City fan Matt Withers: I was laying on a sun-lounger by a pool in Spain when I received a text on transfer deadline day, telling me that we had signed a new striker from Costa Rica along with the Dutch midfielder who had ran the show when we played Ajax in a pre-season friendly.

Since then I had been counting down the days until the visit to Coventry City's Ricoh Arena. I made the trip up to the Midlands for the third season running and hoped to see a third successive 3-0 win there.

Unfortunately, that was not to be the case and we had to settle for a share of the spoils but I wasn't disappointed and travelled home with a real optimism for what might be this season.

That optimism fed by the performances of those new signings, along with the continued impressive form of Nicky Maynard.

In my 35 years of watching Bristol City play I have seen a number of strikers make their debuts, and Alvaro Saborio's was right up there, with some of the best. He was named in the starting line-up, due to Danny Haynes suffering with a bout of tonsillitis on the morning of the game.

At 6ft tall, Saborio is not the tallest striker in the Championship and yet must have won 90 per cent of the aerial challenges that he competed for. Not only was he a potent force in the air, he showed an excellent first touch, was strong in his hold up play and was all in all extremely impressive. The only thing missing was a goal, and this was more down to the excellence of the Coventry keeper rather than Alvaro's deficiencies.

A striking partnership of Saborio and an 'on-fire' Maynard leaves me salivating. Maynard scored yet another 'worldy', and already has a collection of his own, for goal of the season. The goal against Coventry was a brilliant strike. I said throughout last season that Maynard was a class player and that we weren't playing to his strengths, now that we are we are seeing the benefits.

I mentioned in my previous column that I felt that the squad was a couple of players short.

Not only has Gary addressed that but also he has done so by adding real quality. The signing of Evander Sno seems to be an absolute steal. Sno bossed the game when Ajax visited the Gate and a midfield of Sno, Hartley and Elliott would frighten any team in the Championship.