Bristol City extended their unbeaten run in the Championship to three matches in the Championship with a draw against Oxford United on Saturday lunchtime.
The Robins had been reduced to 10 men in the first-half when Joe Williams was shown a straight red card for a heavy challenge on Will Vaulks and Gary Rowett’s U’s made the most of their man advantage as Gregory Leigh gave the home side the lead in the first half.
However, a moment of quality from Max Bird and Mark Sykes saw City equalise just moments later as the former Oxford winger curled home from the edge of the penalty area following a creative set-piece routine.
While the Reds did well to manage the game, their task was made even harder when Ross McCrorie was shown a second yellow for a late challenge on Ciaron Brown. Despite being reduced to nine men, the Robins held on to secure a 1-1 draw and cut the gap to the play-off places.
Here is a full transcript of every word Liam Manning said to Bristol Love in his post-match interview at The Kassam Stadium…
Just to start with Liam, how would you sum up that game? It was a bit of a chaotic one to watch from the press box.
Pretty quiet, low-key and non-eventful, right? Where do you start? Look, first and foremost, I always look at the behaviours of the players and it kind of epitomises everything you want, culturally at the club, which we’ve said from day one.
The lads showed an element of toughness, I thought, to play the second half with 10 men. The togetherness, the spirit, the resilience and the way we defended the box, with people willing to hurt themselves, running, I thought it kind of epitomised everything you want culturally.
Joe’s red card, have you had a chance to see it back yet and what are your thoughts on it?
Yeah, I’ve seen it back. A few years ago it is not being given, because there’s minimal contact, but he’s off the ground so I think it’s one of those. I’ve only had a quick look. Ultimately, when you look at it, it half gives the referee the opportunity just from him being off the ground, but like I said, for me, it looked like minimal contact.
It looked like he was on the end of quite a nasty one earlier, getting hit on the knee. You’ve spoken about the inconsistency, that’s got to be frustrating.
I think everybody felt it right? The fans, the staff, everybody in the stadium. Players have bad days, staff have bad days and he had an extremely bad day, I think in terms of just the inconsistency. It’s not saying it’s all on us, I think for both teams he was really poor and just inconsistent, which then creates that element where nobody knows where they stand.
I think, like you said, the tackle on Joe and then the one after that. It was a little bit of the same with Knighty’s booking, and then not long before that Sincs had rolled Helik and was running away. It was exactly the same incident, if not worse, and there was no yellow card. It was the same with Ross getting kicked in the head. So, I mean that was probably the biggest frustration, just the level of inconsistency.
It’s a tough line with Joe, isn’t it? Because that passion and that bit of bite he brings to the team is what is so good about him, but there’s a bit of a fine line sometimes, do you think?
Yeah, of course, I think there is with anybody. I think I’ve spoken a lot in the past and probably had some critics coming at me for talking about emotion, but that’s the skill. I want people passionate, and I want people emotional but it has to be controlled, you have to be in control of it. Joe is one of those who has improved massively at doing it and like I said, he’s obviously frustrated with what happened today, naturally, but what you don’t wanna do is take it out of someone’s game because it’s such an important part of it.
With the half-time changes, was that just the case of trying to manage with the 10 men, and just mix things up a bit?
Yeah, I think so. We looked at it, you naturally know you’re gonna be defending a lot, and that you will need an element of real running capacity. That’s why we put Knighty and George [Earthy] on the outside because they are two of the top ones that can do that, and then obviously Sincs [Armstrong] with his power and pace on the counter, because it becomes quite a transitional game. You see that with the free kick, it comes from a ball down the side, which he chases and obviously wins the foul. Ultimately that’s what we need in the squad.
That’s two weeks in a row where although he’s not got on the scoresheet, he’s created a goal by winning the free kick. He’s looking a real handful up there at the moment, isn’t he?
Yeah, and he’ll continually improve which I think is the biggest bit. Credit to him for his attitude and his work rate. He started the season really well Sincs to be fair. I think he was having a really good impact and then naturally he picked up the injury, which set things back a little bit. Nahki [Wells] then came in and did extremely well. I think he’s in a good spot Sincs. We need him to have the impact that he had today, and long may it continue.
Obviously, it’s never nice taking a substitute off, but I’m sure he understands that was part of managing the game today?
Yeah, of course, he gets it. It wasn’t performance related, it’s just when you go down to nine and have five minutes left, or whatever it was, then it becomes about the team, as it is at the start. I think that’s what we have to work hard with the lads on, we’ve got some really good players, good depth and we need everybody to keep putting the team ahead of themselves.
We’re a long way away from it, but the first goal seemed almost as strange as the game itself. What was your view on that? It just seemed like no one could quite get something on it to keep it out.
Yeah, it was just waiting a little bit for someone to kind of take responsibility. There had been a couple of blocks beforehand and it kind of went in, in slow motion didn’t it? I think everyone kind of watched it roll in. It was disappointing to concede given it wasn’t like we had been peppered or had to defend the box for long periods. They had possession, but in areas that we controlled. That’s another pleasing thing, the resilience, and the response with the quality of the goal, it was a terrific response.
I heard you mention to the radio that it was something that had been worked on in training, a set-piece routine that looked well rehearsed.
Yeah, and credit to Pat [Mountain] and the analyst. They spend a good chunk of time looking at the opposition and what they do. We batter the lads with meetings and content, and it was one that was worked on, on Wednesday and yesterday to be fair.
But then you have to go and execute it and I think when you look at the quality of pass across the box and then the finish, it is a moment of real high quality. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to execute it.
You mentioned after Coventry that sometimes you do have to just dig in and grind out a result. Today shows that, again, this team can do that. How much does that say about your group?
A lot, especially for an extremely young group. You look at the age of the team that we finished with, it was an extremely young group. We were taking off George Earthy at 20, but then you’ve got Sincs in his early 20s. We’re a young team and I think it’s going to be an invaluable experience today, in terms of how we reflect, learn, and use it in the future.
I know you spoke about it in the week, but deadline day is on Monday, has anything changed with what you’re expecting?
No
A quiet day for you on Monday then, business as usual?
Yeah. I’ll take the dog for a walk, I think, on Monday. That’ll be the plan, yeah.
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Just going back to the set pieces, it feels like it’s a goal every week at this point. How valuable are they to you and do you consider them as important as regular play?
They are a huge part of what we do. It’s always a challenging one, but there are little things. It’s the same even with throw-ins, we’ve massively increased the amount of time and work that we do on throw-ins, which I think you are starting to see come out in games now.
Whether it be the organisation, from working the line and progressing up the pitch to getting control, it’s such a fundamental part of the game and is a core part of the program.
You mentioned a couple of times about the work that goes into winning them. It feels like there’s always a nice bit of play before you win them. Does that feel even better when they are scored?
Yeah. It’s a huge part of the game. I thought it was a terrific moment of play to release down the side, and Sincs does well. He obviously did similar the other week to win Twiney’s free-kick. So again, yes it has to be a big part of our game.
Finally, with Ross’ red, what was your feeling on that second yellow?
I haven’t seen that one back, so I don’t know.