'Heroic' - Bristol City player ratings after Robins win at Swansea City Our City reporter's view from the Liberty Stadium. Dan Bentley - 9 Grabbed an easy Lowe header early on before a string of top saves to deny Hourihane, Lowe, Dhanda and every other Swansea player bar Guehi, Woodman and Roberts in the first half. Close to reaching Ayew's penalty but a strong performance all afternoon. Tomas Kalas - 9 Told by Pearson early on to keep talking to Towler and also explained to the youngster why he was subbed off before the break. And in between brilliant at intercepting the ball and leading the Robins throughout. Heroic performance at the back. Adrian Mariappa - 7 Recovered from a poor touch to just stop Ayew getting in on goal before vitally clearing off the line to preserve the clean sheet at the break. His experience shone at the end as he kept talking to those around him. Zak Vyner - 9 A rare mistake early on as he tried to shepherd the ball off the pitch but Lowe nipped in to keep it alive. But good clearing header on 30 minutes to stop a Roberts cross causing mayhem. His interception high up the pitch led to a charge into the area and a composed cross to set up the vital equaliser after an hour. Jack Hunt - 7 Solid shift down the right as he stopped Bidwell stealing in at the back post to open the scoring in the first half. And though his crossing wasn't as accurate as he may have liked, he did his defensive duties diligently and kept the home side out as City roared back in the second half. Adam Nagy - 7 All action display as he nipped in to win loose balls and carried up the pitch in the first half before helping to keep the ball moving in the second half as the Robins turned it all around. Tyreeq Bakinson - 6 Lost the ball a little too easily at times and a heavy pitch may not have helped his first touch as the ball was fizzed into him at times. Kasey Palmer - 8 Great crunching sliding tackle on Latibeaudiere in the first 15 minutes and may have been a little unlucky as Stroud harshly penalised him for handball in the box. Scored directly from the corner to atone for the earlier mistake and looked fired up in the final 30 minutes. Ryley Towler - 6 Roberts got behind him in the first few minutes and he then collected a yellow card for tackling the wing-back late. Was taken off after also catching Ayew in the first half and with Pearson worried that he might collect a yellow card. Famara Diedhiou - 6 Good battle with Cabango and Guehi that threatened to spill over after one aerial challenge in the second half. Pearson advised him to spin into the channels more at one point in the second period. A battling display as he won the most aerial duels (10) in the game. Nahki Wells - 8 Dropped back into midfield to keep the ball well at times and came up with the equaliser on 65 minutes as his crisp finish from Vyner's cross was fired into the net. Substitutions Antoine Semenyo (for Palmer, 89') - n/a Finally grabbed his first league goal as he made the most of Woodman's poor clearance. Han-Noah Massengo (for Nagy, 90') - n/a Helped to see out the game in injury time. Steven Sessegnon (for Towler, 45') - 7 Had a good second half as he stopped Lowe getting in on goal with one sliding tackle when one-on-one, and provided plenty of energy. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...ts/heroic-bristol-city-player-ratings-5053032
It's still early days yet to judge our new manager but at least we are back on a winning mind set and it will prove interesting to see if a real manager can change our overall fortunes? I have seen so many posts about the lack of belief from the players and I truly think that we finally have a person in charge who will make decisions based on footballing common sense and not pie in the sky theories. Managers are not designed to be nice but rather go about their business in a positive and forward thinking frame of mind and pay no heed to trying to fool the supporters with muffled garbage and corporate statements designed to try and fool us as to the commitment on behalf of our club. Time alone will tell us whether Nigel Pearson is the messiah to take us to better places, but for the first time in many years I really have faith in the person hired by Lansdown and he will receive my full backing for as long as it takes. What a shame it's taken so long but at least I feel that at my upcoming 77th I can toast Bristol City with a glass of bubbly or something.
I was one of those, I must admit. The next couple of games will be key - I thought (and Redprintt did) that we rode our luck on Saturday and Bournemouth will be a tough test. Lets hope these results have set a trend, and are not just the 'dead cat bounce' that sometimes happens after a change of manager.
The biggest change is the mindset that the first thought is now at least trying to get the ball forward, especially in and around the opponents box and not the mind numbing slow, predictable, sideways/backwards passing for literally 90 minutes, creating nothing that we have endured for far too long, I cannot recall many if any times in the last 2 games where a move has broken down in and around the opponents box and from a series of back passes ended up at the feet of Bentley. Wells is a different player, now busting a gut and arriving in the box at pace because he knows that there is now a chance that ball could actually be played into him. We are probably around 6 to 8 points away from safety, why not just try to win games for a change and see where that takes us. At least now the football is watchable, which is a nice change.
Bournemouth are one point more than us on form table for the last 10 games on 10 points. And we’ve been really ****e barring last 2 games. I’ve no idea why they’ve gone with Woodgate after his time in management with Boro. https://thefishy.co.uk/formtable.php?table=2
What result did you predict from those last 2 games?.....I thought we may have got a 0-0 at Swansea in all fairness!!
Depends which game, 2 defeats for us predicted my own game, 1 defeat and a 1-1 draw against Swansea in jfg2's game, still don't make me 1 of them, I've never been a you know who fan, no names, no games.
I meant that I thought we would get no points from the Boro and Swans game before NP was appointed. After the Boro game, I did think we may nick a point against the Jacks, but genuinely didn't think we would win, let alone score 3 goals...