Conway eyes Premier spot with Robins

TOMMY Conway’s immediate sights are set on winning a consistent place in the Bristol City first-team but, beyond that, the 19-year-old has much more lofty ambitions – playing in the Premier League with his boyhood club, writes James Piercy.

City confirmed on Thursday evening that the striker has signed a new three-year contract at Ashton Gate, having come through the youth system from the age of seven.

The Taunton-born forward first broke into the senior set-up in April 2021 under Nigel Pearson, scoring against Millwall on his fourth appearance, and while he has performed regularly for the Under-23s, he has also become a fixture in first-team training at the High Performance Centre and in matchday squads.

Conway has also enjoyed a positive pre-season, scoring against Cheltenham and a double this week against Exeter, further adding to his case for inclusion in Pearson’s group for the 2022/23 campaign, which starts next week.

He only signed a three-year contract 12 months ago, so the fact he has been presented with extended and improved terms is testament to the work he has put in, emphasising his progress at the club and how his manager views him in terms of the future, which hopefully will include the Robins making that step up into the top-flight.

“My ambition is to break into the first team fully and hopefully play as many games as I can, score as many as I can and help the team,” Conway told the club’s media channels.

“I want to make the fans proud, my family proud and hopefully in the next couple years we can gain promotion to the Premier League. We have the facilities here and the stadium is unbelievable so we have everything ready to take us to the next stage.

“It would be a dream for me to play for Bristol City in the Premier League because I’ve seen them get close when we lost to Hull in the play-offs but hopefully we can get there in the next couple years.”

Conway has played both as a wide forward and central striker, and impressed with his finishing, penalty box presence and tenacity and work-rate off the ball.

He is competing with Andi Weimann, Chris Martin, Nahki Wells and, when fit, Antoine Semenyo for a place in the team.