In many ways, Bristol City’s 2-1 win over Tamworth was a microcosm of the season – the only difference being that this particular story ended in victory, albeit against a team nearly 50 places below them in the ladder. It was largely uninspiring, save for the thunderbolt from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas that put the Robins ahead, and you cannot help but feel that if Tamworth were a League 1 team, City would not have been in the hat for the third round. Indeed, it took a mistake from the Lambs’ backline to let in Sam Baldock for the goal that killed the tie off – and even then, the team somehow contrived to set up a nervous finish. Yes, the goal had not crossed the line – but without such horrendous defending in the first place, this would not have become an issue. If Steve Cotterill didn’t already know he had an awful lot of work to do to pull the club away from the mire, he will be fully aware of the situation now. Sticking with the cup, however, a third round draw against Watford was an unpleasant one. An English giant or a beatable lower league team is what you hope is given to you – the Hornets are neither. Without casting assumptions, round three looks to be the end of City’s FA Cup run – particularly as league form is a lot more important right now. As for the manager, December must represent a period of fight and stability before he will look to do all he can to improve the squad in January. Nobody can expect the new boss to pull up any trees, regardless of any potential “new manager” effect – but December does happen to be a month of four winnable games. Three of them are at home – and it is at Ashton Gate where Cotterill must look to put his own stamp on things, by making the team unwanted opponents for the rest of the division. To firstly get out of the relegation zone, and secondly pull clear of danger – home form is the key. There are certainly easier teams to play against than Rotherham, the next opponents, but Walsall and Stevenage follow later in the month, as well as a huge away fixture at fellow strugglers Notts County. With all due respect to these other clubs, it is not unrealistic to believe at least two of these games should be won, with seven points a respectable and realistic tally to hit. However, more would be welcome, given that January’s fixture list looks incredibly ugly indeed. With that in mind, momentum from these four December fixtures will be crucial. If it is not found, there could be a mountain to scale come February. By Lewiss Smith, Shoot’s Bristol City blogger.. http://www.shoot.co.uk/decisive-december/ 7/8 points from 9 has got to be a realistic total for December.. Rotherham (H) Draw.....1point.. Notts County (A) Win....3point.. Walsall (H) Draw...........1point.. Stevenage (H) Win........3point.. Total.............................8points..
All four are winnable, have trust in our great leader,he certainly comes over very confident in his ability,lets hope it rubbs off on the players.
Lets hope so, as usually, the table at Christmas is a pretty clear indicator of where teams end up. Maximum points would get us into the top half but anything lower than 5 points and I can see a big struggle ahead.
Spot on wize and if there can't be many more months that has more importance in our history than this one. I said in an earlier thread that I believed we can win all 4 games in December but in all honesty my heart was ruling my head. If you look at our 4 opponents then I believe strongly that unless we can beat these teams, and get at least 8 points as you said wize, then we could be doomed to the unthinkable drop in to oblivion. Our record of bringing in new players during the January transfer window is poor at best and based on our past history I fear for our future even more. The opportunity to rebuild Bristol City has long since passed it's best before date and any efforts made at this late stage not only have to be bang on, but also correct for the longer term. The board have had chance after chance to sort out our problems and yet they continued to ignore the issues that were so clearly evident to most of us. I am getting totally fed up with their supposed commitment to the 5 pillars when their past lack of action sticks in a lot of people's throats and all we are left with is the belief that SC is capable of getting the job done this time around. Nothing I saw at Tamworth showed me that the upturn in fortunes is anywhere near close and we are still playing rubbish football with no due diligence to winning football with a bit more class. Only time will tell but the clock is ticking loudly.
Mike, incase you've ever realised this in life mate. But you can't change the past only the future. So they've made errors and just maybe they are correcting them. Replace the failing manager with another hopefully more successful one Said there will be money to spend in January (this is another thing, it's December now so January comes after that) Let's just wait and see shall we, and just maybe you can be a happy poster like you was on Sunday
Sunday was never gonna be a master class getting use to playing a different way there were encouraging signs will be a good December I have the faith
I appreciate your comments ROD and I just hope this time the board have learnt hot to handle things better. Let's hope that after this weekend's match we can start to see the smiles return.
