It is the hope that kills us Bristol City fans. Following the results in the Championship on Saturday, before kick-off on Sunday, we knew that a victory by two goals would see us climb to sixth place and occupy the final play-off position. Against a Swansea City side in poor form, low on confidence and with some fans calling for manager Luke Williams’s head, the cards seemed to be stacked in our favour. When the Reds were then beaten 1-0, how many of us were surprised?
Let’s talk about progression! There have certainly been positives this season and the facts are that we have one point more than we did at the same stage of last season and we are sat in ninth place, compared to 13th place last term. I have talked openly that being in touching distance of the play-offs until the last knockings of the season would qualify as a successful season and absolutely would be progression. I think the majority of fans, if they were being honest with themselves, would feel the same. However, as this season has developed, I’m disappointed.
Progression, for me, would have seen us stamping our authority on today’s game by winning it convincingly and taking advantage of the opportunity afforded to us. We just didn’t. It was exactly what you expected.
Whilst the result against, for me, a poor Swansea City side was hugely disappointing, the performance wasn’t that bad. We controlled large parts of the game and Swans goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux made top-drawer saves from Jason Knight, Luke McNally and Sam Bell. To be balanced, the away side had two clear chances with Ronald and Zan Vipotnik failing to take the opportunities.
In my own head, I’m confused as I think we are a way away from being real play-off contenders, yet the facts speak for themselves. We were a win away from being exactly that. I don’t know if my glass is half empty or half full.
Liam Manning opted to make three changes to his starting line-up, two of which were enforced by the suspensions of Ross McCrorie and Joe Williams. Max Bird, Haydon Roberts and Anis Mehmeti came in, with George Earthy also dropping to the bench.
After a good opening 20 minutes, the tempo slowed and we lost our way a little. We couldn’t get Mehmeti, Mark Sykes or Scott Twine in the game and Nahki Wells was getting nothing out of the Swansea City defence. Our back three of Zak Vyner, Rob Dickie and Luke McNally, whilst relatively unruffled, struggled to break the lines. The midfield of Bird and Knight saw a lot of the ball without creating too much. The chances that we did make came from set pieces.
The game really had 0-0 written all over it until we switched off in the 55th minute. The Swansea winner was so poorly defended, with too many players culpable. Roberts’ defensive header was too easily picked up with Mehmeti, walking and not covering the channel. The Swansea player was afforded too much room between Roberts and McNally. When Ronald played in Goncalo Franco, Max O’Leary parried the shot too centrally and Mark Sykes had completely switched off to allow Josh Tymon the chance to finish. It was so poor.
Manning made changes. Sinclair Armstrong came on and did make a difference. Sinclair got at the Swansea back line and created several good opportunities without the final quality ball. We did hit the post through substitute Bell’s left-footed effort but it just felt that we were never going to get the goal. Instead of leaving Ashton Gate sat in the play-offs we remain ninth and frustrated.
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We have a game against Stoke City on Wednesday and with McNally likely to miss the game through injury, will we see a change of shape? Will we keep the three and move Roberts to the left centre-back role? Or will he bring in George Tanner?
Despite his poor performance today, I would opt for Roberts and bring in Elijah Morrison in the left wing-back role. I actually think Liam would prefer to play McCrorie, a player who isn’t comfortable in that position, there. What is the point in having a specialist in that role available if you choose not to play him? Let’s give the lad a chance and at the same time, convince us fans that Liam actually believes in the academy. With his recent substitute appearances, I would also be starting Armstrong.
Our 3 Peaps In A PodCast player ratings were: Max O’Leary 5, Zak Vyner 5, Luke McNally 5.5, Rob Dickie 5, Mark Sykes 5.5, Haydon Roberts 4.5, Jason Knight 6, Max Bird 6.5 *MotM, Scott Twine 4.5, Anis Mehmeti 4.5 and Nahki Wells 5.
For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time), we went with: Sinclair Armstrong 6.5, George Earthy 5.5 and Sam Bell 6. A game average player rating of 5.36. That’s an overall season-to-date average player rating of 6.13.
For Liam Manning, it was 5. His changes should have been made earlier and we should have looked to go for it towards the end, changing to a more attacking formation.