City’s spirit shines through as Famara secures gritty success
Talking points from Bristol City’s victory against Derby at Ashton Gate, by
BRISTOL City made a triumphant return to Championship football, picking up where they left off following the Severnside derby, with a win coming after an international break at last. This had not happened since September 14 last year after Ashley Williams came on to help beat Stoke City.
No doubt it had been a heck of a fortnight for the head coach and his staff, with the whole club impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak (but strangely not so much that the club felt right to explain to supporters what the exact case was via a public statement).
But this was a great win for the Robins. Saturday’s win was borne of true heart, spirit and soul and helps keep City on the right path, after they saw off a Derby side who posed plenty of problems and could have won the game.
The team in red roll on and hopefully the players’ fantastic exertions can carry on across this manic period of nine games before Christmas.
Here’s some talking points from a victory delivered by Famara Diedhiou’s late goal.
DEAN HOLDEN DELIGHTED WITH VICTORY
TO be isolating for 10 days, for the squad to be disbanded and to lose the use of the training ground - it was indeed not “ideal” preparation as Holden said before and after the game. To have just two training sessions before the match was hapless but an unfortunate sign of the times.
Bristol was recently named as seeing the fourth highest rate of Covid infection in the country, a sad and real backdrop to the last week for the football club.
“It’s been a real terrible time since that Cardiff game,” explained Holden after the match. “We’ve been worried for people’s welfare. When you get a positive test it’s a real worrying time.”
However, the head coach also said after the game that at no point was postponing the fixture ever thought about, contradicting his message.
But that is not to query the great job Holden and all of his staff have done over the last days. His team slugged it out to the end and their capacity to fight for the result was rewarded when Diedhiou scored with 12 minutes to go.
Holden talked up Derby afterwards, and the visitors can consider themselves unlucky to not take something from Ashton Gate other than the hand-scrawled notes passed to Wayne Rooney in the middle of the pitch (explained after the game by Liam Rosenior as the change of shape that the Rams wished to move to).
It was an important victory built on sheer guts and team spirit. Holden beamed with pride after the second successive 1-0 win and so he should.
He was also tetchy when asked after the game to be objective on his side’s performance - perhaps a real indication of just how hard the club was hit.
The club refused to say before the match how many people had been affected, with confirmation afterwards that it was more than 10 (as reported originally by The Telegraph).
One source has suggested to us that up to 17 people were given positives. If correct, it shows just how tough the last two weeks have been and how great the results was against Derby. Thankfully it is now time to move on and we hope that
all those affected can recover fully and well.
CITY GET THE JOB DONE
THE Robins played like a team who had not been able to prepare properly beforehand at times on Saturday but they still won. As many supporters remarked afterwards, this might well be their most impressive victory of the season.
Forget the aesthetics. City looked understandably lethargic and sluggish at certain points and Derby showed greater intensity, which was to be expected.
The home side matched them in the crucial duels however, and did enough to grab the three points, with Zak Vyner (most interceptions in the game; four), Jack Hunt (joint most key passes; three) and Antoine Semenyo (joint most shots; four) all putting in good displays.
It was a Derby side bottom of the league and, yes, they may well rise up the Championship, but it should also not be forgotten that no side in the whole Football League has scored fewer goals than the toothless Rams.
“Bristol City had their backs up against the wall for long periods of the game,” said former City player Chris Honor of the match on BBC Radio Bristol and he was not wrong. City had to dig deep, ceding possession and territory for spells.
But they came through it and snatched the three points when a draw possibly looked more likely. A handy trait may be developing after the similar win at Cardiff before the international break.
DIEDHIOU FINALLY GETS GOING
WE called for more goals from Diedhiou and Nahki Wells recently, and it was great to see the Senegalese powerhouse get his goalscoring going this campaign.
His left-foot sweep into the goal was well-taken, composed and hopefully will kick-start a few more strikes over the coming weeks.
If City can now get the 27-yearold firing just even semi-regularly, then he could be a potent weapon from the bench. Diedhiou has been one of those to test positive for Covid recently, but thankfully after the game he explained that he is okay now, and was only down for the first two days of the infection. He roared back to something of his old self with his 39th league goal for the club, a fine finish from Jamie Paterson’s cutback.
LIAM ROSENIOR’S ANGER AT KEITH STROUD
IT’S a feeling many Bristol City supporters will be familiar with: despair at the decisions of referee Stroud. Only this time it was for the opposition.
Derby coach and former City player Liam Rosenior was the one expressing frustration after the game.
“He (Paterson) pulled him (Holmes) back in the box, he gets a yellow card, and the penalty is not given! I have watched a lot of football in my life, and I have never seen that,” he said of a first-half decision which went for the Robins. Some eventual karma for Bristol City fans?