Chris Hogg has admitted Bristol City’s “lack of conviction” in the final third meant that the Robins had to settle for just a point against 10-man Hull City at Ashton Gate.
Liam Manning’s side missed the chance to secure a third successive win for the first time this season as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Ruben Selles’ Tigers on Saturday afternoon, with Anis Mehmeti’s penalty cancelling out Joao Pedro’s opener.
The Hull forward gave the away side the lead after just 13 minutes when he rolled his way past Rob Dickie on the edge of the box before slotting calmly past Max O’Leary. However, the 32-year-old’s game was over just a minute later when he was given his marching orders for a two-footed lunge on George Tanner.
While City piled on the pressure following the Italian’s sending-off, they were unable to find the net before the break. They continued to dominate possession in the second half but their only goal came when Mehmeti converted from the spot after Sinclair Armstrong was fouled in the Hull penalty area.
Over the course of the 90 minutes, the Robins had 26 attempts on the Tigers’ goal, 10 of which tested Ivor Pandur between the posts. Many fans will have left Ashton Gate feeling the Reds should have made better use of their one-man advantage but Hogg felt the red card made things more complicated.
“We didn’t score more goals than them,” the assistant head coach replied when asked what the key reason was behind the draw. “I think that’s the overriding thing in terms of frustration with the result.
“I was just saying downstairs, the performance levels and some of the stuff where we could have maybe believed in ourselves, created a bit more which is frustrating. I think the context of them going down to 10 men so early, people will think you really should go and steamroll them, score two, three, five goals when in reality, it’s really difficult when a team defends like that.
“Could have, should have, would have, it’s irrelevant really,” Hogg continued. “I think it comes down to our actions and listen, they defended the box well at times, blocked shots and did their actions well so credit to them for that.
“For us, it was that lack of conviction in some of the key moments really. We got into some good areas but ultimately, we didn’t have that quality to get that second.”
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Saturday afternoon’s draw leaves the Robins seventh in the Championship table, one point clear of eighth-placed Blackburn Rovers but two adrift of West Brom and the play-off places. Although they wouldn’t have been able to climb into the top six with anything less than a 7-0 win, their draw with Hull felt like a missed opportunity.
Ahead of the March international break, the Reds travel to Sheffield United on Tuesday evening and welcome Norwich City to Ashton Gate on Friday. While winning at Bramall Lane will be no easy feat, Hogg is adamant it is another good opportunity for Manning’s side.
“There’s loads of positivity,” the assistant coach said. “Loads of positive stuff happening at the football club and with the group.
“We were just chatting downstairs, a lot of people talk about the external stuff and the frustration today probably comes from probably us not achieving our maximum performance level. There’s loads of good things happening, it’s a really good one for us on Tuesday to go into that and just try to be the best version of ourselves again.”