In a spell of difficult games for Bristol City and Nigel Pearson, few would have felt more underwhelming than their third round Carabao Cup exit at the hands of League One’s Lincoln City.
The Robins fell behind early courtesy of an incredible strike from Blackpool loanee Matthew Virtue, before goals from Ben House and Paudie O’Connor meant that Tommy Conway’s ninth of the season ultimately meant nothing.
Tensions are rising at Ashton Gate and with only two wins in City’s last 13 matches it’s understandable that the fans are beginning to get a little tetchy, no matter how changed a side being knocked out of the cup by lower league opposition is going to sting.
But perhaps the result wasn’t the primary issue for most supporters, with a sluggish display from the players Pearson challenged to show why they should be getting chances in the league the biggest cause for concern.
The manager himself has repeatedly spoke about the limited depth in his side, especially in defence. But with another proclamation that the money probably won’t be there to reinforce in January, how do City begin to improve?
Ultimately, they have Saturday’s visit of Watford to lighten the grim mood around south Bristol otherwise the bitter taste of the last few months will remain throughout the World Cup.
But before we look ahead to Saturday, here are the moments missed from Tuesday night’s action.
Lauren Smith's front row seat
City have really set the trend of integration between both the men’s a women’s sides since both moved to the High Performance Centre and although it has been visible in training, Tuesday saw it continue into a matchday.
Curtis Fleming and Jason Euell made their own way to BS3 and when the City team coach arrived at Ashton Gate off stepped Nigel Pearson as usual, only to be followed by head coach Lauren Smith.
Smith then spent the pre-match warm up casting an eye over proceedings while in conversation with Scott Murray and Pearson before heading down the tunnel with the rest of the team.
There wasn’t a space in the dugout for Smith, there is a limit to how many coaches the Robins are allowed on a matchday in the technical area, but she was sat just behind the substitutes and appeared to be taking notes.
There is plenty of respect between the club’s two first-team bosses, with footage in this week’s training footage showing the pair together as well as Pearson often taking the time in his interviews so remind fans of the impressive job Smith is doing.
City women sit top of the Women’s Championship and remain unbeaten so far this season and some of the players enjoyed their Tuesday night at Ashton Gate watching the disappointing performance from the hospitality seats.
Small but lively crowd
Such has been the fairly consistent attendance at the Gate this season, Tuesday night’s crowd felt considerably sparse. Those that would typically sit around us in the top tier of the Lansdown were elsewhere with the upper tier closed and there were plenty of spaces around both the Dolman and South stands.
The first goal caused a feeling of unrest for most of the 7,961 in attendance but the second seemed to break the spirits of most inside BS3, with boos echoing from Section 82 which for the most part were directed to general sloppiness rather than one individual.
Half-time brought with it another chorus of boos and the announcement that Conway, Joe Williams and Zak Vyner were to be taking to the field for the second period was cause for cheers. Even that excitement was quickly quashed when City conceded a third after only four minutes.
It didn’t quite reach the stages of last season’s trip to West Brom so there was no love for former Senegalese strikers, but there was little difference between the cheer for Alex Scott’s introduction and Conway’s late consolation.
“How **** must you be, it’s only 3-0,” the chant that reflected the feeling of complete disappointment but almost expectation from the Robins faithful, if things go wrong on Saturday in front of 20,000 or more fans it could get ugly.
The pathway continues
It’s hard to take many positives from what was quite possibly the worst performance of Pearson’s tenure so far, yet it was another positive night in terms of the academy involvement in the first team.
There were three academy players in the starting XI and although it was a difficult night for Joe Low and Dylan Kadji, they will have discovered plenty about the reality of first-team football. They do say that you learn more from your losses than you do your wins.
What perhaps offers a greater sense of pride for those who support the club as well as those involved in the academy is that of the nine names on Pearson’s bench, only Williams and Nahki Wells weren’t one of City’s own.
The latest youth product to make his first matchday squad was 16-year-old Elijah Morrison who has been in red-hot form for the under 21s side. Had the game situation been different then the talented attacking midfielder may have been given some game time but this wasn't the time or the place.
City’s academy is as productive as most can remember and it speaks volumes that when inspiration was required last night it was Conway and Scott who were introduced to make a difference.
Bentley and Massengo still in the building
You’d be forgiven if you thought that Han-Noah Massengo and Dan Bentley had been banished from Pearson’s first-team thoughts entirely, with the Frenchman stuck in the youth team and Bentley not even making the bench on Tuesday.
The City club captain didn’t travel on the coach with the rest of the team and wasn’t present in the warm-up with academy keeper Josey Case-Grande facing the strike forces shots in a role that has so often been Stefan Bajic’s this season.
Instead, Bentley and Massengo were sat in the dugout ahead of kick-off, taking the time to take photos with young fans in the Lansdown Stand probably both contemplating their futures and how they’ve fallen out of favour with Pearson so quickly.
With the duo out of contract in the coming summer it looks increasingly doubtful that their futures will lie in the south west. The French midfielder took to Instagram to explain his thoughts on the last few weeks saying, “Controlling what’s controllable. A new challenge on the football journey but I’ll make the most out of it. Always grateful to put on the shirt. You reds.”
Early music in the Lansdown
If we’re frank, most inside Ashton Gate associated with City would have been wishing for the final whistle soon after Lincoln’s third goal if not before, and that seemed to be feeling reciprocated by those in charge of operations at Ashton Gate.
As Chris Martin was unable to steer home late in injury time someone accidentally teed up the full-time music and the upbeat sounds around the top-tier of the ground couldn’t have really felt much more out of place.
At least it wasn’t The Wurzels that would typically accompany a win as the crowd inside Ashton Gate didn’t need much encouragement to express themselves after the deeply disappointing night.
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