BRISTOL City chairman Steve Lansdown has insisted the Robins

are not in the Coca-Cola Championship to "make up the numbers"

and will invest in the club until they reach the top, writes

Andy Sloan.

Speaking ahead of the visit of big-spending Queens Park

Rangers today, whose new owners Flavio Briatore and Bernie

Ecclestone have vowed to take them back to the top tier,

Lansdown was not shy about his own aspirations – including the

new stadium.

He said: "We want to play at the highest possible level with

the best possible facilities and that's what I'm going to work

towards, and that's what Gary (Johnson) is going to work

towards, as well.

"We have our own plan of how we go about doing things.

That's not going to change. We go about our job quietly but

efficiently.

"If you look at the record over the last however many years,

there's been constant investment in the football club, and

that's all you can ask for. We are working on opportunities to

take the club forward and we're there to compete (with the

likes of QPR).

"We're not there to just make up the numbers. The idea is to

progress as much as we possibly can.

"The stadium is progressing satisfactorily. It's a long

process, so there are no sudden announcements to make.

"It's on target at the moment and that's all I can really

say.

"There are lots of difficult decisions to be made and we are

working our way through those."

Lansdown was particularly proud of the way Johnson's team

have started this year's Championship campaign, showing no

signs of "second-season syndrome", despite their opponents

having a much better knowledge of the Robins' tactics and

armoury.

He said: "That's our challenge this year. They may know

about us but can they stop us playing? I think we showed

against Coventry and in the first half against Derby that, if

we play our football at the tempo at which we play it and in

the manner we play it, it takes good teams to live with us.

"You just don't know how a season's going to pan out. You're

in that situation where you've had a great year. You've almost

had the success you desired or could hardly have imagined at

the start of the previous season, and then you have to start

all over again. That's always a difficult thing to do and I

think full credit to everyone at the club.

"The game away to Blackpool was probably one of the biggest

games we'll ever have. We knew we'd have to go there and

battle, and to come away with three points was a great fillip

and that's set us up quite nicely.

"But we can't get carried away; we've only played three

League games. Reading would have said they weren't suffering

from second-season syndrome in the Premiership last year after

three games, but it caught up with them in the end. There's a

lot of work to do."

Meanwhile, Ebsfleet United striker John Akinde is expected

to complete a move to Ashton Gate over the weekend.

City are understood to have had a bid in the region of

£140,000 accepted for the highly-rated 19-year-old.

The decison to sell Akinde has to be voted on by the club's

29,000 shareholders with the results expected to be known late

last night.

The transfer, however, looks likely to recieve the go-ahead

with City beating off competition from Millwall and

Peterborough United.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson said last night: "John rang me to

say he had decided to join Bristol.

"He said it was a football decision based purely on the

chance to play at a higher level.

"I'm disappointed because we were chasing him for a long

time and I am convinced he would have been a great signing for

us."