Football Clear-the-air talks paved the way for our victory - Weimann
ANDI Weimann believes a number of home truths spoken between the players and manager during the week proved key in Saturday’s all-important victory at Blackburn Rovers.
Nigel Pearson dragged his players in from their day off last Monday for a clear-the-air chat after the Robins had endured their third consecutive defeat at home to Birmingham.
Then, on Saturday, the Austrian scored a dramatic late winner as City won away from home for the first time in 12 matches and kept their first clean sheet this year.
Dan Bentley’s penalty save, after Han-Noah Massengo was adjudged to have pulled down his man in the box in the 83rd minute, also helped ensure a first away clean sheet in a year.
“We’ve had a lot of talks and a lot of chats about what’s gone wrong and what we need to change and I think you saw we gave it our all,” said Weimann.
“It was a big game for us and we’ve talked the talk and now we need to do our talking on the pitch and I thought we did that - we stuck together and we deserved to win.
“We just cleared the air, the manager spoke about what he thinks was going wrong, we spoke what we thought was going wrong and Tuesday we came back and the training in the week was really good.
“We were all focused and ready for it (Saturday) and I think you saw it on the pitch how we stuck together and knew what we were doing. We got the three points and that’s all that matters.”
Weimann, who started the contest at right wing-back, took advantage of Joe Williams’ shank to sneak
into the box and volley home his 17th league goal of the season.
The 30-year-old has surpassed his career-best of 10 and is determined to continue riding the wave while laying out City’s next target after ending their away-day hoodoo.
“I don’t know why he tried to shoot from there,” Weimann added with a chuckle. “Obviously I’m glad
he did because he shanked it and it landed on my foot. I was hoping all game to get a chance and it came in the last minute.
“Apart from Saturday, I’ve been playing more centrally all season. I’ve always thought I can score goals and maybe in other seasons I’ve played on the wing or in a 4-4-2 on the wing, so I haven’t got the chances I’ve wanted to.
“Playing centrally now, I think I’m a good finisher so when I get the chance, I’m confident I’ll take it. So I’m riding that wave at the moment.
“We haven’t won back-to-back (this season) so that’s the next challenge now we’ve kept a clean sheet. Can we now win on Tuesday?”
City take on relegation battlers Barnsley in Yorkshire tonight.