Bristol City returned from the international break with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at the hands of Burnley at Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon as the Robins were made to rue several missed chances in both halves.
Jaidon Anthony’s goal ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides in BS3. Max O’Leary had done well to stop former Robin Josh Brownhill’s initial effort but Anthony reacted quickest to tap home from close range.
Although the Reds weren’t able to level things up in the second period, Yu Hirakawa will have felt that he should have found the net when he was slipped behind the Clarets defence by Max Bird. Unfortunately, the winger wasn’t able to beat James Trafford.
City were also unfortunate to not be given a penalty when Brownhill appeared to handle the ball inside the box, only for the officials to wave play-on.
Here’s everything Liam Manning said to the written press on the defeat post-match…
Do you feel you should have had a penalty there at the end?
For me yeah. I do feel a bit sorry for the officials because they change the definition of handball every summer so last year that gets given. When you look at the trajectory of his arm, the fact we’ve got a player arriving on the ball behind him. What infuriates me is then the fact that Zak Vyner smashes one at Jaidon Anthony two yards away at Jaidon Anthony that then gets given.
For me, I don’t think anyone knows and that’s unfortunately the problem with the game. Every summer they’re tweaking and changing things and like I say, I do feel sorry because when you’re trying to get consistency across however many officials and you keep changing it every summer, I think it becomes very difficult. For me, yeah [it should have been a penalty].
The second half was a bit strange because you could have gone two or three goals down and in the end, you could have got a point.
Yeah well, Max made a terrific save, didn’t he? The first five minutes were actually ok in the second half then there was that five, 10-minute period where they got on top a little bit. Max made an outstanding save, we made the changes and it kind of gave us a little lift. Pringy had a terrific impact I thought, as did Yu and it was one of those.
Did we do enough to win the game? No, not for me but I felt like we could have got something from the game given the volume of the pressure, the questions that we asked, and the areas that we got into. Yu had obviously that terrific chance, numerous corners, wide free kicks, got into some really good areas and ultimately just lacked quality in the final bits in the box.
Did you feel that was a poor finish or a good save?
I thought the touch was a little bit heavy. He’s then chasing it and tries to lift it because of how close he gets to the goalkeeper. He’ll score those in the future I have no doubt.
We know his quality, we see it every day, and we’ve seen it in games so it’s like I say, frustrating and disappointing today but across the season he’ll score more of them than he misses.
Max Bird set it up, he broke through a few times from midfield, didn’t he? Got in front of the strikers which is something presumably you’re encouraging him to do?
I thought in the first 10 minutes we got in behind him quite well. Haydon got into some good areas and got some crosses in. Nahki had one where he went down the right-hand side and I thought we got in behind them for the first 10 minutes and then I thought we became a little bit passive with the ball.
Whether it was belief, whether it’s the purpose, I felt we could have asked more questions and then second half when you come out and naturally you’re chasing it a little bit, we had a bit more purpose, a bit more bravery, a bit more intent to try and ask questions and I thought we applied some good pressure without having the quality in the final bit.
Are they going to be as good as you face here do you think? Are they going to be one of the best teams in the division?
I think so. When you look at what they’ve invested, the quality of player and the fact that they’re really well set up and really well organised. You only have to look at games this season, they don’t give up many chances, and they defended extremely well.
They did defend strongly at the end didn’t they because you had all of the ball for the last 20 minutes.
We got in great areas, Pringy put in some great crosses I thought, we hit a few diagonals out that side and we’ve definitely progressed at that.
They’re bits for me that previously in games when we’re chasing and a team sits off like that, we’ve not always asked questions and sometimes been a bit passive whereas we showed a bit of bravery second half to hit diagonals, to cross things in the box and ask questions. I’m sitting here, it’s not for a lack of trying, a lack of will, a lack of intent. For me, it was just a lack of quality.
You mentioned that first 10 minutes and how you imposed yourself, is the next step for this team to kick on being able to do that for a half and 90 minutes to take the game to the opposition?
I think unfortunately you’ve got another team trying to stop you from doing it and I think that’s the big bit from me. You’ve got some really intelligent players that are able to problem solve and do something different. The first 10 minutes we got joy a certain way, they then changed how they set up which pushed us a bit deeper which is not ideally what we want.
We want to get after it, we want to press high. We then changed it to the four and managed to get a little bit higher. To think you’re ever going to play a game and dominate for 90, or 95 minutes is just not realistic at Championship level is not realistic I don’t think. If you look at the second half, it’s a 10-minute spell where they’re on top vs the first half where it’s probably a 30-minute spell.
