Nigel Pearson is happy to silence the doubters that wrote Bristol City off after the Robins booked their spot in the third round of the Carabao Cup.
The Robins made it three wins on the spin but they had to work hard for it after Wycombe gave them a tough test in the second half. Dylan Kadji enjoyed a memorable debut to open the scoring on seven minutes as City looked to pick up where they left off against Cardiff.
However, the hosts rallied in the second half and City's play looked disjointed as they struggled to get hold of the ball Wycombe were eager to put crosses into the box and they were rewarded five minutes into the second half when Ali Al-Hamadi headed in from close range.
Pearson responded on the hour mark by introducing Alex Scott and Matty James and it changed the complexion of the game. It put City on the front foot and the visitors started to stamp their authority.
Chris Martin had a header brilliantly saved from close range before Kal Naismith's superb delivery was knocked in by Kane Wilson to score his first goal for the club on the angle.
There was also time for Antoine Semenyo, making his comeback from injury, to fire in the third in the final embers of the game when Tommy Conway unselfishly squared the ball when charging down on goal. It's now five undefeated for City and four wins in that period after picking up just a point in their opening three league matches.
"Well, it’s interesting how people perceive it isn’t it?" Pearson said. "We were cannon fodder after a week and all of a sudden people want to talk in a different way.
"We’re exactly the same team. Sometimes you get breaks and sometimes you don’t and we’re confident that we’ll score goals, it’s a good result for us and it’s important we recover from this and make sure we’re right for the weekend because that will be another really tough trip (to Blackpool).
"If we can win cup games and get further then fine but the most important thing is the league. But I also think to develop a winning mentality it’s important to try and win every game.
"For instance, if we’d been turned over tonight making seven changes people would moan about that, people always want to moan about something, I just let them.
"It’s always about perspective and looking where you are. I’m not going to be shouting from the rooftops about how we’re doing. My job is to have a balanced view of where we are and where we’re trying to get to and more importantly how we’re going to do that.
"Tonight was just an ugly game, and it was just an ugly game because it turned out to be that. But you’ve got to be able to win these games, so it doesn’t matter. I think our performances right from the start, Hull the first game of the season was a very good performance, but we weren’t in control of why we didn’t win.”
Kadji is just the latest name to come through the youth ranks after he handed nine debuts to players last season. His performance remained a huge positive but Pearson highlighted the advantages of bringing players through with a lack of depth in his squad.
He added: "I mean positive for him as a youngster from our academy, making a debut which is great. I’m pleased for him, it’s another positive indication of what we’re trying to do at the club right through the academy so that’s positive.
"It’s a good job the club are producing players from the academy at the moment because life would be a lot more difficult if they weren’t, or we weren’t.”
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