CITY will be looking to maintain their excellent start to the season in the Severnside derby at Cardiff City this Friday night (7.45pm).

The game will kick-off the weekend’s football action and is to be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

If any extra spice was needed to this fixture then it was provided last week when, after firing former Bristol Rovers manager Paul Trollope after a poor start to the season, Cardiff appointed Neil Warnock as his replacement.

There have been various controversies involving City and Warnock over the years going back to the ‘phantom goal’ incident at Ashton Gate when the referee failed to spot the fact that Freddie Sears scored a perfectly good goal!

Then there was the play-off games where City’s manager at the time, Gary Johnson, was squirted with a water bottle and Warnock was involved in a fracas on the pitch as City fans celebrated victory at Ashton Gate.

Even last season, Warnock, in charge of Rotherham, accused Lee Johnson of ‘inciting’ the City crowd to gain unfair home advantage.

My recollection of that evening was that Johnson had nothing to do with the fact that the home crowd were livid at Rotherham’s thuggish and time-wasting tactics.

Warnock certainly brings with him a certain ‘brand’ of football, not to the taste of many.

But he is very effective at getting results in this division and, therefore, I am slightly less confident of a result on Friday than I was with Trollope in charge.

That said, Warnock will not have had much time with his players and City have looked impressive so far this season.

Tammy Abraham continued his excellent form so far this season by netting twice for the England under-21s.

The spirit and determination in the City camp appears to be excellent and, as long as we match Cardiff for desire, then I am still hopeful of a result.

A fourth straight league win in a row would see us go second.