Bristol City get their pre-season schedule underway with a behind-closed-doors fixture against Cheltenham Town on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, their League One opponents are competing in their second friendly of the summer having already defeated non-league Evesham United.

Match preview

For much of last season, Bristol City under-performed under Nigel Pearson, leading to constant speculation regarding the long-term future of the club's manager.

However, despite a 17th-placed finish, the Robins' best form came during the final weeks, proving enough to hand Pearson another opportunity to get things right at Ashton Gate.

So far, Pearson has made three first-team additions with Kane Wilson, Kal Naismith and Mark Sykes having arrived from Forest Green Rovers, Luton Town and Oxford United respectively.

A further three players have made the step up from non-league, while Robbie Cundy, Kasey Palmer and Callum O'Dowda are all high-profile exits from last season.

Pearson will no doubt make more alterations as the transfer window progresses, and the experienced boss will feel it is necessary to make progress up the standings.

This is the first of six domestic friendlies for Bristol City before they begin their Championship campaign with a trip to Hull City on July 30.

Meanwhile, Cheltenham started their preparations with a meeting at Evesham on Saturday, the EFL side cruising to a 4-0 victory in Wade Elliott's first game in charge.

Zac Guinan, Ben Williams, George Lloyd and Liam Sercombe all got on the scoresheet as players look to impress under a figure who has been promoted from the backroom staff.

Cheltenham have fellow Championship tests with Cardiff City and Birmingham City to come later in the month, but Elliott will want to post a statement of intent at the Robins High Performance Centre.

Team News

Bristol City will be without youngster Alex Scott after he featured in the England Under-19s squad which won the European Championship on Friday.

Andreas Weimann will also play no part in this contest having represented Austria in the UEFA Nations League campaign until June 13.

However, Pearson will look to give each of his available players some game time with less than four weeks remaining until the start of the season.

Cheltenham boss Elliott will hope to have Tom Bradbury available after the new signing missed the Evesham fixture due to illness.

Last time out, Elliott changed his entire starting XI after an hour, and some of the players who featured during the final 30 minutes may feature more heavily in this game.

We say: Bristol City 2-1 Cheltenham Town

With a game already under their belts, Cheltenham will fancy their chances of causing the upset on away territory. However, Bristol City's extra quality may still shine through at some stage, leading us to predict a narrow win for the Championship outfit.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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