Much has occurred in the lives of these two clubs since they were promoted together from the lowest tier of the English game in 2004.

Indeed, with the yawning exception of the Tigers’ brace of seasons in the Premier League, the progress of the two clubs since those less enlightened days in the basement has been very similar, with both earning further promotions to Championship level and holding their own therein.

City play a league game at the Keepmoat Stadium for the first time ever tomorrow and seek a first away win in 25 attempts, or almost 18 months, if you prefer. Both teams won their opening day fixtures but have since taken a 4-0 hammering each on their travels and go into this game exactly equal on both points and goal difference. (more…)

Sure, City aren’t going to win the League Cup, or even make the last four/eight/whatever – and most of us would probably swap a victory at Brentford for one in the League. However, there’s a fortnight’s rest after this weekend’s game, and with a number of new attacking signings whose potential is clear but who looked on Saturday to be a little badly in need of time to grow accustomed to each other, this is surely the perfect chance to unleash Koren, Bostock and Simpson?

Happily, it appears that the people in charge agree. City’s new assistant manager Craig Shakespeare is quoted as saying that the “strongest available team” will be picked and that a full squad is travelling to London. Now, that does contain an obvious caveat. No-one with even the faintest degree of unfitness will be risked, which is likely to rule out Kamil Zayatte, who emerged from Saturday’s game with a knock to the knee. However, it’s instructive to see what Leicester did under Nigel Pearson last season: seven of the side that started the League match immediately prior to a First Round assignment in this competition were selected. By contrast, Phil Brown made eleven changes at the Second Round stage last season.

But we’ll see. City’s record in the League Cup in recent years is dismal. We haven’t made the fourth round of the competition since 1977/8, when Arsenal knocked the Tigers out at Highbury. The competition did bring some brief respite in the darker days of the 1990s, with victory over (then) Premier League) Crystal Palace for Mark Hateley’s Fourth Division Tigers bringing a trip to (then quite good) Newcastle, before a visit to Anfield. Since then however, it’s been a short-lived chore for City.

The Fourth Round also represents Brentford’s best ever achievement in the competition, some 28 years ago, and this is their first Second Round appearance in four seasons. Quite how seriously they’ll be approaching the game is unclear. They’ve had a disappointing start in the third tier, taking just one point from three games, and could do with the confidence boost that victory over higher division opposition. They’ll probably be without Carl Cort and Sam Wood, though ex-Tigers Gary Alexander and Nicky Forster may feature.

The last time City travelled to Griffin Park was when Peter Taylor’s already-promoted Tigers lost 2-1 at the end of the 2004/5 season; the time before was that memorable day when City won 2-0 against the eventual champions to finally lift themselves off the foot of the Fourth Division table – “we are 91st!” – in the Great Escape. You’d like think a similar outcome will be on the cards tonight if City really are taking the game seriously.

The wretched away form can wait for another day. This weekend it’s a fixture that has caused nothing but unadulterated joy for the Tigers in the recent past.

Watford’s last visit to the Circle was in May 2008, when the Tigers quickly exposed the futility of their hopes of overturning a 2-0 deficit by winning this Championship play-off semi-final second leg 4-1, the most singularly glorious night witnessed by the Tiger Nation on home territory. Wembley, the Premier League and, er, everything else followed.

Things have altered substantially since that balmy evening for both sides. Watford remain in the Championship but have not been any kind of force in the last two years and were close to relegation last season. City are back in the second tier and, despite the many problems that have befallen the Tigers in recent times, will still begin the game as favourites.

The last “standard” League game between the two at the Circle was in March 2008 when City won 3-0, courtesy of goals from Michael Turner, Fraizer Campbell and Caleb Folan. Watford’s last win in East Yorkshire was a 2-1 success in November 2005, a game famous for Stuart Green’s penalty miss and Mark Lynch being given an agonising afternoon – for him and us – by Anthony McNamee .

City will be wary of Watford’s excellent start to their campaign – a 3-2 win at Norwich in the opening fixture of the nPower Championship followed by a slightly unlucky draw with Coventry – but with full debuts expected for Robert Koren and newest recruit Jay Simpson, there is every reason to be hopeful. Manager Nigel Pearson may make other changes after the defensive train wreck at Millwall.

Being a City fan on the road has been a wretched affair for a some time. Last season, only one other team in the top five divisions of English football failed to record a single away victory, and no professional club can match our record of 17 months since last winning away from its home ground. It represented a new and unwelcome record for the Tigers too – even Mark Hateley managed to avoid a season without leaving someone else’s ground with a win, while not even Terry Dolan’s infamously awful 1995/6 season could match what’s recently happened.

A new man, a new beginning. It’s been a very good seven days for City. An assured victory over Swansea; the startling arrival of Robert Koren; the news that the club’s finances are slowly being repaired. Is it too much to hope that this hugely pleasing week will end with victory outside of East Yorkshire for the first time since a breathless night in Fulham last March?

We’ll have to overturn a formidable home record if so. Millwall haven’t lost at the New Den since last November, a hugely impressive statistic that helped them to promotion via the play-offs last season. They had a very impressive 3-0 win at Bristol City last week, and a near capacity crowd is expected for their first home game since returning to the second tier.

They have a host of returning players, too. Carter’s suspension has been served, Morrison has returned from international duty with Wales and Abdou is fit again, while Liam Trotter is no longer a doubt after his recent injury. City may be able to include the newly-arrived Robert Koren in the squad, should the relevant paperwork be concluded in time.