For me, it’s how you shift momentum, how you get on top and then when you’re on top, how do you sustain it. When you’re up against it, how do you see that period through? Those are the areas I think the lads have really improved at, I think back to Norwich and how we managed the game there. Even today in the second half, the intent was definitely there.
With George Earthy was that just tactical because he was on the end of a heavy challenge?
Yeah just tactical. It was really difficult off the back of Norwich, everyone deserved the opportunity so it was difficult to make too many changes, hence we kept to the five. George played and George didn’t do anything wrong to come off in the first half, if you look at the difference between the two you tend to be a more out-and-out winger and we wanted to keep the width.
As you saw, we managed to get the ball to him [Hirakawa] and he caused a few problems down that side and had a terrific opportunity. It was a tactical one, George didn’t do anything wrong.
With players coming back, that bench is as strong as you’ve had to pick from. After a negative result, is that a positive to focus on?
Yeah definitely, I have to say, I thought we physically looked good at the end in terms of running capacity and I thought we finished strong. Pringy came on and was excellent. He was really unfortunate not to start given how well he did at Norwich but for me, it’s then about putting the team first and when you’re called upon doing what he did today because I thought he had real purpose with everything he did.
Having the option to bring on someone like that back in, Twiney and Yu speaks volumes about where we’re at and it’s only going to stand us in good stead when you look at how many games we’ve got in the next six weeks.
That starts on Tuesday, I guess everyone in the group is excited by the chance to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night.
Yeah definitly. Let’s be clear it’s a really hard place to go. Their form at home is excellent so we know that it’s going to be another tough one but especially in this period coming up, you can’t get too hung up.
Do I like losing? No, I hate it, but ultimately when the lads have given everything and it’s just a bit of quality against really strong opposition, you have to reflect on it and then park it really quickly because on Tuesday we have another one where we have to respond as a group and go and show what we’re about.
Sorry to ask about injuries again, how’s Mark Sykes doing because he picked up a knock before the international break?
He had a small setback in his rehab stuff. A small setback which is the case with some of them, it doesn’t always go smoothly and exactly on the time frames that are set. But he’ll probably be another week or two, a couple of weeks I’d think.
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Liam, since you came in how do you feel the club culture has changed and the sort of progress that you’ve made?
The challenge is always pre, isn’t it? You hear stuff but I don’t really know what it was like pre, I can only really talk about what it was like on day one to where we’re at now. I think we’ve really progressed in terms of the consistency of performances.
The only times I’ve gone we’re miles off it was Blackburn away for a whole game and a half at Derby, the rest of the time we’ve been extremely competitive and that’s the bit when I look at the group I think they’ve really progressed at is a real hunger, appetite and desire to go and win the game.
I’m predominantly a coach so I want to coach the players to get better, hence the work we do. We do a lot of video work, we do a lot of extras on the pitch, real position-specific work to try and help the players when they step on the pitch be better prepared. I think when I look at it, the balance of the group and the profile of the group is better for me. We’ve got more options, and we’ve added a lot more physicality I feel. We had lots of players that had a really good running capacity last year, but we’ve added some real power which only helps us.
Do you feel you’re a group that’s looking more upwards than downwards because there were a couple of tricky seasons?
I think so yeah. Bar those games I’ve mentioned, we’ve been in every game. We had a fan’s forum on Wednesday and when I spoke I said, yeah we’ve drawn quite a few games this season but you do get three feelings after a draw. You knicked a point, you’re happy like we were against Leeds where you say it’s probably fair, which maybe could have been today, then you go we probably could have got more.
I think we’ve had more of the we probably should have won today than the others and I think that shows we’re heading in the right direction. Like I say, the performances, the consistency, it’s now how do you turn them into more wins.
Do you use these games against Leeds, Burnley, Sheffield United as the yardsticks really because they’re the teams that are going to be up there?
Do you know what, I don’t spend too much time investing much energy into the opposition as benchmarks? For me, it’s benchmarking against ourselves. Like today, did we hit the level we’re capable of? No quality-wise but behaviours which I think is the biggest bit, did the players step on the pitch have a clear plan, a clear identity, a clear way of playing and consistently get close to it? Yes, I think we do.
It’s just the final bit of quality which is the bit you need to get over to turn consistent performances into results and I genuinely think we’re not far from that.