Bristol City fan's view: It may all be over

Has the draw at home to Cardiff and defeat at Queens Park Rangers put an end to our bid for the play offs? I fear it has! Gary Johnson has also said that it has put a dent in our promotion bid.

Whilst there is always hope and as we know "we always believe", being realistic I think the fact that Sheffield United and Cardiff City have a couple of games in hand on us will prove too much to overcome. The draw at home to Cardiff was a big disappointment as I felt that City controlled the majority of the game and conceding a goal so late in the game, in the manner that we did was hard to take.

Unfortunately, while Nicky Maynard's goal was a quality strike we just do not look much of a threat up front and when the chances do come we are not potent enough. The same applied against QPR, we had plenty of the ball and created a number of good opportunities but only had Michael McIndoe's goal to show for it and in the end this wasn't enough.

It has been a great few seasons under Gary Johnson and we must all remember where we have come from and not be too disappointed if we don't make the promotion shake up.

A number of people will accuse me of settling for second best and that is simply not the case. We have spent two seasons in the Championship having not faced a relegation battle and there is no doubt in my mind that Gary Johnson has the capacity to take us to the next level but in time.

Those fans on the forums and in the local media, who question whether Gary has taken the club as far as he can, show precious understanding of football and little knowledge of Bristol City. As fans we have to be patient.

A successful team has to have strong foundations and as I keep saying we first of all need to establish ourselves as a strong Championship side, which we are doing and then push on to the next level.

While I would love to see my club in the Premiership, how many of us honestly believe that with the squad we have (albeit signings would be made) that we would be good enough to stay in the league.

What would fans of Norwich, Southampton and Charlton give to be in our position? These are clubs who have been in and around the top flight in recent seasons and have chopped and changed managers with little success.

We have to learn from this season and keep the quality players that we already have and add the cutting edge and that extra dimension in the summer. The difficulty may be in holding on to players like Adriano Basso and Marvin Elliott.

The quality of our signings this season is something that I would question and whilst I understand Gary's psychology when it comes to supporting the players that have taken us this far, I think we have missed in trick.

I don't think that Stern John or Peter Styvar have had the impact that Gary would have wanted, although Peter may be one for next season.

I would expect a number of players to be released and would like to see Gary make signings of Premiership and Championship quality. Signing players like John Akinde may bode well for the future but we need players for next season.

As I have said finishing in the top 10 in our second season in the Championship is not a disaster, although I am sure that Gary Johnson will see this as a failure and make him even more determined to succeed next season.

There have been some plus points, in particular the emergence of Cole Skuse. We also have two youngsters in Christian Ribeiro and James Wilson in and around the first team.

It isn't all over and if we win all of our remaining six games then who knows?