After last Saturday’s gutless, shambolic surrendering to Birmingham City, we turned up at home to Preston North End on Wednesday night and whilst not the prettiest of games, we showed some fight and determination and deservedly came away with all three points.
Nigel Pearson, who never gets carried away in victory or defeat, talked after the game of the need for consistency and he is so right but unfortunately our all too familiar failings were on show against Millwall and the only constant was yet again our inconsistency.
As a fan, I knew how Millwall would set up and what they would try and do. They have one or two decent players but generally look to defend in numbers and the majority of their threat and goals come from set pieces. I am not sure what preparation or homework the management team, coaches and players put in during the week but whatever it was, we seemed to forget it all and gave away free kicks and corners and as a result were punished.
We marked zonally and too many times the Millwall centre-halves had free headers. It’s hard not to sound disparaging of the Lions but they weren’t great. In fairness with their away record, their confidence must have been low and yet they created the better opportunities and it’s hard not to admit that if any side deserved to come away with the points at Ashton Gate, it was the Lions.
Following some bold selection decisions in the week, Pearson kept with the same team. Max O’Leary keeping his place between the sticks and Antoine Semenyo and Tommy Conway starting up top together. Personally, I would have rested Tommy and started with EFL Fans Player of the Month Nahki Wells alongside Antoine. I would also have played Cam Pring instead of Jay Dasilva at left wing-back.
Positives were that Joe Williams was able to start a second game in a few days and it was also great to see Tomas Kalas back in the match day squad, after seven months out injured.
City could have gone in front early on after a good run and pull back from Mark Sykes, but Semenyo’ s shot was blocked. From my vantage point at the other end of the pitch, it looked a decent chance and perhaps he should have done better.
It wasn’t the greatest of spectacles, City struggled to retain the ball at the top of the pitch and constantly gave the ball away with wayward passing. When we did get into decent positions within the final third, the accuracy of our crossing again let us down. It’s a constant theme but seriously what are we doing on the training pitches?
If I was Sykes or, in particular, Dasilva I would be crying out for additional practice, running onto the ball and crossing it. Just how often do our crosses fail to beat the first man or end up over hit and running out of play. We play a wing-back formation and yet neither of our starting players in those two positions can consistently cross the ball into an area that our forward players can attack.
The midfield of Alex Scott and Williams had some decent moments, but our final ball was just lacking. The front two were feeding off scraps. The midfield create very little and don’t pose much of a goal threat. There is too much reliance on the forwards and yet we provide them little ammunition.
We conceded a soft goal right on half-time. We lost the ball up front and perhaps a more experienced player than Conway, would have taken one for the team further up the pitch. Instead, Timm Klose gave a foul away with a somewhat desperate challenge.
The Millwall free-kick was poor, but we failed to clear it and when the ball was recycled, Tom Bradshaw saw his header well saved by Max, but the Lions forward was quickest to react, getting up off the floor, taking a touch before firing into the net. Once again, City defenders were ball-watching and not anticipating the danger.
I was surprised that we didn’t make any changes at the break but with half an hour to go Pearson made a triple substiution, bringing on Kalas, Wells and Chris Martin for Klose, Sykes, and Conway. Just six minutes later he made a further change with Pring introduced for Dasilva.
Pring immediately got on the front foot and got in a decent cross, and it was from that kind of situation that City forced the equaliser just minutes later. A good move involving Martin and Semenyo, saw the ball fed out to Pring who drove a cross into the six-yard box, which Millwall defender Shaun Hutchinson couldn’t deal with, turning the ball into his own net.
Antoine showed composure with his pass out to Pring and perhaps if he had shown the same composure throughout the game, rather than slashing at every opportunity that came his way, often in fairness from his own creation, we may have scored earlier. Surely, we would force the pressure onto the Millwall backline and get the winner?
Don’t you believe it, yet again, we shot ourselves in the foot with kamikaze defending. We conceded yet another free kick and a harmless-looking ball was played into the area. O’Leary clearly shouted for the ball with I think Scott and Rob Atkinson ducking out of the way. However, Tomas Kalas was mid-air with one of his trademark leaps and he ignored his keeper's shout and his mistimed header landed straight at the feet of Zian Flemming who just had to hit a first-time shot into an empty net.
Debate has raged on social media about who was to blame for the goal. Max clearly shouted and Pearson talked about the positive goalkeeping, albeit questioning whether Max should have punched the ball instead. I’m not sure if it was a slight dig at Dan Bentley as Pearson referenced the positive approach as opposed to that witnessed at Birmingham the week before.
I think both O’Leary and Kalas have to take a proportion of the blame. Max travels a long way, did he need to when he can see that he has three defenders who should have been able to deal with the ball? Kalas should have left it for his keeper but felt it was his to win. Either way, it was yet another avoidable goal.
City never really threatened and popular former City front man Benik Afobe should have made it three for Millwall but his weak penalty after a foul by Scott was comfortably saved by O’Leary.
The manager has some questions to answer before Tuesday’s game at West Brom, an away trip that we rarely do well in. Andi Weimann is clearly out of sorts and must surely make way. Pring needs to be given a start and we have to get more creativity into the side. We are clearly missing Kal Naismith and Matty James and I am not sure how close to return either is.
Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast Bonus show ratings were: Max O’Leary 5, Mark Sykes 5, Jay Dasilva 4, Timm Klose 6, Rob Atkinson 6 *MotM, Zak Vyner 5, Alex Scott 5, Joe Williams 5, Andreas Weimann 4, Tommy Conway 4, Antoine Semenyo 5, with subs Tomas Kalas 5, Chris Martin 5 and Nahki Wells 5 (subs have to have come onto the field before the 60th minute). A game average of 4.92 and a season average of 6.19. For Nigel it’s a 5, just not good enough.
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