City’s recent record against Millwall is poor, though meetings have been fairly uncommon. We enjoyed a 2-0 FA Cup stroll two seasons ago, when two divisions still separated the sides, but City haven’t been victorious in any of the last six league meetings; one must go back to 1987 for our last League win, and we’ve only won once at theirs since 1968. Few omens point to our first away win in 17 months, but stranger things have happened…

It’s good to be back. That brief, giddying excursion to  the Premier League circus is concluded, and City are back at their natural level: English football’s second tier. It was indeed the best trip we’ve ever been on, but like kids coming down from a mad sugar-fuelled romp around Alton Towers, when the adrenalies dies away and you’re back in the real world, coming home can feel pretty good.

Not that we shouldn’t entertain the possibility and even the desire to go back. But let’s be realistic for now. The chances aren’t great. Many very good teams lie in wait, our squad is thin and likelier to grow thinner and a clutch of seasoned Championship sides will be eager to scalp the Premier League rejects. So be it. City v Swansea is perhaps the ideal way to get back into the groove: beatable opposition (we’ll have that prospect every week – how exciting!), at home and with the fresh feeling you get at the start of every season. Brilliant.

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Our final Premier League away of the season, and for the immediate future, takes us to Wigan tomorrow. It’s a 1.30pm kick-off at ESPN’s behest – the satellite broadcaster selecting the game for live coverage in this dim and distant days when survival seemed a credible prospect for City. Now, the issue is settled – at the time of writing City are not mathemetically relegated, but the game is up, and a point for West Ham today would see table compilers affixing an “R” to our name.

So, a dead rubber then. We’ve not had many in recent years. Of late, seasons have tended to go just about to the death, but this one died last week – and arguably with the defeat at home to Burnley. So, we must scramble around for reasons to attach any importance at all to the game. Here goes: it’s our last chance to end the season without the embarrassment of failing to win an away game. City fans on the road have been horribly short-changed for a very long time – one away win since 2008 – and the players frankly owe the travelling support a victory.

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By 5pm tomorrow, it could be all over. Another defeat for City coupled with victory for West Ham over Wigan would leave us six points adrift with two to play. That in itself that won’t see an “R” affixed to our name, but an insurmountable goal difference deficit will guarantee its ultimate arrival.

It’s odd to think that City may not even take it to the wire. That seemed fairly probable until very recently, and it’s how things have tended to go in recent years. No longer do we postulate whether Liverpool being in the UEFA Cup final or not would be good for us on the final day, or fret about a relegation six-pointer at Wigan. There now seems a finality to the issue – it’s not “if”, but “when”.

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Must City win this game? Oh yes. Failure to beat Burnley at home would not only leave the Tigers in serious danger of relegation, it’d be hard to accept that we deserve anything else. Burnley at home represents about the easiest fixture that the 2009/10 Premier League can present. Butchered 6-1 at home last week, in abysmal form and with the terminally useless Brian Laws in charge, challenges don’t come much weaker than this.

Hoping to capitalise will be a City side that may feature a surprise appearance by George Boateng. His whole season appeared in jeopardy as he lay stricken on the turn at Stoke last weekend, yet Temporary Football Management Consultant (heh) Iain Dowie believes the experienced midfielder may be fit to start. Ibrahima Sonko may also be included – he was ineligible to play at Stoke but after his remarkably assured display against Fulham a fortnight ago, Dowie may opt to restore him at the centre of defence.

Unlikely to feature is Stephen Hunt, whose mysterious foot injury is no nearer to being explained beyond a prognosis that we shouldn’t expect him the side tomorrow. Liam Cooper is also struggling with the injury that kept him out six days ago.

Burnley have few worries on that score. Jordan and McCann will likely be sidelined, but their woes are entirely on-field. Since the stormy 2-0 victory over the Tigers in October that seemed – at the time – certain to end Phil Brown’s time with City, they’ve seen their manager and form flee, and have just one victory in 22 games. That’s plunged them firmly in the relegation zone, three points behind City and four from safety. Defeat for them at the Circle tomorrow and one would have to assume it’s game over for the Clarets. We must be truthful: Hull City away doesn’t represent the hardest assignment for Burnley, and they’ll be viewing this match as offering a final chance at redemption.

Past history favours the Tigers, a little. Meetings have been relatively infrequent of late, though Burnley have been goalless in their last four visits to this side of the country – not since a 2-1 win at Boothferry Park in 1994 have they scored here. This season’s fixture saw the Tigers play terribly against a – then – impressive Burnley side, though referee Mike Jones’ contribution was hardly insignifcant. Martin Atkinson is in charge tomorrow, his first visit here since the 3-2 win over Everton last year.

A sold-out Circle and a fraught afternoon await. With West Ham at home to Sunderland and therefore themselves in possession of a winnable game, victory for the Tigers is imperative. By 5pm tomorrow, we’ll be much closer to knowing which division City will be lining up in next season.

Seven games to go of a run-in we eyed with hope takes us to Stoke tomorrow. It’ll be fiendishy difficult – second season syndrome has rarely looked like arriving at Stoke, with Tony Pulis’ men sat serenely in midtable with a points tally that’s already enough to keep them safe, while the Tigers again scramble for safety.

We can also discount any possibility of complacency from our hosts. There’s been a bit of needle between the two sides in recent times, though the departure of Phil Brown may lessen that – nonetheless, we can expect their near-obsession with him to surface at some stage. However, Stoke’s commendable determination and organisation has seen them flourish in the Premier League in a way few thought possible, and City can expect a severe test at the Britannia Stadium.

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