Liam Manning has confirmed that Marcus McGuane will be in contention to feature for Bristol City against Blackburn Rovers, having been left out of the matchday squad in the Reds’ draw with Sheffield Wednesday.
The Robins twice came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw with the Owls at Hillsborough on Wednesday evening to avoid a third consecutive defeat in all competitions.
Danny Rohl’s side took the lead early in the first half as Djeidi Gassama calmly slotted into the bottom corner following a swift attacking move from Wednesday. While City levelled things up through Nahki Wells quickly in the second half, Di-Shon Bernard restored the hosts’ lead just two minutes later.
Having been sloppy for the first hour, the Reds found their stride in the closing stages and pressure eventually told as Ross McCrorie secured an important point with his first goal in City colours just minutes before the full-time whistle.
Although he wasn’t included in the Robins’ matchday squad, McGuane did make the journey to South Yorkshire with the rest of his teammates having recovered from the concussion that ruled him out against Coventry and the midfielder could return to the fold against Blackburn on Saturday.
“He’s back in contention, Marcus,” explained Manning. “He’s someone that’s going to be important for us as well. That’s the bit, we’ve got some depth, we’ve got some options.
“You look at Joe Williams as well, someone that’s back around it now that we’re able to build up and he’s going to be important as well. We’ve got that and you saw the importance of it tonight, being able to bring people on to change the game in such a positive way.”
The quick turnaround between fixtures presents a different challenge for Manning and his coaching staff. It is something they’re well versed in, having had to contend with similar congested spells during the festive period only a few weeks ago.
John Eustace’s Blackburn side currently occupy the final place in the top six and are four points ahead of Bristol City after 28 games. However, they make the journey to the West Country having failed to win either of their last two games having first been beaten by Oxford United and most recently, losing 2-0 to Coventry City.
Bristol City Live on Whatsapp
Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone
Bristol City Live is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.
Through the app, we’ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.
To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select ‘Join Community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live team.
We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.
To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
A win over Rovers this weekend would help the Reds close the gap to the play-off places and boost their hopes of mounting a genuine challenge for the top six between now and May. But Manning knows that he will have to carefully manage his players given the current fixture congestion.
“It becomes challenging, but if you’re chasing the coaching going into Saturday and one day, then for me we haven’t done the right work in the last 14 months,” explained the head coach. “The biggest bit we take away from tonight is that we can do the coaching, we can have game plans, but it has to be underpinned by a real intent, belief, energy and positivity which we saw second half.
“It’s a late night tonight [Wednesday]. We’ll get back probably 3am, the lads are off tomorrow [Thursday] which I think is important. They’ll need the sleep to recover and get their bodies over tonight and the travel. In on Friday ready to work and obviously they have the extra day on us which is marginally frustrating, but we’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”