Football / Bristol City Football Club
‘You’d have to say we have started this campaign remarkably well’
So, Bristol City fans, what a week. I said in my last blog that the two results in the tough away trips to Reading and then Wolves would determine as to how well we had started the season. Having taken a surprising four points, you’d have to say we have started this campaign remarkably well.
I wasn’t able to make either match but followed both closely by the various – seemingly endless – ways that are available to the modern football fan. Johnson was bold in both his tactics and team selection, and I would suggest this went a long way towards securing two of the most impressive league results of the season so far.
The master stoke of bringing Flint back into the fold has paid instant dividends as the big man scored in both encounters and appeared to be back to his authoritative best in defence. It made perfect sense for him to replace Wright in the first of the two matches as Bailey had been half-way around the world and back playing for Australia in the week before.
is needed now More than ever
Johnson then faced a selection headache for the Wolves match – should he pick match winner Flint who got the vital goal against Reading, or his returning Aussie captain? The decision to play both with Wright taking up an unfamiliar role at the right side of a back-four, in a formation that Dean Holden described as “fluid” again showed good sense from Johnson, as well as impressive man management.
I for one was elated to see Johnson change a winning side: something he has been reluctant to do in the past. As we all know, City have amassed a talented but sizeable squad this season and rotation could be the key to Johnson achieving something special by keeping his side fresh and hungry for game time.
City take on a Derby side this weekend that seemed to have blown hot and cold so far this season. I watched their televised 5-0 televised defeat of Hull last weekend and was certainly impressed, but a look back at their previous fixtures this term seems to suggest they are once again suffering from what seems to be a perennial ill of theirs – inconsistency.
So, City could be facing that team that ripped apart a good Hull side, or the one that was convincingly beaten away to Sheffield United. The latter would, of course, be preferable, but City’s recent form should give fans hope for Saturday’s encounter.
Our good start to the season, however, does make me slightly concerned going into Saturday’s match. As we all know the Championship is a tight league and the difference between sides is often very slight. For this reason, I hope that expectation is not too high at the Gate this weekend, and if City aren’t ahead, or even behind, at half-time, that the fans don’t get on the team’s back.
One would expect more rotation for our next two home games, the second being a Tuesday evening Caraboa Cup tie against Mark Hughes’ Stoke City. It will be interesting to see if Johnson continues to prioritise the two league games either side of the Stoke game; one would assume he might.
Stoke are probably a club that Steve Lansdown and those running our beloved side would love to emulate. We have similar sized stadia and, if you think back to our narrow Auto-Windscreen Shield final loss of 2000, we were similar sized clubs.
Fast-forward seventeen years and Stoke have established themselves as Premier League regulars that seem to neither flirt with relegation or threaten to push into that illusive top-six. They have had European football in recent years and usually make an OK fist at the cup competitions.
Under Pulis they were rightly criticised for a pretty dull brand of football but now under Hughes they seem to have kept that combative edge, but also added some real class and finesse to their play.
Let’s hope City can continue their impressive start to the campaign with a couple of decent results, in what should be two great atmospheres in the coming days at the Gate.
Read more: ‘City face a daunting seven games in just 22 days’
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