[Archived] Bristol City Match Thread - 5Th December 2015

[tonyoz]

An assessment of individual player performance on Saturday:

Instance of excellent play O

Instance of decent/good play O

Instance of disappointing/poor play O

Instance of terrible play O

Each half is assessed separately (E&OE). Note, for each player the different colours have been aggregated for ease of comparison – they are not in chronological order.

First Half Second Half

Steele OOO O

Henley OOOOOOO¹⁷ OOOOOO

Duffy OOOOOO⁴⁰O OOOOOOOOO⁵⁸O

Hanley OOOOOOOOO²⁵O⁴⁶ OOOOOOOO⁵⁸O

Olsson OOOOOOO OOOOO⁸⁴

Marshall OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO⁸⁴OO

Akpan OOOOOOOOOO OOOO

Evans ₍₇₅₎OOOO OOOO

Conway OOOO OOOOOOOO

Lawrence ₍₇₀₎OOOOOO⁴² OOOO⁵⁸O⁶⁸

Rhodes ₍₈₁₎OO OO

Taylor ₍₇₀₎ OOOO

Guthrie ₍₇₅₎OO

Brown ₍₈₁₎OOO

Highlights and Lowlights

17 A poor ball from Henley is intercepted and sets up a dangerous City attack. Akpan chases back and gets a foot in but the ball is still not cleared. Henley has a chance to tackle but misses and Steele has to go down low to make a decent save.

25 Akpan loses possession and City stream forward. A brilliant sliding tackle in the box from Hanley, moving at full pace, snuffs out the danger.

40 A great run across the box by the last defender Duffy removes a dangerous City attack as he gets to the ball just before the City man.

42 A good run through midfield by Akpan who sets Lawrence free on the left. Lawrence runs into the box but then tackles himself and a promising move fizzles out. What a waste!

46 A great dominant double tackle by Hanley in midfield sets up another Rovers attack.

58 City fail to clear a corner and Lawrence loops the ball to the far post where Duffy heads back across the 6 yard box for a simple tap in for Hanley.

68 Lawrence doesn’t retreat from the ball at a City free-kick – shows petulance and is booked!

84 The ball is held up well by Brown and eventually goes out to the wing where Olsson receives and goes on one of his storming runs down the wing and into the box. He is brought down for a penalty (a soft one I thought). Marshall sprints to claim the ball and sends Fielding the wrong way with his penalty.

[den]

This post stands out in a sea of rising euphoria Well done for injecting some much needed reality by sticking to the facts aggyblue. I don't want to pour cold water on everyone because 7 out of 9 was much needed, but it's still very early days, we should proceed with caution and bear in mind the fact that under PL we haven't played significantly better than before, we haven't beaten a team above us and importantly we haven't beaten a team with 11 men yet.

Back tonight from an excellent weekend in Bristol, only slightly marred by going to a very average game of football. I'm at a bit of loss to see where those who seemed to see a much improved performance saw this. I do expect Lambert to improve the performances in time but it certainly wasn't there at Ashton Gate.

Rhodes was anonymous all game. Lawrence looked sharp for about 15 minutes before fading completely. He should probably have been substituted earlier than he was and very nearly got himself sent off completely needlessly.

There was precious little between the teams in the first half and it took an equally needless sending off to change the game. I'm not sure I buy into the theory that Lambert had told the team to niggle Baker, unless there was a lot of off the ball chatter. The first two bad fouls in the first half were lunges he didn't need to make.

Cotterrill's comments after the match to BBC Bristol were hilarious though. Talking to City fans after the game they reckon his days are numbered unless there is a very quick turnround.

Thanks for a touch of realism guys.

Long way to go, but change had to come IMO. Clubs always have to look forwards, never accept that you can't do better. The real test for Lambert and co will come down the line, when and if the euphoria dies.

[philipl]

Football is all about big boy's dreams. We had Uncle Jack make our's come true and then some. Souey, Sparky and Big Sam kept us dreaming then along came a bunch of folks throwing buckets of ice on our beds...

So yes it is brilliant to be able to dream again and even more because it is so unexpected.

[Blue blood]

Sign of a good team playing badly but winning. Makes a change to reports we're playing well but not winning, which seemed a regular theme in the last few games under Bowyer. Not too concerned as yet that performances haven't improved as it's early days. Same conversation in Match and I might not be so calm.

I think the note of caution is a good thing from posters as it is the same team that managed 3 wins in 15 or whatever horror stat it was. And whilst I think our first 11 would give anyone in this division a good game, a few injuries and it's a very different story. It'll take Lambert time, but one of the positives of this run of results is, that 1) if/when it does click we've not got too much ground to make up but 2) even if we struggle to click, there's no pressure of relegation dog fight, Lambert can plan for next season rather than fighting fires.

[sambo]

Maybe a controversial opinion, but I thought Brown was really good when he came on.

I'm one of his biggest detractors, but it was a very clever sub for me.

*tin hat on*

[Mattyblue]

Brown wasn't 'all' bad last season.

I was at Boro last December when he came on and was a handful, we got that last minute equaliser.

However, like a lot of them, he became injury prone and his fitness levels declined markedly- the end result, that car crash of a performance against Shrewsbury.

I doubt he is the answer to our target man needs, but whilst he's here Lambert will be able to get more out of him.

[K-Hod]

Based on what I've seen of him, I think people are being a bit melodramatic re Brown's ability. That being said, if we are to progress I think we need better strikers than him.

[DE.]

He's been here a year and a half, made about 20 appearances and scored zero goals.

Thank for trying, better luck elsewhere.

[sambo]

He's been here a year and a half, made about 20 appearances and scored zero goals.

Thank for trying, better luck elsewhere.

I agree - I really don't think he's good enough if we want to progress.

Just thought as someone who's happily knocked him before that I'd have to give credit where it's due.

Lambert is probably trying to have a good look at him with January coming up, which is understandable.

[only2garners]

Newera - I'm not usually a curmudgeon, but I struggle to see how people can be so positive about such a pedestrian performance. We have undoubtably played better and lost this year.

Sambo - I would agree it was an excellent cameo from Brown, held the ball up well, much more effective than Rhodes on the day. Just what we needed to close the game out. And a cheeky back heel to boot.

[DE.]

Newera - I'm not usually a curmudgeon, but I struggle to see how people can be so positive about such a pedestrian performance. We have undoubtably played better and lost this year.

I think with a decent manager and overall set up you can forgive a poor performance if it ends in a victory. With Lambert in charge I'm confident we can get something out of most games, even when we play badly. Under Bowyer I felt like we'd lose or draw even if we played well. How often under GB did we play well in spells only to end up conceding and failing to win? I had no confidence in Bowyer getting us anywhere, whereas with Lambert I'm much more assured that things will continue to improve and we won't throw away points, as we came to expect under Bowyer.

[only2garners]

I wasn't at the Borough game but I was at Charlton where he was my man of the match.

DE - I wasn't suggesting the performance was unforgivable, just that on the day it wasn't much good. No doubt we will play better and not win this season and it would be good if that was occasionally recognised.