Nigel Pearson's honest verdict after Bournemouth loss as he gives Bristol City injury updates The Robins manager gave his reaction as his side were downed 2-0 at Ashton Gate by Scott Parker's Championship leaders Bristol City pushed their club record run without winning at home to 16 league games with Bournemouth triumphing 2-0 at Ashton Gate on Saturday. In truth, the Cherries could have scored a hatful and a period after the break saw the Championship leaders, who have yet to lose after 12 games, queuing up to shoot at Dan Bentley's goal. First-half goals from Jamal Lowe, stabbing in an arcing Jack Stacey cross, and Jordan Zemura, who rocketed into the goal seconds before the break, put the side from the south coast in control. But they were not clinical after the break as Nigel Pearson's side showed character to hold, even with a man less when Andy King joined Joe Williams in leaving the game early due to injury, only for City to have made all three substitutions by that point. "I’ve got no complaints, we were beaten by a very good side today and I don’t think we played as well as we could have ourselves but I also have to give them an awful lot of credit for that too," said Pearson after the game, agreeing that Scott Parker's side are the best outfit to come to BS3 this campaign. "The goals that we conceded we could have done a bit better with. Especially the second one that came from our own set play where we had two opportunities to put the ball back in the box. "In the context of how difficult today was going to be against a side as good as Bournemouth we gave ourselves a few problems as well this evening." Williams lasted 10 minutes before he left the field, shielding his face with his shirt to hide just how upset he was at another injury issue, with Nahki Wells coming on to replace the midfielder. Pearson will hope that it is not a long-term knock, with the midfielder's time at City ravaged by injuries but hopes that he had turned a corner this season. "It’s difficult to really assess that. Joe has been great for us recently, he’s a bit like Han-Noah Massengo in that he gives a lot of energy and aggression," added Pearson. "I’m just upset for Joe tonight because he’s worked so hard to get back and to pick another injury up today is unfortunate for him. We’ll just have to see how it is. "I’ve not spoken to him yet but I assume it’s a hamstring." King later left the pitch on 66 minutes, clearing the ball into touch before walking down the tunnel himself. City should at least get Rob Atkinson back for the visit of Nottingham Forest on Tuesday afternoon, with the defender missing due to illness for this game. "I passed Andy [King] in the tunnel and I didn’t speak to him, the first question I said when I got to the touchline was, 'what was happening?', at least he wasn’t sent off," joked the manager. "It’s a day where we’ve been outplayed by a side that’s better than ourselves, it’s quite simple. I don’t know how other people see it but I know the warriors that we’ve got out there, we’ve got some lads that really give everything. "Now there may be opportunities for other players to come out there and get an appearance this week, we’ll see whether they’re up to it." As for the reason for the wretched run of home form? "Teams scoring more goals than us." It's seven points taken from 48 since January 26 and the Robins must overturn that, with Forest the next opportunity in just three days. "Look who knows, we’ve played okay at home this year. I’m being facetious. We’ve played games here this year, this season that we should have won. We haven’t done," explained Pearson. "Today I can’t really talk too much about there being a problem with us. We were outplayed. I don’t sense there being any anxiety around the players about it, it’s just a record which is quite bizarre actually. "We’re just going to have to keep winning away aren’t we?." https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...igel-pearson-bournemouth-bristol-city-6071704
I am a supporter of NP and genuinely happy Lansdown sacked LJ but I am appalled at our team not winning in 16 games at Ashton Gate, we are being humiliated, it needs sorting out, urgently.
It should have been 4-0 and could have been 6-0 because nobody in a City shirt showed up today. I don't know how the injuries today will hurt us going forward but I fear for our fortunes with another season of not even being close to what we should be by now. There must be something in our DNA that makes us this way.
Stats that surely shouldn't be seen at Ashton Gate by an away side.. Possession Home 27% Away 73% Shots Home 5 Away 22 Shots on Target Home 2 Away 5 Corners Home 5 Away 11 Fouls Home 4 Away 7
100% agree, I said to my daughter as we walked to the ground that I was pretty sure we would lose 3-1, but I did expect us to do the basics right and give ourselves a chance to compete. We barely strung 2 passes together all game, toothless up front, weak in midfield and all over the place at the back. As many have said, we could have lost 5-0 and had zero complaints.
What also worried me slightly was NP’s response, I’m assuming he kept his council publicly, if not we’re in trouble.
Yesterday was no surprise to anyone. We're not very good and they are. Forest are enjoying the almost normal dead cat bounce. Think Tuesday night could get quite noisy on here. Ps is Atkinson injured ?
I think Atkinson was ill, hopefully will be fit for Tuesday. Why has Scott moved so far down the pecking order? , Bakinson was poor again when bought on. I know Scott is young so has to be protected a bit, but I’d have much preferred to see Scott on rather than Bakinson. Bottom line for me is however good the opposition it’s not asking too much to expect professional footballers to be able to pass to each other, we weren’t able to keep any kind of possession which invites pressure, if you have the ball the opposition don’t. All the more reason to try to keep possession when your opponents are so good on the ball.
Like against Fulham. Everyone is talking about Bournemouth’s parachute payment. But surely Fulham have that as well and we competed against them. Yesterday the subs were wrong, thinking about it, all the tactics were wrong.
Bournemouth looked a far better side than Fulham, Fulham gave us some great opportunities at the back, Bournemouth look different class to me. I agree about 2 of the subs, the first one Wells for the luckless Williams beggared belief. We had 3 midfielders on the bench FFS. And as for Wells I really hope that somebody relieves us of him during the January window, yesterday he was lazy and generally disinterested and when presented with 3 strikers type chances didn't managed to get one of them on target, what a waste of money. The 2nd one DaSilva for ODowda was another strange one, I can only think ODowda is still not fully fit, I thought he looked ok in flashes and our main attacking outlet, although I am still awaiting him to prove after all of this time that he can be a match winner for us. But I thought that substitution to give us slightly more balance until Pring was taken off. The Pring substitution yet again proved along with Wells, Bakinson is not up to it, he is languid and casual and certainly a player to remotely turn this game around. Overall the most worrying aspect was the amount of casual sloppy short passes in and around our own area that went astray and added to the overall pressure and everybody bar Bentley was guilty of that during the game. I have already mentioned Wells and now onto Weimann, the bloke runs around like a springer spaniel on speed, chasing a ball being thrown by his owner but usually running in the wrong direction and like most springer spaniels there is absolutely no structure or rhyme or reason as to where he runs around, if he doesn't know where to best position himself exactly how are his team mates supposed to know where he is at any given time, as a striker he or Wells need to be on the shoulder of the last defender and whilst on the subject at least one player should be on the halfway line when we are defending corners or free kicks, at least it will take 2 opponents out of the fray, Bournemouth alway left 2 up meaning we had to put 3 back to defend. Bournemouth were pure class it was like a training match for them, Billing in midfield is a top player and controlled the game and introduction of Lerma made their midfield look even better if that was at all possible.
Didn't look like we were ever in the game right from the off. I think perhaps Bournemouth had the added will to put in a shift for Brooks and his Cancer diagnosis, but the way it's going we'll soon be having a whole seasons worth of home games without achieving a home win. Have to hope that the decent away form continues otherwise we'll be dropping like a stone towards danger. Luckily Derby have had the penalty of 12 points being taken away and Peterborough, Hull and Barnsley don't win very often.
