At the full-time whistle on Wednesday, there was a collective sigh of relief amongst the home fans at Ashton Gate. The last half an hour of football was nerve-racking to say the least. Although the result was a welcome one the way the game ended was a familiar sight. Bristol City penned deep in their half, holding on for dear life. We’ve had the odd game where that hasn’t been the case but since lockdown it’s something we’ve all become accustom to.
At least this time we held out for the win. You’d think conceding a soft penalty and being completely under the cosh for the final 1/3 of the game would be reason enough for a tinge of disappointment. Especially when you consider that Reading had lost their last six in all competitions.
When you’ve seen your team concede two goals in their last nine games, letting in just the one seems like a clean sheet! Were it not for Tim Klose’s lazy stick out of his backside we could have been looking at a clean sheet. Something that Max O’Leary needs, especially if he’s to get the doubters off of his case for a little while. I think he’s doing better than okay, personally. He’s one of numerous City starters who are relatively inexperienced at this level. I think for the most-part it’s not been the youngsters who have underperformed this season.
Young Robins Leading by Example
Despite the fact we have conceded an outrageous amount of goals this season, despite the fact we have thrown away enough points to put us into the playoffs, Bristol City fans are enjoying this season a considerable amount. Our young exciting talents have played a massive part in that. Whether it’s Semenyo’s goals, Scott’s ridiculous technique or Benarous’s ability to kick away opponent’s boots, there’s plenty to get excited about.
For the last few years we’ve had too many players blow hot and cold. Fail to deliver in key games and key moments. There is still dead wood in the squad, there are still wages being taken up by players who oughtn’t be here for much longer. Whether it’s their lack of goal contributions, their perceived lack of effort and simply the fact they may not be good enough.
If any group of players are impressing right now, it’s our youngsters. Cam Pring didn’t have his best of games against Reading, he still contributed massively for the two goals. Alex Scott didn’t play as well as he has this season, he still impacted the game from start to finish. We have a team which owes a lot to our academy set-up. Whether we can keep them for very long is another matter. You hope that Massengo’s injury isn’t serious, to see him alongside Williams and Scott in that midfield would be brilliant. He could be a big miss for Sunday.
Sunday Will Be a Tough Test for the Youngsters
You get a sense that under Pearson the youngsters feel comfortable expressing themselves, comfortable making the odd mistake as long as they go about things in the right manner. Sunday’s game away to Swansea will be an environment where every mistake, every error will be seized upon by the crowd. These young players have experienced a few hostile atmospheres, Pring, Semenyo and Scott all featured to various extents away at Cardiff this season. Sunday will be a similar environment.
Williams must surely start in Massengo’s potential absence. It will be interesting to see whether Martin gets another start, although his link up play is incredibly useful I do feel that Semenyo and Weimann as a lone pairing works best. Although we ended the game fairly poorly, you’d be hard pressed to make any changes. It’ll be a packed out away end, fingers crossed we play much better than how we ended the Reading game. This team always has the potential to score brilliant goals, work hard and play great fast football. Hopefully we see more of those things on Sunday.