City aim to put Covid tests behind them and see off the Rams
BRISTOL City players returned to the club’s Failand Training centre yesterday as planned in the build-up to tomorrow’s match against Derby County.
A number of positive Covid-19 tests at the club and the subsequent temporary closure of the training ground have provided the backdrop for the Robins’ prepartions for tomorrow’s Championship clash at Ashton Gate.
Covid testing began on Wednesday with a first group of players, with results due yesterday. A second group of players, including the returning internationals plus those who tested positive the week before and whose 10-day self-isolation ends in time for today’s session, were set to be tested yesterday with results known today.
The club is due to provide updates today at their pre-Derby press conference when head coach Dean Holden will face the media for the first time since the 1-0 Severnside Derby victory over Cardiff.
City are fortunate in the timing of the outbreak as there was no game last weekend and they are optimistic that disruption will be minimal.
The club hope to have all those who tested positive for Covid last week available this weekend. At least three players and at least three backroom staff were believed to have been affected, with national papers reporting that the number could be as high as 10.
Callum O’Dowda came back earlier than expected after a dead leg ruled him out of the Repubic of Ireland’s 0-0 draw with Bulgaria on Wednesday evening.
The 25-year old should be okay for the weekend - and having not played a match in midweek that may prove a useful advantage against the Rams, whose Jason Knight started in midfield for Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland side. Famara Diedhiou should also be available to Holden tomorrow.
The Failand closure means City players have had to work from home for several days using fitness plans devised by the coaching staff. However, the club does not believe this to be a major problem.
Of greater magnitude is the test results, which could rule out any affected players for the next three games if a 10-day period of self-isolation must now take place: Derby and Watford at home, followed by Reading away.
All eyes will be on the head coach today - although he will likely be reluctant to hand any psychological advantage to the Rams, and it is more likely that any impact of the tests on selection will be revealed at 2pm tomorrow when the teams are announced.
Meanwhile, England legend Wayne Rooney could play a duel role for tomorrow’s visitors.
Following the Rams sacking of manager Phillip Cocu on Saturday, Rooney has been promoted to a four-man coaching team to take charge as the club looks for a successor to the former PSV and Barcelona central midfielder.
Derby County are bottom of the Championship and will be looking for a result against City who sit in a promising fifth place in the table.
They lost the corresponding fixture last season 3-2. City took a 3-0 lead with goals from Nahki Wells, Filip Benkovic and Famara Diedhiou before County hit back with goals from Martyn Waghorn and Chris Martin - now of City - to ensure a nervous finish for the hosts. Whether Rooney plays or opts to remain on the sidelines this time around remains to be see.
Whatever he decides, the match will mark his first steps into the coaching world, as he lines up alongside former Robin Liam Rosenior, as well as academy coach Justin Walker and goalkeeper coach Shay Given. Rosenior who played 23 league games across 2002-03 for City, will also be eager to put on a good show at BS3.
The son of former City striker and Bristol Post columnist Leroy Rosenior, he will be looking for a happy return to his former club. Derby do have a decent record in the South West, winning three of their last six visits. City’s former Ram Chris Martin was on the scoresheet in last season’s game.
City have recalled Freddie Hinds from Bath City where a loan to Jerry Gill’s National League South has been cut short.Hinds will now join up with the City U23s squad.
In the seventh article of our flashback series, RICHARD LATHAM , former Bristol City reporter for the Bristol Evening Post, recalls the time the Robins took on Derby County in a dramatic 1992 First Division encounter. The sides meet again, in the Championship, at Ashton Gate tomorrow
BRISTOL City assistant head coach Paul Simpson was in scintillating form for Derby County when the clubs met for a First Division game at the Baseball Ground on September 6 1992.
But, despite netting a hat-trick in an extraordinary Sunday fixture screened live on ITV, the then 26-year-old winger amazingly finished on the losing side.
Sports producers at HTV West and Central Television could hardly believe their luck as viewers were treated to a match with more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie plot.
In my report for the next day’s Evening Post, I wrote: “For incident, controversy and attacking football, it could hardly have been bettered.”
