Last Friday, about 20 minutes after full -time, Liam Manning ran back to the touchline at Ashton Gate.
Whether he or someone else had been the one who heard the unofficial 'ultras singing block 82 of Bristol City who still sang halfway through the ground after he had defeated Sunderland to move the fifth in the table, justified their dedication.
He walked to cheer their efforts and they responded in kind. “That's the thing, those memories,” he told the official channels of the club shortly thereafter. “That is what it is about, popping up, being with people you enjoy, pop up and be proud of the club that supports you.”
Manning was not the only one impressed. A clip of the interaction found its way to the social media of the club and a week later viewed more than 500,000 times.
“Class that, hope you are promoted,” a fan of Nottingham Forest replied to the club's post on X. “They are a club that I would really like to see in the Premier League next season,” said another Wigan supporter, including the Robins fans they could have remembered in the pub.
This is far away from a team called “The most boring club in England” in a YouTube video that went viral barely 12 months ago. At that time it was a fair criticism.
City, together with Preston and QPR, are the longest serving clubs of the championship. But further back to the start of the millennium, they have only managed two promotions and one relegation, plus another three failed play -off campaigns – although none since 2008.
QPR can have at least a few Premier League memories, as well as off-field moments chaotic enough to spawn a documentary, while Preston was more often involved in top-six fights in the first half of this century, in addition to their four-year flirt with competition match with League One.
This summer City could still extend their own second -class stay to a 11th season, but for the first time in almost 20 years there is a material chance that they can actually achieve a little more.
And for the first time in those almost two decades, people are actively talking about the banks of the Avon about Bristol City.
The fact that the ninth largest city of the UK has never succeeded in organizing Premier League football, and not even a Top-Flight team since 1980, normally plays a central role in the foreign opportunity that comes in the wider time.
Now they are Fancams of last-minute winners against West Brom, clips of 'section 82' in full voice and wishes of oppositions who would like to see a new side connect with the usual faces in the top division.
There is a good reason for the hype around the West -land, which since the Swindon relegation in 1994 had been without any toppers – even if many of the clubs in the region were not too enthusiastic about the Robins who break that duck.
The Robins need one victory of their last two games to enter the play-offs lottery. Less like Middlesbrough and Millwall, the pursuit package, none of them wins.
Since Boxing Day they have collected 40 points of 22 games, two less than Frank Lampard's rocking Coventry City and only behind them and already promoted Leeds and Burnley.
Prior to Monday's defeat at relegation-Vecht against Luton, more a surprise of the competition table than the form book or the fleeting character of the championship, City had only lost one of their last 12, and that a narrow defeat at Turf Moor.
The Robins are used to failing to do the last obstacle. In both 2018 and 2019 they were in the top six on their way to the last part before they crumbled under pressure, but this season was different.
The Run-in has already seen them hire against then promotion rivals Millwall, Middlesbrough, Sheffield United, Norwich, West Brom, Sunderland and Burnley, with only the Clarets who can find a way to defeat them.
Without much in the way of striking names on the team of the team, City is forced to become more than the sum of their parts to achieve this point, which is demonstrably good for them to continue their steady but non-spectacular progression to Wembley on 24 May.
Only West Brom and Watford have won fewer matches of the top half of the parties, but City has lost only one less than third placed Sheffield United, despite the fact that they have been 21 points behind them as the ignoring of subdices.
This season they have remained in more than half of their games, but have raised 20 points from losing positions, behind only Sheffield Wednesday. They miss a part of the rough power of their rivals, but are doing well in resilience.
Nine of the 17 victories of the Robins have come the strange goal, including five of their last six. You would blow one of the other three parties currently in the play-offs on their day in the play-offs. City seems more chance of a way to success.
The consistency of this brought them here, and so she has finally found their shooting. Although still highly dependent on the 34-year-old striker Nakhi Wells, who was forced to play for almost four hours of football for nine days in Easter week, his unlikely sources to help the Bermudan Trouwe.
The Robins still have the third-most shot conversion rate of every top half of the season, but have started to perform their expected goals in recent weeks by some unlikely Screamers of defenders Rob Dickie, Ross Mccrory and George Tanner.
Of the 12 goals scored by the Backline of City this season, five came in the last five games.
Each by one, the collective around the team at Ashton Gate started clicking in acceleration and the increase in the club since Christmas has been built around getting the most out of that team unit outside of each individual player, although the synergy of midfield Max Bird and Jason Knight mark it.
But with at least two, perhaps five last tests, no one is much more difficult than a trip to Elland Road on Monday evening, live on Sky Sports. Promed Leeds still needs points to struggle Burnley's hands of the championship trophy.
City has not won in West Yorkshire since November 1979 – The last season they were at the top of the top. A rare victory this weekend to guarantee a play-off place, and those dreams of a famous return will become all the more real.
View Leeds vs Bristol City from 7 pm on Monday, live on Sky Sports Football; kick -off at 8 p.m.