There won’t have been many Bristol City fans that expected us to pick up anything at two tough trips to Millwall and Coventry City over the Christmas and New Year period.
Whilst two points haven’t done much in terms of dragging us away from the wrong end of the table, we did see two committed performances and players who at least appear determined to climb up the table.
Manager Nigel Pearson was undoubtedly under pressure from sections of the fan base after the Boxing Day home defeat to West Bromwich Albion and whilst the 0-0 and 1-1 draw against Millwall and Coventry City respectively won’t have appeased everybody, it has perhaps afforded Pearson some more time in some discontented fan's eyes.
I travelled to both games and whilst neither performance will live long in the memory, as I say, what we did see were two committed performances, during which City did have sustained spells of pressure and with better quality at key moments, we could easily have come away with two wins rather than two draws.
It was good to see Rob Atkinson start against Millwall and also Andi Weimann moving to a more familiar attacking role with George Tanner playing the right wing-back role. What the Millwall performance clearly showed is just what a difference it makes when players are played in their right positions. Round pegs in round holes.
Whilst Andy King had been reasonable in the back three against Watford and Rotherham, he was culpable in the Baggies defeat and Rob Atkinson looks far more accomplished back there.
Understandably, Pearson wants Weimann on the pitch but that shouldn’t be in that wing-back role when he has other options. I can’t help but think, had Weimann been playing in his more accustomed attacking role in recent weeks, he would have buried the late chance that came his way at the Den. It was important to get minutes into Antoine Semenyo’s legs.
The trip to The Coventry Building Society Arena, brought back a great memory of a Chris Martin goal. It was 420 days since Bristol City were last awarded a penalty kick. Unbelievably, we went the whole of 2022 without being awarded a penalty. There is now a website ‘BristolCityPenalty.co.uk' which has a clock counting up the time until our next spot kick is given.
I actually really like the trip to Coventry, I love the ground, their nod to former players on the outside walls and the memorial garden. It’s also a fairly reasonable road trip.
We didn’t expect many changes to the team and as it was there was only one, Tommy Conway moving to the bench, replaced by Nahki Wells. Pearson had indicated that the brief but lively cameo from Wells against Millwall would see him start against the Sky Blues.
Kasey Palmer started for Coventry and immediately got on the ball and created an opening with a disguised pass which Martyn Waghorn should have done better from. Once again, a former player was booed by sections of the City contingent, something I just don’t understand.
It didn’t work out for Palmer at Ashton Gate, but he was reasonably popular with the fan base and no doubt those same fans who wanted Kasey to meet their wives were the ones booing him on Sunday. Pantomime I know but for me, all it would do is inspire the player to want to get one over on us and Palmer did end up having a decent game.
Coventry made their bright start and early pressure pay, taking the lead despite a brilliant effort from Max O’Leary in the City goal to keep the ball out. Gustavo Hamer, who was running the show early on with Palmer, played a quick one-two with the impressive Viktor Gyokeres before crossing for Jake Bidwell whose initial effort was clawed away by O’Leary only for Bidwell to nod it into an empty net. We neglected to go with our runners and were slow to cut the cross out.
City could have buckled but didn’t and turned the tide, going on to be the better side in the first half. It was Antoine Semenyo who brought the sides level, as the game approached the half hour, but a large part of his equalizer was down to the determination of Cam Pring, whose cross eventually found Semenyo after a couple of deflections and the striker was composed with his finish finding the corner of the net.
City were pressing high with Weimann, Wells and Semenyo all working hard and forcing Coventry into giving the ball away, but the Robins just couldn’t capitalise. Gyokeres did brilliantly to head a Pring header from a corner away from under his bar and Semenyo came close to repeating the goals that he scored against Swansea and Birmingham when closing the goalkeeper down, but just missed out.
Coventry were the better side in the second half in my view, but City showed a resoluteness to keep the ball out of the net. Zak Vyner made one brilliant tackle on Gyokeres after the striker got away from Atkinson. Vyner had to time his tackle in the box to perfection but also be alive to clear it following the tackle. It was a really good day for Vyner, Pring and Tanner also put in a couple of vital tackles.
City did have a couple of chances, the best of which saw Semenyo break away and square the ball across goal, when I would have fancied him for a shot, and sadly Weimann was unable to get in front of the defender who blocked the cross. Weimann was then being booked for using his hand to try and divert it into the net.
All in all, these were two positive away performances, picking up the two points but points away are only really good points if you are winning your home games. Pearson isn’t a stupid man and said in his post-match press conference that we need to win more games.
The January transfer window is now open and let’s hope that our Technical Director (Tinns) can work his magic and add some quality to the squad. I will say it again, we are in need of at least one central midfielder, a midfielder with energy. It was again the area of the pitch in both games where we were found wanting.
Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast Bonus show ratings were Max O’Leary 7, Zak Vyner 9 *MotM, George Tanner 7, Kal Naismith 7, Rob Atkinson 7, Cameron Pring 8, Andi Weimann 6, Alex Scott 5, Matty James 6, Nahki Wells 6, Antoine Semenyo 8 (subs have to have come onto the field before the 60th minute). A game average of 6.91 and a season average of 6.28. For Nigel it’s a 7, two decent away performances that with a little more quality could have resulted in two wins but didn’t.
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