Simpson was not the only Derby player with cause to remember the game. Team-mate Paul Williams, the most influential midfielder for much of the first half, ended up in goal after Steve Sutton had been sent off on 35 minutes.
Two goals down after only 12 minutes, a City team without injured strikers Andy Cole and Leroy Rosenior looked set to be annihilated.
With Simpson running riot against a defence with more holes than a colander, avoiding an embarrassing rout seemed the most Denis Smith’s team could hope to achieve.
The manager later insisted that, watching from a stand, he still felt City were in the game after conceding twice so early. He may well have been in a minority of one.
With only ten minutes on the clock, Martin Scott lost the ball in midfield and Williams’ pass found Simpson in acres of space to shoot past Keith Welch.
Two minutes later City’s rearguard went missing again as Paul Kitson’s neat control and pass ended with Simpson chipping his second goal over a beleaguered Robins goalkeeper. It could have been worse. With home fans in full cry, Simpson soon found himself unmarked in front of goal again, only for Welch to produce what proved to be a crucial save. Derby were still on top when the match turned on a single incident in the 35th minute. Gary Shelton was about to reduce the arrears with a tap-in when hauled down by Sutton. If the goalkeeper had allowed City’s midfielder to score, the hosts would probably have gone on to win. Instead, his desperate challenge brought a red card, as well as a penalty.
Scott fired the spot-kick past stand-in keeper Williams and suddenly Smith’s men were only a goal down against opponents playing the last 55 minutes with ten men.
At the interval Smith opted to send on winger Junior Bent for midfielder Gerry Harrison in a bid to provide better service to strikers Wayne Allison and Jacki Dziekanowski.
It proved a masterstroke. The diminutive Bent, whose exceptional pace made him a handful for any defence on his day, exploded into the match from the opening second-half whistle, outstripping the home defence time and again.
Finishing was never Junior’s strong suit and chances went begging. But with 15 minutes left, he latched onto the rebound when a shot from centre-back David Thompson was blocked and fired past Williams to make it 2-2.
Three minutes later City were ahead as a Derby substitution backfired. Replacement defender Andy Comyn contrived to head an own goal past Williams with his first touch. Now it was the visiting supporters making all the noise. But they barely had time to celebrate before a poorly-worked offside trap allowed Simpson to run onto a Gary Micklewhite cross and round Welch to complete his treble.
Surely both sides would now settle for a 3-3 draw. Not a bit of it as City’s risk-all approach saw them throw more men forward in the final ten minutes. The reward came when Allison rose above his marker to meet a chip into the box from Dziekanowski on 88 minutes and net with a well-placed header.
By the final whistle, the TV audience had been treated to seven goals, a hat-trick, a sending-off, a late winner and 27 goals attempts, of which City managed no fewer than 17.
Smith revealed after the game that he had good reason to expect a comeback from his players after Derby’s early dominance.
“My Sunderland team were once 3-0 up at the Baseball Ground and ended up drawing 3-3, so I knew the game was far from over,” he said. “I had Junior Bent up my sleeve and thought he’d cause Derby problems. Had we not scored the penalty, I would have brought him on in the first half.
“Playing three in midfield wasn’t working. Brian Mitchell was going on overlaps early on and Micky Mellon was not filling in behind him. Simpson elected not to follow Brian’s runs and was therefore free every time Derby broke out of defence. That was something we had to sort out.”
The result put City seventh in Division One with eight points from their first four games. But the defensive frailty evident at the Baseball Ground would see them lose the next three matches, conceding 11 goals in the process.
It eventually cost Smith his job after just ten months in charge. He was sacked the following January, with Russell Osman, who had lined up alongside Thompson at centreback against Derby, being appointed caretaker-boss. The former England international defender soon dropped the mercurial Dziekanowski, to the anger of many Robins fans, and had to do without Cole for the final 13 games of the campaign after he was sold to Newcastle United.
But those matches saw City concede just eight goals and the 23 points gained enabled them to comfortably avoid relegation, finishing in 15th place.