It's been 11 years since Richard Keogh left Ashton Gate but the Derby defender admits there'll a slight case of divided loyalties when he returns to BS3 on Saturday.
Keogh experienced an enjoyable but incident-packed three years as a Bristol City player after arriving from Stoke in 2005. Initially sent out on loan, the then full-back worked his way into then manager Gary Johnson's affections and made the right-back position his own when Bradley Orr was jailed for his part in a nightclub brawl in 2006.
Promotion to the Championship in 2007 saw Keogh named Young Player of the Year but he then lost his place and left for Carlisle in 2008 before working his way up the leagues again via Coventry and now Derby where he has been a mainstay of the Rams defence for the last seven seasons.
Keogh met his wife Charlie in Bristol, were married near Blagdon in 2012, and admits her, and a sizeable contingent of her family will be cheering on the men in red when her husband's team step out at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
"I’ve had some great memories there, got a promotion there," Keogh, Derby's Player of the Year in 2013 and 2016, told Derbyshire Live.
"My wife is from there as well, so a bit of the family will be supporting Bristol!
"We know what the game is about and it’s crunch time.
"They will obviously be trying to win the game and so will we. We will go down there confident."
