Football / Fan's View
‘We must be wary of our offensive approach’
If, like me, you still feel the pain of our defeat to Sheffield Wednesday last Tuesday then hopefully my words can offer some solace to our still recovering hearts.
The pain (not genuine pain you have to understand, not the type of pain you’d feel at the passing of a loved one or the breakdown of a marriage) hit like a bullet to the head after a long, slow protracted final scene from a movie.
The tragic end to our clash at Hillsborough was made all the worse by the circumstances in which I endured hearing of our fate that now fateful Tuesday night.
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As I finished a near criminally long day at work I was buoyed as I climbed into my car to hear Tammy Abraham putting us up two goals to the good.
As I drove home listening to the game on BBC Bristol we conceded our first. Moments after stepping through my front door I was treated to the ignominy of hearing Sheffield Wednesday go down to ten men but for Tomlin to miss the penalty we had been awarded as a result of the transgression.
Minutes later Gary O’Neil was given his marching orders and over the next thirty minutes City transpired to throw away the goal advantage we had.
The final six minutes of injury time felt like the slowest of all slow car crashes. Wednesday piled on the pressure as City defended gallantly and, I quote, “still broke in numbers”.
Still broke in numbers? Johnson should be applauded in general for his gung-ho, all-out attack philosophy but I would have thought this might have been an occasion to rein it in.
As has been so often the case in recent years City succumbed to a ninety plus minute goal to throw away potential points. In post match interviews Johnson seemed to mirror the pain felt by us fans and pinpointed the missed penalty as the turning point in the match.
So, what can we learn from City’s two roller coaster matches this week, the other being the turn around of a two goal deficit at Rotherham?
Well, life under this management team will not be dull. We have an attacking zest that will hopefully stand us in good stead over the course of the season. But, we should also be very wary of an exclusively offensive approach.
Steve Cotteril, Johnson’s predecessor, often spoke of how his sides would “manage” games. In layman’s terms this basically meant shutting up shop when you have a lead.
Although this philosophy might not chime with our current boss he would do well in heeding this advice and begin to try and “see out” such games as that at Hillsborough this last week.
Who knows what this weekend’s match against Derby will offer us but one would be surprised if it wasn’t another high scoring affair.
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