Peterborough United star out to show Bristol City fans what they missed out on during short spell at the club

Szmodics ended a 16-year association with Colchester in the summer of 2019 to join Bristol City in the Championship. The move came after he had scored 14 times in 44 League Two matches to fire the U’s to the cusp of the play-offs.

Lee Johnson was the manager at the time, but Szmodics struggled was hardly given a look in by the boss that had signed him and he left the club at the first opportunity that January to join Posh on loan in League One. During his time with The Robins, he played in just three league matches (four in all competitions) and only on one occasion from the start.

After Szmodics made such a big impression with Posh, before fellow clubs voted to end the season, the club made a bid in the excess of £1m in the summer to make the move permanent. Szmodics made the move, bringing an end to a brief and unsuccessful spell at Bristol City but vindicated his decision at the first time of asking by scoring 15 league goals to help Peterborough back in the Championship for the first time in eight years and to give himself another crack at the level.

He has not started any of Posh’s last four matches but hopes to be involved on Saturday to be able to show Robins’ fans what they missed out on.

He said: “There are not too many people left at Bristol City from my time there, obviously there a quite a few behind the scenes that I am looking forward to seeing but on the playing staff, there are only a few of the young boys there that I know, quite a few have moved on.

“I am looking forward to the game. When I was at Bristol City, our home record wasn’t particularly great, but we were decent away from home and that seems to be similar to what it is now. It will be a good game because our home record is excellent.

“When the fixtures came out, Bristol City at home and Bristol City away were the two games I immediately looked for. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to be involved on Saturday. The Bristol City supporters didn’t really get much of an opportunity to see me play. I didn’t really get too many chances, but I still learned a lot from my time there. It is a big club.

“For me personally, I will play wherever the gaffer puts me. I am an attacking player, I can play in any of those front position, whether that is down the middle or in the ten or in any of the wide positions, I like to think I bring plenty of energy, I will keep running around and hopefully we can pick up the results we need.”