CITY 1 BRISTOL CITY 3
Well City's bubble has burst with a vengeance! We followed up an almighty hammering against the Forest – of all teams – by being totally outclassed by a Bristol team below us in the charts! Last night we were truly awful just as we were over and over again in the 2007-8 relegation season. How we managed to score a goal – with our only effort on target during the whole game – was a minor miracle but it would have taken one of biblical proportions for us to have got anything out of this match. The final whistle was greeted by a crescendo of booing that was entirely understandable given what the 19000+ crowd had had to endure.
For the first few minutes there was parity and little sign of what was to follow. We managed a couple of mediocre crosses from dangerous positions and N'Guessan showed uncharacteristic perseverance and determination to get in a shot which just cleared the far post (incidentally his one and only contribution). More seriously Waghorn was blatantly tripped in the area by a clumsy challenge when no danger threatened, the referee looked for confirmation from the perfectly placed linesman but he kept his flag down and thereafter suffered the expected abuse his portly figure deserved. The same linesman had just flagged for offside following a header form a defender so the crowd had no doubts about his incompetence!….
From this point on City went downhill and shortly afterwards conceded either a truly brilliant or truly appalling goal depending on your viewpoint. Bristol winger, Sproule (they specialise in names that look like a Countdown selection) picked up the ball wide right and proceeded to waltz past four, yes four, City defenders, yes defenders, before beating Weale all ends up!! I know we cannot tackle to save our lives but this was just pathetic. Had it been a reincarnation of Stanley Matthews it might just have been acceptable but an obscure Bristolian called Sproule……
City heads went down, the crowd were hushed – the game was over after 19 minutes and everyone knew it. Confirmation for eternal optimists came 10 minutes later when Bristol, very appropriately, made it a pair! Once again they scored the sort of goal we never manage. We have no dribblers so no Sproule goals for us, and we don't have midfield players who can both run forwards at speed and take the ball with them. When faced with this situation City defenders always react by back-pedalling to our penalty area to mount a sort of Alamo rearguard action.
Championship players love this and as soon as they see the whites of Weale's eyes they unleash a decent shot and hope to get lucky. Weale is a reasonable keeper but the ease with which he is beaten from distance is worrying and he never got near Skuses's effort which was far from being in the thunderbolt (or Sheff Wed ) class.
So 29 minutes gone and Bristol out of sight! We were devoid of ideas and fight with the exception of Morrison and Waghorn. Far too many City players disappear when the going gets tough as it did last night. Some defy classification in the modern game. What is Oakley for example? He plays wide right (when not wandering inside) but cannot dribble, cannot tackle and cannot run past a defender! Gallagher is another who is neither a striker nor a midfielder at this level so what is he? I can only assume that this pair are dead-ball specialists.
I am afraid that Pearson must take some of the blame for last night's abject performance. Bristol played 5 in midfield with the lively Maynard a handful on his own up front. Our poor midfield finds it hard when faced with four opponents but five……. The upshot was that the City back four had no one to pass to in midfield so they chose to lump it forward to Waghorn and Gallagher!!
Every single time it came straight back. I think most of us would put money on that! Pearson did pull Gallagher back but he's not a midfielder (see above). How we will cope if Wellens and King are not available I do not know – and they are mediocre by championship standards. How did we get into a situation whereby we have unwanted strikers by the bucket-load and hardly any midfielders?
The teams came out for the second half though a referendum amongst the crowd would have given Bristol the points if they agreed to push off at halftime. The torture continued along its predictable path until Bristol again scored a goal that we could never score. A city attack – using the word loosely – broke down and Bristol counterattacked with 4 on 2. They broke at real pace – that's the first bit we cannot do- and with numbers – that's the second bit we cannot do – and with the ball – ok you get the idea. Seconds later the ball was in our net courtesy of a Ronaldinho look-alike called Evander Sno who had had no trouble bossing midfield as befits a loanee from Ajax.
The old saying that 'just when it can't get worse it does' was about to come true. Waghorn made a very rash late challenge on their left-back who lay inert giving the referee no option but to send Waghorn off. Even worse he seemed to injure himself in the process so one way and another we may have seen him for the last time given that his loan period is coming to an end. And he is the most spirited player we have! So 3-0 down and one man down. Fryatt, who had come on for the almost invisible N'Guessan, took on the lone striker's role.
At this point another 5 goal hammering looked inevitable but to their credit City found a little pride and Bristol took to show-boating so a one-sided game suddenly became more even. Fryatt's introduction had already brought some improvement and he deserved to emerge with something to show for his efforts even though it was hard to see how this could occur. The answer came via a little luck and a defensive mistake. A midfield block followed immediately by a forward punt caught the Bristol central defenders off guard but not Fryatt who slipped past them, kept the ball under control and slipped it past the advancing keeper.
A couple of minutes later the agony was over and City were out of the play-off places. A performance like this on Saturday and even Sheff Wed will be licking their lips.
City: Weale, McGivern, Brown – booked, Hobbs, Morrison, N'Guessan (Fryatt 68), Wellens, King, Oakley, Gallagher, Waghorn – sent off
Bristol: Gerken, Orr, McAllister (McCombe 83), Fontaine, Nyatanga, Hartley (Elliott 78), Skuse, Sproule – booked, Sno – booked, (Johnson 85), Maynard, Haynes
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation