I get the feeling we are missing Leitner terribly. That kind of player who can dictate the flow of the game often seems to do very little, but in reality he is controlling what is happening. I personally feel he would thrive in the Prem and hope we can get there to prove what I'm claiming.
Well, first thoughts are that we did well to get a point, as the Robins certainly have us a game. IMO, we allowed TOO many long range shotd and that's something that needs to be worked on at Colney (Colney??). #pointsaved #5pointsabove3rd
Leitner is critical to our play, with great vision and the ability to dictate the flow of play, but Vrancic can also influence play. Credit to DF for the subs who changed the game in our favour. Brave decision to go to a 3-5-2 formation with Aarons switching to LWB to convert Hernandez's excellent cross. Had Rhodes not been just offside we could have won it. Very little from BC in the final stage. The 10 game unbeaten run continues and we're now 5 points ahead of third place and 10 ahead of 7th. Also still on 2 points per game which is the rate required for automatic promotion. On to Blackburn!
Ok here goes............ I don't think we played too badly considering the players we had available, I'm not saying we played well, but we were no where near 'piss poor'. We started with a really young team Cantwell & Buendia attacking and a back line of Lewis, Godfrey, Zimmermann & Aarons. What we really needed today was our most experience player and captain to step up to the mark and provided some stability and leadership, unfortunately he lost his head and far from being a calming influence on the youngsters, he was lucky to remain on the pitch and made significant errors in the lead up to both goals. For me Hanley came on for Zimmermann and provided the necessary leadership, to the defence at least. He was very quick in putting Diedhiou in his place and defensively we looked much stronger and more composed. Eventually DF made the necessary 2nd & 3rd substitution. Ideally I would have prefered if he'd taken Cantwell and Buendia off as they were both rattled, but he couldn't, cause he had to get Tettey off, before the ref made the decision for him. The trouble is despite many fans saying they are just happy for us to develop young players and see where it takes us, they're not, they're starting to believe and their expectations are rising. Could be that Hanley is becoming fit just at the right time. It wasn't a great day, but it wasn't a disaster either.
As DF said on FF, it's important 'not to lose' and I think that's 10 games unbeaten. #unbeleivable Edit - IMO, that was Tettey of last season and he was VERY lucky not to get a 2nd yellow.
Excellent summary, Canario. To have an 'off day' and still come away with a draw against a fired up team on their own turf says a lot about this side. Agree about Hanley with another tricky game at Blackburn and then Derby and Forest at home. Like to see Leitner back for those.
As I said thought we’d lose. And probably deserved to. Bad result with the games we have coming up. But better than I expected. Just.
Yes. let’s hope that Leitner is fully recovered before we travel to Blackburn and if not, we REALLY need him fit and ‘firing on all cylinders’ for the visit of Forest and Derby. Their game on Monday should be interesting. PD's pointers - https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwi...2-championship-draw-at-bristol-city-1-5820513
We can't keep throwing away the first half. Gives us so much to do in 45 minutes. Will cost us on days like today. A few weeks ago their game at Portman Road was seen as "Surely Ipswich have to beat them!" We got outplayed by them for large periods today.
Happy to remain unbeaten. Will be a much harder test against Blackburn, then much harder against Forest, and even harder against Derby. Really needed to win tonight.
Was it a bad result? Terrible weather didn’t suit us, slippery pitch caused all sorts of technical difficulties Bristol City clearly well up for it and playing decent football, the pundits were saying that their table position belies some of the quality of their team play and when they play well they are pretty strong - a bit like us last season Injuries everywhere saw us play the youngest team you can imagine, and up against an imposing striker like Diedhiou that is hard. I thought Diedhiou, until he tired, was ferocious. Then in the game: lost a lead and still found the nerve to rescue a point, could easily have won it though it would have been harsh on BC. Our most mature player had a very poor game (for a Norwegian he really doesn’t like cold and wet weather). I didn’t think Vrancic did much better. Our most experienced defender (at a creaking 25!) got injured and forced a substitution limiting our options. I also thought there were positives, like I think Krul is still improving and finding a way back to his best. We could easily have come away with nothing today, but this team found something to get a point. That’s critical as you can’t win them all.
Lots of doom and gloom on social media and elsewhere about last night's result? Hang on, in any normal season scoring twice to secure a hard-fought point away from home in atrocious conditions would be seen as a positive. As in 'any point gained away from home.....' So now Daniel and the boys have set the bar so high that a 2-2- away draw can be riddled with disappointment? Time the moaners took a reality check
Our game could have gone either way and we were playing a bottom team, no wins or points can be taken for granted in this division, throw in yesterdays weather conditions and it was a lottery for many teams.
