I am sure that the vast majority of Bristol City fans would have taken a 2-2 draw and a point against West Bromwich Albion before 3pm on Saturday but after the performance, against as poor a Baggies team that I can recall having seen, and leading as we entered the last minute of added on time, it’s hard not to be really disappointed.
I saw a tweet that said that we have now played 20 home league games this season and have conceded last minute goals in an unbelievable eight of those games, nine goals in total. In six of those games the late goal(s) have cost us 11 points.
It’s gotten to the stage now that when we are leading in games and the board goes up for added on time, nothing is taken for granted. Nigel Pearson said after the game that the two goals we conceded were a real headache.
“The second one from our perspective is just another avoidable goal, where we’ve umm we’ve had a throw in, in the bottom corner and given it back to them and you know players keep making, the same players keep making the same mistakes unfortunately and it’s costing us.”
I can’t recall the players involved at the end that Pearson is referencing but surely our experienced pro’s should be helping the youngsters manage the game out.
Pearson was forced into making one change to the starting line-up with Alex Scott ruled out following the injury sustained in the mid-week defeat against Barnsley. Cam Pring came in and City lined up in a 3-4-1-2 formation.
The City bench must have been one of the youngest seen in the Championship: Josh Owers was rewarded for some recent impressive performances for the Under-23's and joined fellow academy graduates Max O’Leary, Zak Vyner, Ayman Benarous, Sam Bell and Tommy Conway. Nahki Wells bringing the average age up.
Watching from afar on Robins TV, I was impressed once again with the state of the Ashton Gate pitch, looking fantastic in glorious sunshine and less than 24 hours after Bristol Bears victory over rivals Bath in the Premiership Rugby Cup. Huge credit to Dan Sparks and his team. The grounds staff should ignore Steve Bruce’s comments about the pitch, he was just trying to deflect from just how poor his side was.
The game was less than 10 minutes old when the old man on the bench (sorry, Nahki) had to come on for the injured Antoine Semenyo who looked to have strained his right knee and his first international call-up with Ghana must sadly now be in doubt.
In all honesty it was a pretty uneventful opening period, both teams struggling with the windy conditions and unable to get the ball down and play. They were both cancelling each other out and then out of nothing City took the lead. Andi Weimann got in behind the Baggies defence and squared a perfect ball across goal and Wells finished with aplomb.
The excellent Robbie Cundy almost got his first goal for the Robins forcing Sam Johnstone into a save low down to stop the defender doubling his sides lead. City were looking dangerous in attack and Chris Martin so nearly celebrated his contract extension with a goal but couldn’t keep the ball down.
At half-time after a fairly inauspicious start most City fans will have been pleased. The Robins were the better side after Wells’ goal and should have increased their lead. Surely Baggies boss would get more of a tune out of his team. They were a shadow of the side I witnessed outplay us at the Hawthorns earlier in the season.
Unsurprisingly, West Brom did improve after the break but City were looking composed at the back and Dan Bentley wasn’t troubled. Han-Noah Massengo and Matty James were dropping back in to help Cundy, Timm Klose and Pring when needed, with Massengo in particular making a number of important interceptions, reading the play well and tracking the opposition.
It was looking a fairly comfortable afternoon and then we somewhat shot ourselves in the foot. Bentley who was a penalty hero a week ago, came out to punch a ball into the box and missed his contact and instead landed one on Baggies player Kyle Bartley and the referee pointed to the spot, albeit not straight away. Karlan Grant hit his shot down the centre of the goal. I do wonder just how many spot kicks would be saved if the keeper had the nerve to stand their ground.
West Brom need wins to keep their promotion ambitions alive but despite plenty of possession they weren’t really troubling City and much like their opener, out of nothing City regained the lead.
Cundy hit a long free kick to the edge of the Baggies area and Rob Atkinson rose imperiously to head the ball to Weimann at the back post and the Austrian fired another first time volley into the roof of the net, not too dissimilar to his winning strike last week at Elwood Park. With five minutes left plus added on time, surely this would be an unexpected win.
Nope, City again failed to manage the game out and substitute Adam Reach scored with practically the last kick of the game. We just aren’t streetwise enough and it was another harsh lesson. It was a decent performance but once again we conceded two goals and you just won’t win many games when you concede the number of goals that we do.
Our 3 Peaps in a Podcast player ratings were: Dan Bentley 6, Robbie Cundy 7, Timm Klose 7, Rob Atkinson 7, Cameron Pring 7, Jay Dasilva 6, Matty James 6, Han-Noah Massengo 7, Andi Weimann 8, Chris Martin 6 and Nahki Wells 8 *MotM.
For Nige it was a 6, it was an improved performance from the defeat at Barnsley but in fairness that wasn’t too hard. West Brom were poor by their expected standards but a point was the least that City deserved.
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