As far as birthday celebrations go, they don't come much better than that.
Nigel Pearson would have afforded himself a glass or two of wine last night, red of course, as he watched his side dominate City's rivals with arguably their best performance since... Tuesday's victory over Luton Town.
Intensity, passion and resilience to their play - three key ingredients to any Pearson side and with a raucous atmosphere inside Ashton Gate, the Robins proved yesterday they can be a match for any side in the division if it all clicks into place.
The performances in the last two matches have done exactly that and with the emergence of Tommy Conway, a rejuvenated Nahki Wells and Kal Naismith showing the form that saw him crowned Luton's Player of the Year, the early optimism that threatened to disintegrate after the first couple of results is well and truly back.
Although it's easy to go overboard, especially after a victory against close rivals and Pearson certainly won't be getting ahead of himself that's for sure. However, the league table is certainly looking a lot healthier in comparison to two weeks ago and City now have results to continue building upon.
Here's the talking points as the Robins win again.
Massengo in the shop window
There was a performance last season that even left the opposition fans waxing lyrical. It came away at Preston where the Frenchman completely ran the show, providing further evidence of his sky-high potential.
Since then, his performances have been inconsistent. One week he can turn in an 8/10, the next a 5/10 and that has sometimes been the frustration of his game, knowing he has the minerals to be one of the best midfield players in the Championship but failing to do it on a regular occurrence.
Massengo's spell out of the starting XI towards the end of last season would have obviously impacted his level of performance and it appeared as though game time may have been few and far between this time around too as he failed to get on the pitch against Hull and Wigan in City's opening two league matches.
Although with City's lack of midfield options, Matty James' injury and Joe Williams seemingly not quite ready to play three times in a week, Pearson has turned to Massengo despite the immediate uncertainty over his future beyond September.
His last three matches have been nothing short of excellent. Yesterday afternoon he was superb alongside Joe Williams in the middle of the park, full of his usual energy in midfield but was an added discipline to his game that has often been lacking on occasions.
He was up against Romaine Sawyers, a player who has nearly 200 Championship appearances under his belt, has experienced promotion to the Premier League and has a handful of top-flight games. Massengo came out on top in all areas and Sawyers couldn't deal with his doggedness in the middle.
It still seems unlikely that Massengo will be a City player once the transfer window ends at the beginning of September as he continues to delay signing a new contract but it's refreshing to see a player still give his all every match and the manager trusts him to do exactly that.
His early season form holds positive for all parties concerned. Most importantly, it's helping City pick up points on the pitch and other clubs will surely be paying close attention to his showings. It also means it could give the club some extra bargaining power if more than one club remains interested and would therefore prevent him from leaving for free in 12 months' time.
Going back-to-back
Not many of us need reminding of last season's staggering stat with City finally managing to pull off back-to-back victories in their 45th game of the season. It was something that plagued much of last campaign and often dominated press interviews with Pearson bemoaning the lack of consistency in his side, after a victory.
It almost became a mental obstacle at times and the pressure and expectancy grew on the side to turn in two good performances to help propel them up the league. It's taken City five matches this time around to break that trend and that's all it has taken to change the attitude of those that were becoming pessimistic about the club's season.
Assistant Curtis Fleming, who spoke to the written press instead of Pearson after the game, said they didn't even mention the word "back-to-back" to the players in the build-up to this fixture, perhaps not wanting to burden them with the extra psychological battle on top of playing against their rivals. Although you can rest assured the players, especially the ones that were around last season would have been eager not to carry that monkey on their backs.
Fleming said: "It's wonderful to get back-to-back wins because people were talking about it last season. We haven't mentioned it this week, we haven't mentioned it at all. We just mentioned about the next performance and giving it everything we can. The lads have stood up and taken their chances."
Naismith's not-so-secret weapon
"The ball was incredible by Naismith, to have that skill as a centre-back is... not normal. It was a great ball and all I had to do was keep it on target and I did it."
Those were some of the words of his centre-back partner Rob Atkinson after the game after scoring his first goal of the season. He's not wrong, the ball played into the box by Naismith was nothing short of brilliant.
It came into the perfect area on the six-yard box with bags of pace making it almost impossible to defend against. Atkinson almost couldn't miss as he rose above his man to put the Robins in a commanding position.
Naismith has been widely praised for what he has brought to the defence. He had one difficult game against Sunderland but his last three performances in particular, including the cup victory over Coventry, have proven why Pearson made him one of his key targets.
He's vocal, organised, calm in possession and what he perhaps lacks in pace, makes up for with his positioning and experience. Although his delivery from dead-ball situations will be a huge weapon for City this season.
It's not the first time he has shown his ability in a dead-ball scenario. He could easily have had an assist against Sunderland and Coventry but it's now evident with he set up eight goals for Luton in the Championship last season.
"We went to a lot of games last season and we saw it," Fleming said. "He's a leader and there's a lot more to him than that. He's a talker and he makes demands of people. Kal has come in and he's been as good off the pitch as he has on it.
"As soon as the ball came in we thought, what a ball and he's got that in his locker."
Kane Wilson's competition
Perhaps it was the only surprise when the team-sheets were announced at 2pm was the fact Pearson opted to stick Alex Scott at wing-back instead of City's new signing.
There were a few disgruntled comments questioning the decision to put City's wonderkid midfielder back out into a defensive position while there were two natural right-sided defenders in the squad in Wilson and Tanner.
Although it was an understandable and ultimately, fully justified decision by Pearson. Firstly, because following Tuesday's win over Luton, it would have been extremely harsh to drop either Scott or Massengo. Secondly, because the game was suited to playing Joe Williams.
City needed his attributes to help prevent Cardiff from playing their possession-based style and his performance, certainly in the second half, kept Andy Rinomhota quiet. He launched himself into tackles eager to ruffle a few feathers.
There was also the narrative that starting Wilson, potentially up against Callum O'Dowda against City's rivals on his full league debut is a true baptism of fire.
Although it is ironic how Wilson, who Pearson practically admitted would have started City's first game of the season if he hadn't picked up a minor injury in the build-up to the game, is third choice wing-back for now behind the suspended Mark Sykes.
Wednesday's game against Wycombe in the Carabao Cup will provide Wilson with the perfect opportunity to give Pearson a selection headache and he'll be determined to make up for lost time.
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