Player Profile: Matty Hill

A product of Bristol City’s academy, Matt (or Matty for short) is commonly considered to be the finest product of Bristol City’s youth development programme.

Measuring just one foot three inches in height, Matty is easily the smallest player plying his trade in the football league. Despite his diminutive stature Matty has an incredible ability to out-jump lumbering second division forwards, who are often six times his own height.

This extraordinary spring in his legs is mainly due to the fact that he was involved in a terrible crash whilst test-piloting a rocket for NASA several years ago. Despite early concerns he would never play again it was decided by some boffins that they could rebuild him as they had the technology. He would be better than he was before. Better…stronger…faster…Oh no, hang on, that was the Six Million Dollar Man. Anyway, Matty can jump quite high for a little one, that’s what I was trying to say.

Although to be fair, six million dollars is probably how much Matty will be worth by the end of next season. And while John Laycock hasn’t yet decided how the money will best be invested, it is believed he has his eye on a rather flashy looking yacht moored somewhere of the Bahamas. Probably.

For several seasons Matty seemed to be perfecting ‘the slice’. This involved spraying the ball either into the Dolman or Williams stands every time it came into his possession. However, despite enthusiastic encouragement from Mark Lever to pursue this method of defending Matty has suddenly opted out, and chosen instead to pass the ball to team-mates whenever possible. City fans have taken time to adjust to this alien style of defensive play, but it is growing on them.

Bristol boy Matty’s status as fans’ favourite was confirmed with his player of the year award, and whilst his physical attributes may be small he is a big player with a big heart and a big future. Let’s just hope it’s with us.