Bristol City have stretched their unbeaten run to six games in all competitions after a 1-1 with the previously draw-less Blackburn Rovers, despite another set of refereeing frustrations.
The away side took the lead in a fashion that has felt all too familiar this campaign as the Robins were caught sleeping as Bradley Dack jolted them awake with his third goal of the season.
But from that moment on City were in the ascendency. Nahki Wells became the latest victim of the Bristol City penalty curse, as he had his legs swiped away by Scott Wharton, but moments later Antoine Semenyo was on-hand to tap home after Zak Vyner’s long range effort wasn't held by Thomas Kaminski.
There will be frustrations in the Robins camp that they couldn’t quite find that all-important winner after Daniel Ayala’s sending-off for the visitors, yet City showed the kind form we became accustomed at the start of this campaign. At their best they’re able to give the teams at the top of the table a real run for the money.
Arguably there will be no better marker of how much Pearson’s side have improved when they face West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup on Saturday, a month after the Baggies beat them with such ease on Boxing Day.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves and focus on next week’s cup action, here are the moments missed from Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Bentley chuffed to have Kalas back
Club captain Dan Bentley has affectionally referred to Tomas Kalas and Timm Klose as “absolute weirdos,” in the past and in recent weeks he’s been without both of his best mates on a matchday, with Klose heading towards the exit door and Kalas out injured.
"I seem to be attracted to weirdos because Timm and Tom are really strange people, but I love them,” explained Bentley back in May, and it was obvious from the moment he stepped off the City bus just ahead of Kalas he was happy to have him back.
Bentley entered the players' entrance with a grin plastered across his face (a sight that hasn’t been particularly familiar since he was dropped) and was seen on the club’s social media channels grabbing the Czech defender and saying, “Tomas is back, Tomas is back, he’s back!”
Pearson did admit after the game that it won’t be easy for the former Chelsea defender to claim his place in the Robins backline, such has been the form of both Zak Vyner and Rob Atkinson. “He’s going to have to wait for his opportunity. If players are in the side and doing well, they stay there.”
It’s safe to say Vyner won’t be giving that shirt up easily either, during his post-match press conference he welcomed the return of his Czech teammate saying, “healthy competition is always good. He’s a top player, a top defender. He’s going to push everyone on to make sure we hold onto our shirts.”
City's two-man advantage
There were few complaints on the pitch when Blackburn Rovers’ captain Ayala saw red after referee Tim Robinson adjudged his challenge on Wells to warrant a second yellow card.
However, Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasson didn’t believe it was worthy of a caution and couldn’t believe his captain received his marching orders describing his side as playing with “10 against 12.”
“Down to 10 men and very harsh in that way,” said Tomasson. “I think the Bristol player was clever, he ran into Daniel. Is it a yellow card? I don’t think so, the referee needs to make decisions very quick but it’s a harsh yellow card to give when you know it’s the second.”
Ultimately the red card probably did stifle what was looking like a competitive end to the game as Rovers opted to focus more on keeping City out rather than attack themselves. Although we’re not convinced many people, other than Blackburn’s manager, would’ve had any complaint about the dismissal.
Nigel’s glasses playing up
After his match-winning turn in the FA Cup against Swansea City, Sam Bell told Bristol Live that he was hoping his next City goal would be in front of a home crowd at Ashton Gate and when he tucked away in the 90th minute on Saturday, it looked as though he’d got his wish.
But the flag denied him his special moment and after the match Pearson made no secret that he thought the “referees assistant” could have been more in-line with play.
What you may have missed however was the gesture performed by the City manager as the decision was made. Without breaking his stare, he removed and put back on an imaginary set of glasses, while Jason Euell reorganised the defence and Curtis Fleming protested with the fourth official.
Having viewed the highlights it’s quite difficult to see if Bell was being played on by defenders on the opposite side of the penalty area, but it is pretty clear that the linesman was nowhere near in line with the last man.
Any frustrations Pearson felt after another penalty shout being denied because of “limited football contact” were only exacerbated by, in his mind, sloppy officiating late on in the game.
The start of the Her Game Too weekend
City’s ‘Her Game Too’ weekend of football may well have been curtailed a game earlier than planned as Bristol City Women’s game on Sunday fell victim to a frozen pitch at the High Performance Centre, but it was great to see the campaign in focus at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Formed in 2021, HGT aims to tackle sexism and champion women in sport and have partnered with a number of clubs and footballing institutions across the country.
Founder and ambassadors Leah Davis and Eve Ralph, both Robins fans, were joined by City captain Aimee Palmer and Vicky Bruce at half-time to discuss both how the work of the campaign has benefited women in football as well as City season so far. There were also tickets allocated local teams and schools.
It comes at a special time, with Lauren Smith’s side set to take on Manchester City women on Wednesday night in BS3 and Rebecca Welch becoming the first women to referee a Championship game as Birmingham City faced Preston North End.
Keeper department looking light
As previously mentioned, Bentley cut a more cheerful figure around Ashton Gate on Saturday, but it was noticeable during the warm-ups it was only the City captain and Max O’Leary working with Pat Mountain.
With Stefan Bajic completing his loan move to Valenciennes in Ligue 2 last week, Pearson has repeated he doesn’t want to leave his squad light in areas but were City to lose a keeper to injury (or a possible transfer, with the manager admitting he's not closed off a route out of the club for Bentley ) the options are increasingly limited.
There are options in the academy to fill a space on the bench if they are required, with Harvey Wiles-Richards previously being named on the first-team bench and Josey Casa-Grande sharing under-21 duties with Bajic this season, while Will Buse is on loan at Yeovil Town.
Whether or not either are seen as ready for first-team action is yet to be seen, but with neither involved in Saturday’s pre-match proceedings you’d have to imagine any transfer or injury would see new short-term cover incoming.
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