Chris Hogg has outlined Bristol City’s current consistency challenge, admitting the goal for everyone at Ashton Gate is to try and “break that mediocrity” so the players understand how to win matches.
The Robins sit eighth in the Championship and two points adrift of sixth-placed Blackburn Rovers after 34 games. With their win over Middlesbrough last weekend, Liam Manning’s side climbed into the top six for the first time in 2025, even if results in the following 24 hours ensured their spell in the play-off places was short-lived.
Against Michael Carrick’s side last Friday, the Reds managed to come from behind thanks to a brace from George Earthy to win 2-1 in front of the Ashton Gate crowd. Although Boro came into that game without a win in their last four matches, Hogg felt the Reds’ display was a demonstration of just how City have improved so far this term.
“I think for us, the players know and they showed signs against Middlesbrough that they understand how we want it to look,” the assistant head coach told Bristol Live on Friday afternoon. “People will go, ‘Well that should be straight away and if you’re coaching right. Overnight we should be able to see a team go from here to 100 per cent and winning every week’.
“I think we had session 132 this morning throughout the season and the amount of work these boys do, it takes time. I think you can look throughout the season and every team I’ve ever worked with, from Under-7s all the way through to the first team, it takes time to bed in ideas, behaviours and certain expectations. One, [expectations] we have of the players and two, what they have on us in terms of what they expect from us. I think where we’re at now with the group is that it is peer-to-peer.
“They’re dragging each other along and really kind of pushing each other to try and get better. I think the way we work, we’re at a point now of the season where you should start hopefully seeing some consistency and there have been some good signs of that.”
The Robins are enjoying a rare free weekend with their trip to The Den to face Millwall pushed back by three days as a result of the Lions’ progression to the fifth round of the FA Cup. With eight Championship games still being played over the course of the weekend, City’s gap to the top six could be further stretched before they travel to East London.
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Manning’s side are without a win in any of their last nine away matches and have only won back-to-back games on one occasion this season when they followed up their Boxing Day win over Luton Town with a 3-0 thrashing of Portsmouth at Ashton Gate.
So far, City’s inability to string a consistent run of results together has been what has held them back from breaking in, and holding onto, a place in the play-off places. While the management team at the High Performance Centre feel signs of that much-needed consistency have been visible in recent weeks, they know it will not be a quick fix.
“I think over the last few seasons, you look at the results and they’re pretty up and down in terms of the team collective,” Hogg continued. “Even last year when we came in, it was up and down and we had a good run at the end of the season to kind of finish strong.
“But I think now what the challenge for us all here has been trying to break that mediocrity and trying to push the players to a level of understanding how to win. Again, that doesn’t happen overnight and also that doesn’t happen in one season or 18 months. I think it takes time and evolution as a football club to get there, where you want to get to.”
Tuesday’s clash with Millwall kickstarts a run of four games in 11 days for City in the lead-up to the March international break. Only time will tell just how important the coming weeks are for the Reds, but there is a feeling this spell could be decisive in the story of their season.