Football / Bristol City
Bristol City must take full advantage of West Ham injury crisis
A sold-out Ashton Gate is sure to be bouncing around on Tuesday evening as Bristol City welcome West Ham to BS3 for their FA Cup third round replay which is being shown live on BBC One.
Liam Manning’s side earned themselves the replay after last week’s brave and tenacious display at the London Stadium saw them draw 1-1 with the Hammers.
A superb strike from Tommy Conway just after the hour mark cancelled out Jarrod Bowen’s early opener as City refused to be intimidated by their Premier League opposition.
is needed now More than ever
However, the reigning Europa Conference League Champions were left frustrated by more than the result as key players Bowen and Lucas Paqueta both picked up minor injuries, leaving them unavailable for the remainder of the month.
With star-signing Muhammed Kudus and central defender Nayef Aguerd away on international duty at the African Cup of Nations, David Moyes faces a selection headache ahead of the replay.
West Ham’s strongest 11 struggled both offensively and defensively at times against City when they played in the capital.
So the abundance of injuries they now face presents the Robins with an incredible opportunity, which they must ensure they take advantage of by persisting with their attacking approach.
As seen with City’s goal in the original tie, the speed of Conway can exploit Angelo Ogbonna’s lack of pace and Lukasz Fabianski’s hesitancy to come off his line.
Playing balls in behind West Ham’s defence could, therefore, hold the key to securing victory on Tuesday evening.
Despite their successful outing in London, Bristol City’s form has been poor as of late, with the Robins failing to score in their last three games, including in the weekend just gone, where they handed Preston only their second clean sheet in 22 games.
With City’s lack of potency and creativity up front and West Ham missing their most important attacking players, the game could be, in an attacking sense at least, rather uneventful.
That wasn’t the case the last time the Robins welcomed West Ham to Ashton Gate back in 2015, when, despite losing 1-0, City dominated for large parts of the game and even had two shots cleared off the line.
Football fans across the country took to social media after the game in London to voice their admiration for the travelling City fans’ ability to generate an incredible atmosphere at a stadium where it is infamously difficult to do so.
The Cider Army will be hoping they can replicate this atmosphere at Ashton Gate to help spur their side on to a famous victory.
A win could potentially lead to another Premier League side visiting BS3 at the end of this month, with the victors set to face either Nottingham Forest or Blackpool, who also require a replay after playing out a 2-2 draw at the City Ground.
Main photo: JMP
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