When Bristol City travelled to the Stadium MK just over nine years ago in February 2016, Lee Johnson’s side looked incredibly different to the one at Liam Manning’s disposal currently.
Jonathan Kodjia and Lee Tomlin started in attack. Marlon Pack, Korey Smith, Joe Bryan and Luke Freeman made up the midfield. Scott Goldbourne, Nathan Baker and Aden Flint lined up in defence ahead of Richard O’Donnell in the Robins’ net.
At right-back, a then 18-year-old Zak Vyner was handed his Reds debut as Johnson’s side beat MK Dons 2-0 with a brace from Kodjia helping in their quest to dodge relegation back to League One. Nine years, four loan spells and 220 City appearances later, the 27-year-old can’t quite believe where the time has gone, even if he still has an awful lot to offer.
“It makes me feel very old, especially now that I’m in the top five or six oldest players in this team,” Vyner told Bristol Live on Friday afternoon. “I did see that, it was a bit mad. It did make me sort of go, ‘Wow this is where we are’. I’m going into my 10th year next year but no, it was a nice sort of trip down memory lane for me.
“I keep reminding people that [I’m not that old]. We’ve got lads in the team who are younger than me and have played a lot of football so I don’t think we’ve got an obvious older group. Knighty’s captain, he’s 24 and he’s played a lot of football in his career so it’s one of those ones where everyone sort of chips in and we’ve got leaders everywhere in the group.
“For myself, I’ve obviously been here for a long time, I am 27 like you say, not done but getting into the sort of prime ages. I feel good, I feel confident in where I’m at, I feel like I’ve gained a lot of experience over the years and hopefully, I’m trying to implement that into my game.”
In the current City side, Vyner is regularly joined by fellow academy graduates Max O’Leary, Cam Pring and Sam Bell who have all become consistent fixtures in Manning’s first-team squads. Over the years, the pathway from the academy to the first team has been a crucial part of the Robins’ system as they look to finally take that step into the Premier League.
The latest prospect to be knocking on the manager’s door at the High Performance Centre is 18-year-old Elijah Morrison. The England youth international has been in and around Manning’s squad throughout the season having made his Championship debut against Rotherham United in the final home game of last term. However, the City boss has urged the teenager to remain patient with opportunities in recent months being few and far between.
Although it was almost a decade ago that Vyner was in Morrison’s shoes, he trod a similar pathway at the start of his Robins career and the 27-year-old is keen to be a role model in the way that Joe Bryan and Bobby Reid were to him as a teenager.
“Elijah’s made his debut, he’s had a little taste and it’s just about making sure they stay at the level in training every day,” the defender explained. “If we’re doing anything they’re making sure they’re at the best level for it.
“I do feel I’m, having obviously come through the academy as well, a sort of good person that I hope they know they can come to me, talk to me about anything and sort of pick my brain if need be because I wanted to do that with Joe Bryan, Bobby and those players. I like to think that I’d be a good person for them to come and talk to, give them some advice and the main thing is making sure they’re staying on it out there. That’s the best thing they can do to catch the gaffer’s eye.
“It might not mean they’re going to start every week but it might mean they come off the bench or get involved a little bit more. They’re fully involved with the lads and we don’t look at anyone as a young lad or this or that. It’s a good group for that.
“We’ve had good groups for a long time and I think that’s a good thing about this football club,” he continued. “We’ve always had good people. But this year, there’s definitely a big togetherness in this team and I think we sort of just gel very well and naturally that’s going to translate onto the football pitch.”
Manning’s squad’s togetherness off of the field has been reflected in both performances and results so far this season. At the time of writing, City sit eighth in the Championship, two points outside of the play-off places following their 2-1 win over Middlesbrough last time out at Ashton Gate.
For less than 24 hours, George Earthy’s second-half brace was enough to force the Reds into the top six for the first time in 2025 as the West Ham United loanee twice turned home from close range to complete the comeback after Tommy Conway’s opener for Michael Carrick’s side. As they did against both Oxford United and Stoke City earlier this season, the Robins came from behind to salvage a result having fallen and while it was only temporary, they reaped the rewards.
Though Vyner, like the majority of those in the City camp, has been quick to play down any talk of a potential top-six finish or play-off campaign, he admits the current crop of players in BS3 have shown a level of fight and resilience that hasn’t always been present in his time at Ashton Gate.
“We’ve been saying it a lot about trying to focus on performances not results but obviously when you are picking up results it is kind of nice to see the sort of reward for it,” the defender explained. “You can’t look at it too long, we played Friday night and everyone played the day after so it’s nice for a few hours but you can’t stick on that.
“It shows where we are, this year we’ve shown that we can do that in games. We’ve shown a bit more resilience when we go a goal down to sort of show the belief that it’s not over and it never feels like that for us on the pitch. Games like Middlesbrough, we spoke about it after the game and some of us that have been here for a few years sort of said, ‘Would we have done that a couple of years ago? I’m not sure.’
“I think the key thing is not looking too far ahead, but absolutely, it would be amazing,” he continued. “Of course, it would be an amazing sort of feat I guess. There’s a lot of football still to be played and I don’t want to be a sort of downer and the negative one here but there is a lot of football to be played, there are a lot of points available and hopefully, we can get as many as we can.”
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City have a rare free weekend on their schedule ahead of their trip to The Den to face Millwall on Tuesday evening as a result of the Lions’ progression to the fifth round of the FA Cup. However, following their night in East London, Manning’s Reds have the luxury of a run of three games in just 10 days to lead them into the March international break.
While supporters may be enjoying a weekend without the stress of watching the Robins potentially make or break their push for the play-offs, for the players in the City camp it has been as close to business as usual as possible as they prepare for a tough test against Alex Neil’s side.
“We’ve been in the majority of this week, actually getting some time to do some proper training sessions,” Vyner explained. “At this point of the season, we’re raring to go, we’re all firing on all cylinders and we just want to keep sharpening that.
“It’s been a bit weird obviously gearing up. It’s Friday today and we’re not playing tomorrow which feels a bit strange but they’ve backloaded us and we’re making it up in a couple of weeks.
“They’re a great side, they’re in good form as well. They’re in a good position in the table so it’s going to be a tough game as it always is down there but hopefully, we’ll be up for it and get three points.”