton Gate to the other ground but my parents live up that way so I'm used to mixing with Rovers fans, so it'll be fine." he joked.
Before Watson embarked on his walk along side Stelling, he spoke to The Post about how he saw City's decision to keep head coach Lee Johnson.
"The board show a lot of guts to stick with Lee Johnson.
"If we had gone down then there would have been absolute mutiny here. But they stuck with him despite some aggression from some fans.
"So fair play. In the end he steered the club clear of problems. "
Johnson oversaw a woeful run of eight consecutive league defeats and saw City slip into the bottom three, but he was backed by owner Steve Lansdown and guided City to safety and a 17th place finish.
Watson is already feeling optimistic about next season even though City will be without goal machine Tammy Abraham.
"On the whole, the performances were pretty good. We lost an awful lot of games by a single goal, so I don't think there is that much wrong.
"I'm tentatively hopeful for the new season, but we did rely on Abraham for goals and he obviously won't be there, so that does alarm me a bit.
"But the basics are there. It would have been dreadful if we'd gone down to League One, especially with the ground the way it looks now. It's basically a Premier League stadium."
Watson is also pleased it will be Johnson who once again leads City into a new season.
"It's great having a former player, a young manager, and someone who's got a vision in charge at the club. But he's got his work cut out, because these things do turn fairly quickly some times.
