As away days go, that has to be up there with one of the worst. The majority of Bristol City fans will be desperate to quickly forget about the Robins’ 3-0 defeat to Portsmouth but unfortunately, my job is to try and dissect what exactly happened at Fratton Park a little further.
Ultimately, there is very little of a positive nature to dive into and more than enough that went wrong to break down and analyse.
While I wasn’t in post for City’s defeats to both Derby County and Blackburn Rovers it seems pretty obvious having spoken to people who attended both games and made the trip to the South Coast on Saturday, that this was the worst display that the Reds have served up so far this season. In the end, the Robins were lucky it was only 3-0 as had Max O’Leary not been at his best, it could have been five or six.
It was hard not to feel sorry for the supporters packed into the away end who had made the journey despite the difficult conditions presented by Storm Darragh. They backed their side in numbers but Liam Manning’s men just were not able to reward that support.
Although Plymouth Argyle were dreadful at Ashton Gate last week, it really felt as though City had turned a corner when they thumped Wayne Rooney’s side in BS3. With a favourable run of fixtures coming up on the calendar, this felt like the Reds’ chance to show just what they were made of.
But within the space of just 90 minutes, all that optimism had been washed away and instead, fans were just left questioning what exactly they should be expecting from this Bristol City side week in and week out. The season is five months old now and it still isn’t clear which City could turn up each and every game.
With all that being said, here are the stand out talking points after a grim afternoon for Manning’s side…
The wait for back-to-back wins continues
City are now 19 games into their Championship season and while they have managed to secure three points on six separate occasions, they are yet to win back-to-back matches once this campaign. Yes, this team is young and with inexperience comes inconsistency, but you cannot mount a genuine challenge for the play-off positions if you cannot put together a winning streak.
Heading into Saturday afternoon’s fixture, a trip to Fratton Park felt like it was the perfect chance to end that barren run. City easily dismantled Plymouth Argyle last time out and Rooney’s side had only recently beaten Pompey so on paper, there should have only been one winner.
But from the minute the referee’s whistle was blown, the home side were on top and the Reds looked second best. They were the masters of their downfall as individual errors helped create all three goals for John Mousinho’s side and that opportunity to record consecutive league wins once again slipped through their fingers.
After the game, Manning was quick to call to the fact that City have managed to put together runs of good performances that have deserved more points.
“When you look at Burnley, Watford and Plymouth, there’s three really good performances, we just haven’t had the wins to go with it,” explained the City boss. “I’m not looking at age, it’s trying to turn around what historically the club’s done for quite a while now. It’s not easy to do that, it’s a tough division, it’s a relentless division.”
While what the Reds head coach said is correct, the long and short of it is that from their last four matches, Bristol City have only picked up three points. It’s all well and good playing well and not winning against sides that you’re not expected to beat like Burnley and Watford, but you then need to cash in and beat the teams you’re expected to win against like Portsmouth and Argyle.
Football is a results business. Manning knows that, of course he does, and the City boss will of course recognise that his side hasn’t won enough games this season. The worrying thing about Saturday was the fact that for the first time since the 3-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers earlier this term, City couldn’t even show that they possessed the ability to compete with their opponents for the three points. If this team genuinely has top-six aspirations, they need to discover some sort of consistency.
Mr Consistent not at the races
Few City players have been as impressive in recent weeks as Jason Knight has been in the middle of the park. The Ireland international ran the show against Argyle last time out as he constantly appeared out of possession to win the ball back before dictating the tempo of the game from the middle of the park when he had the ball at his feet.
Although his displays can go under the radar, he is the beating heart of Manning’s side and as the 39-year-old’s captain, he is crucial to everything that the Robins do both off and on the pitch. With all that being said, the 23-year-old had a poor afternoon at Fratton Park as twice he was caught in possession on the edge of his own penalty area and twice Mousinho’s side punished his error.
Of course, everyone is entitled to a bad day at the office and Knight is unfortunate that his two mistakes came back to bite the City, but the midfielder showed a degree of complacency that supporters don’t expect from him. You have to wonder if this sort of showing was almost inevitable considering the sheer amount of football the former Derby County man has already played this season.
