Nahki Wells has addressed Bristol City’s recent struggles away from home, suggesting the Robins need more moments of quality to pick-up results on the road.
The Reds extended their winless run away from Ashton Gate to six matches with a 1-0 defeat to Coventry City on Saturday afternoon and are looking to avoid stretching that streak to seven games against Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday evening.
Liam Manning has insisted that City’s record away from the West Country is not a cause for concern, especially when considering the Robins’ success in BS3, but the 39-year-old will be keen to see his side claim a first win on their travels since November when they travel to Hillsborough.
While Wells was willing to praise Coventry, and Brandon Thomas-Asante in particular for his winner, the Reds striker felt that he and his teammates had enough chances to at least leave the Midlands with a point.
“If I’m being honest, sometimes it’s just moments of quality,” Wells told the City media team when asked what was needed to replicate the Reds’ home form away from Ashton Gate. “Sometimes it’s just fine margins and today, what probably would have separated the two sides was us probably taking the chances we had, myself included in the first half.
“I had a big moment, the keeper saved it. It’s a chance that I’ve been dying for and I should be scoring it. You score that, we go ahead in the first 10, 15 minutes of the game and it’s a completely different game.
“We would have probably had the ability to control the game a lot more, but it was such a stop-start, too many mistakes from both sides and they had the killer moment. Put one in from a mad angle which was a great finish from Thomas-Asante to be fair and that’s what separated us. We have to look at ourselves, myself included.”
The nature of the Championship means that Bristol City don’t have to wait too long to try and get back to winning ways. Manning’s Reds will face Danny Rohl’s Owls on Wednesday evening before welcoming John Eustace and Blackburn Rovers to Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon.
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Both teams are in and around the Robins in the table and are also competing for a place in the play-off positions. Though it is only January, there is a feeling around some supporters that these next two games could well prove to be crucial if City wish to keep their hopes of a top-six alive heading into the second half of the campaign.
Of course, Wells is already keen to focus on the games ahead of the Reds rather than looking back at the weekend’s defeat at the CBS Arena, he insists that he and his teammates will use their frustration to try and put in an improved display at Hillsborough,
“Firstly it’s important we dissect today,” admitted the 34-year-old striker. “We look at and see what went wrong, we see what went right but then Wednesday is a new challenge, a new opposition and a team that poses different threats.
“The manager will have put a game plan together, but most importantly, we have to look at ourselves from today and try and right those wrongs going into Wednesday. That’s the fortunate thing with the Championship, the games come thick and fast so we can’t dwell too much. We’ll be disappointed, we’ll be hurt heading back to Bristol and we’ll be ready come Wednesday.”