Head coach demands more resilience after Clevedon defeat.

Head coach demands more resilience after Clevedon defeat.

Sean O’Driscoll lamented familiar frailties as City slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Clevedon Town.

Trialist Martin Woods put the Robins on their way to what looked set to be a routine win with an eighth minute opener, but the Southern League hosts responded with two first-half strikes in the space of four minutes to secure victory.

Now the City head coach is challenging his players to cope better with disappointment when things don’t go to plan.

"The attitude was first-class but the same old frailties dogged us, as it has done during my time here; we’re vulnerable to one ball forward,” O’Driscoll told Bristol City Player.

“At times you felt ‘where are the goals coming from?’ and the players got a bit disappointed. I’m saying constantly ‘every time you go into the opponents’ half, you’re outnumbered’.

“The odds are you’ll be disappointed, it’s just how you handle that disappointment.

“I saw a great interview with Andy Murray this week. He was asked what it was like being the third best tennis player in the world. He replied that it means he loses every tournament he plays in. He’s right, unless he wins the odd one, but the majority of the time he loses. But he’s a better player for it.

“The only inevitability in football is that you’ll lose games, give the ball away, play poorly. It’s how you react, so we have to build up their resilience. That’s collectively as well.

“We must be clear about what we’re doing and how we should do it. We must use games like this as a learning curve and handle disappointment better.”

As against Ashton & Backwell United in midweek, O’Driscoll fielded a separate XI in each half.

Albert Adomah and Marvin Elliott continued to enjoy a rest after international exploits during the summer months.

Sam Baldock, Paul Anderson and Steven Davies missed out due to slight injuries, whilst Frank Fielding again made way for two trialists in goal.

Kelle Roos and Reice Charles-Cook will learn more about the success of their trial spells in the coming week, while Woods will continue with the club for the next few days at least.

 

Only a friendly but winning is a good habit to have

If we have the same old frailties then it's Mr O'Driscolls job to bloody well sort it out with the season starting in 4 weeks time!

 

Our problem is the 60% wage cap we can't bring in enough new players until someone buys the crap we currently have and you don't see huge queues of managers banging on S O'D's door trying to sign Kilkenny, Pearson, Fontaine, Wilson etc do you? and they are stopping us signing the better players we need.

 

The same frailties as last season? Then stop ****ing playing the players that caused it

 

If they are not played they can not attract buyers

 

He rates Kilkenny so he is not going anywhere unless some stupid club pays what SoD thinks is his worth. £3 for Kilkenny and £5 for him and Fontaine but I don't think they quite see it the same as me.

Even though I believe Fontaine will get better and return to what we have seen him produce in the past, just don't think it will happen here as he tries to hard and panicks not to make mistakes as he knows the crowd will always be on his back here.

 

Doesn't anyone think that the cut in wages might prompt NK to leave...?

 

Yes it might if anyone else is stupid enough to offer him more he will leave in all probability

 

I hope S O'D signs Roos and Woods although one of the two goals Charles-Cook conceeded was def down to Wilson what a naff head back dropped far too short.

 

Glad to see the promised improvement and if anyone still believes we will be challengers this year then I suggest you wake up. The same old problems are still there and they won't go away anytime soon so brace yourselves for another poor season based on the last 3 performances.

Time to show who is boss Sean and if you can't get it sorted as you promised you must stop putting out these "we must improve' statements and take the necessary action to match your words. This is not a criticism but just a statement of the facts that you must realise are now staring you in the face and that is that you still employ a bunch of no hopers that will not give you what you need to turn us around. Fix it now please!

 

In between putting your head in and out of the gas oven, why don't you wait until the rebuild is finished before coming out with stuff like that...?!

 

I can't pretend that I'm happy with this result.

A lot of people state continuously that pre-season fixtures mean nothing, but if we go by last year it clearly means a lot. We were **** before last season and then during last season, and now that we've struggled to put away two non-league teams I think we're in trouble.

The results themselves mean nothing, but the morale means everything. We now have a group of lads that were worse than a bunch of part-timers, and I bet SOD told them so after.

I have the utmost faith in SOD to be able to rebuild the side, but again I have little faith in the board to provide him with the tools he needs. The rebuild is coming along nicely, and I have faith that the players we are buying are of the calibre needed to succeed at this level, but I'm still yet to see the necessary changes we were promised at board level. Aside from Keith Burt, things are as they were.