Knight has started all of the Robins’ opening 20 games in all competitions this term and the only time he didn’t play the full 90 minutes was when he was withdrawn at half-time in the Carabao Cup defeat to Coventry City. On top of that, he has started four games for the Republic of Ireland and has been used as a substitute once. To have already played 25 matches at this stage of the season is no mean feat and you have to wonder if it has taken its toll on the midfielder.
With the busy festive period coming up and games almost every two or three days, the time may have come for Manning to manage his skipper’s minutes and take him out of the firing line. With Max Bird and Marcus McGuane both capable of filling in a deeper midfield role, Knight could be handed a much-needed rest even if it means he comes on as a second-half substitute.
Marlon Pack given an easy ride
Marlon Pack is an incredibly well-regarded figure in South Bristol and rightly so. The midfielder was part of that incredible City side that won the League One and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy double and also played a crucial role under Lee Johnson as the Robins not only reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but mounted a serious play-off push.
With those niceties out of the way, most City supporters will have been slightly optimistic when they realised Pack would be playing as a makeshift centre-half at Fratton Park on Saturday. Although he is a more than capable footballer at Championship level, the former Cardiff City man isn’t blessed with pace and he isn’t a defender by trade so the likes of Anis Mehmeti, Nahki Wells and Max Bird would have fancied their chances of getting one over him.
But the ineffectiveness of the Robins’ attack was demonstrated by just how easy Pack found Saturday’s game. The 33-year-old was only dribbled past once in the entire 90 minutes of action and didn’t have to make a single tackle in the game. Of course, the Reds’ defensive frailty was their biggest issue yesterday but it cannot be disregarded just how little threat they carried when going forward.
Manning’s side failed to create a single ‘big chance’ in the match and only managed two shots on target, both of which were right down the throat of Nicolas Schmid and therefore easily saved. While last weekend’s win over the Pilgrims showed that when everything clicks, this City side can be a force to be reckoned with going forward, this weekend showed that when they’re not at the races, they don’t have that knack for creating a moment of magic to force a breakthrough and the Reds boss knows that has to change.
“We’ve said that a few times where we’ve had chances and not executed it,” he admitted post-match. “Last weekend we did and today we didn’t but if you want to progress and if you’re serious about putting runs of results together, you have to stay in the game and find a way to be clinical. We have to get better at game management and learn how to get results from games.”
The win over Argyle doesn’t mean that the Robins’ goalscoring problem has now been well and truly solved forever. They need to show that they are capable of fashioning and taking chances week in and week out, rather than just taking it in turns to find the net when the pressure is off.
Chance to show the progress
As mentioned above, Manning feels his side has already made “progress” this season and against Sunderland on Tuesday night, they not only have the chance to bounce back with a win but also have an opportunity to show what exactly that progress has been since the start of the campaign.
When the Robins were beaten 3-0 by Derby County in August after a miserable second-half showing at Pride Park, they followed it up with a trip to Ewood Park a week later where they were even worse against Blackburn Rovers and were once again beaten 3-0. The Reds simply cannot allow this defeat to Pompey to become the start of a poor run away from home.
The form away from Ashton Gate this term has been what has kept the Reds within touching distance of the top six. If they were to follow up Saturday afternoon’s loss with a heavy defeat to the Black Cats at the Stadium of Light, as they did at Blackburn, it would kill any sort of momentum they have and all but end their hopes of making a real challenge for the top six over the festive period.
If Manning’s side wins in the North East, it will be amazing just how quickly defeat at Fratton Park will be forgotten. We’re all football fans and we all know that we have incredibly short memories. While the hectic Championship schedule over the festive period is draining for players and supporters alike, it means that you’re never more than a few days away from having a chance to get back to winning ways.
Hopefully, Bristol City will grab onto that opportunity against Regis Le Bris’ side next week. Although Sunderland are well in the race for promotion to the Premier League after a strong start to the season, they have only won one of their last eight games so City are well within their rights to fancy their chances of coming away from the Stadium of Light with something.
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