Brown brought in Brian Horton as his assistant, and made even bigger changes on the playing front. He decided to let Ray Parlour, Jon Parkin, Nicky Forster and Darryl Duffy leave the club, while Dean Windass's loan move became permanent, Bryan Hughes and Richard Garcia signed on free transfers, and Wayne Brown joined for £450,000. Unsuccessful talks were also held with Juninho.
Three minutes into the new season, City were temporarily top of the league after Dean Windass's early strike against Plymouth, but ended up losing the game, with Ebanks-Blake scoring the winner just as he did in Brown's first game in charge and on the last day of the 2006/07 season.
Brown enjoyed a mixed start to the new season. Highlights included a Carling Cup run of wins at Crewe and Wigan before defeat to Chelsea, and wins in the league against Norwich, Ipswich and Barnsley. There have been disappointments too, losing to Blackpool in front of the Sky cameras, and particularly poor performances at Sheffield Wednesday and QPR.
The City boss continued to make use of the new money at the club beyond the summer break, signing former Bolton stars Henrik Pedersen and Jay-Jay Okocha, Caleb Folan in a record £1million deal, and Manchester United starlet Fraizer Campbell on loan.
Brown achieved three successive wins for the first time in his reign, beating Burnley, Preston and local rivals Scunthorpe to take City up to 7th at one point and start fans talking about the possibility of reaching the play-offs.
However, as has been the case whenever Brown has taken City on a good run and given supporters hope of success, a poor spell has followed, and City's last four games have been two draws and two defeats.
One year since that first game in charge at Plymouth, when City were 2nd from bottom in the table, Brown has steered City out of the relegation zone in his first season in charge, and now occupy 14th place in his second, 6 points off the play-offs and 7 points above the relegation zone. It is anyone's guess as to whether the side will continue to slide down the table back to where they were last season, or if this is just a minor blip and a challenge for the play-offs will soon resume. The chairman's target of finishing in the top half of the table this season looks attainable for Brown.
Click here for the final part of this article
Three minutes into the new season, City were temporarily top of the league after Dean Windass's early strike against Plymouth, but ended up losing the game, with Ebanks-Blake scoring the winner just as he did in Brown's first game in charge and on the last day of the 2006/07 season.
Brown enjoyed a mixed start to the new season. Highlights included a Carling Cup run of wins at Crewe and Wigan before defeat to Chelsea, and wins in the league against Norwich, Ipswich and Barnsley. There have been disappointments too, losing to Blackpool in front of the Sky cameras, and particularly poor performances at Sheffield Wednesday and QPR.
The City boss continued to make use of the new money at the club beyond the summer break, signing former Bolton stars Henrik Pedersen and Jay-Jay Okocha, Caleb Folan in a record £1million deal, and Manchester United starlet Fraizer Campbell on loan.
Brown achieved three successive wins for the first time in his reign, beating Burnley, Preston and local rivals Scunthorpe to take City up to 7th at one point and start fans talking about the possibility of reaching the play-offs.
However, as has been the case whenever Brown has taken City on a good run and given supporters hope of success, a poor spell has followed, and City's last four games have been two draws and two defeats.
One year since that first game in charge at Plymouth, when City were 2nd from bottom in the table, Brown has steered City out of the relegation zone in his first season in charge, and now occupy 14th place in his second, 6 points off the play-offs and 7 points above the relegation zone. It is anyone's guess as to whether the side will continue to slide down the table back to where they were last season, or if this is just a minor blip and a challenge for the play-offs will soon resume. The chairman's target of finishing in the top half of the table this season looks attainable for Brown.
Click here for the final part of this article