Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CHRIS BLUNT
Kids might find my voice annoying but they’ll learn it’s the voice of experience
CHRIS BRUNT reckons Bristol City’s kids will grow sick of his grumpy-old-man act – but he does not care.
The 35-year-old ld former West Brom m midfielder – who moved to Ashton
Gate in the summer for free – marked his first Championship start by having a hand nd in his team’s late equaliser liser that earned them a point.
But his influence was more than the free-kick which led to the dubious award of a late penalty tucked away by Nahki Wells.
He barked, cajoled, encouraged, f lattered and f umed his way through 90 minutes to ensure the Robins stayed second in the table.
“They ’ ll probably be a bit annoyed at me and a bit sick of hearing my voice on the pitch,” he said. “But when you are the age I am, and at the stage of career I am at, you hope you can have a bit of an i nf luence on the younger players.
“That will be part of my season and I’ll be delighted if they say I am playing a part in that.
“I am still here, still playing my football, and I still have it in me to affect the game. I think at stages I showed that.”
The former Northern Ireland star (below) also has enough wisdom in the bank to know that young manager Dean Holden and his team should not lose sleep over two draws and a defeat in their last three games.
“It was easy getting carried away after winning the first four so it’s important we don’t ge get too hung up on three games without a win,” Brunt said.
“When you’re not playing well, you need to gr grind nd out resul results. s. There wasn’t a lot t in the game, a draw raw is fair and you u take that and move on. The beauty eauty of this league gue is you never have to wait too long ong for another r game.”
Brunt and Bristol are at Bournemouth on Wednesday and Swansea will also be eager to look ahead to tomorrow’s game against Stoke, but for different reasons.
They were angered that an opener from Jamal Lowe (celebrating, left) was cancelled out by a soft penalty decision, given when Connor Roberts tangled with Antoine Semeny Semenyo. Swansea skipper skip Matt Grimesn s said: “We were on the wrong end of a v very poor decision.
“When you ge get a decision like that ri right at the end, it knocks kno the wind out of your sails sa becau because y o u’v e d r o pp e d two points.
“A point away from home hom is good against a team that has been flying. But given the manner man that we got the point, we are certainly disappointed.
“It should have been all thre three.” BRISTOL CITY: Bentley 6, Vyne Vyner 7, Kalas 6, Moore 6 (Wells 77, 7), Sessegnon 6 (Diedhiou 72, 5), Brunt 6, Dasilva 6, Weimann 6 (O’dowda 64, 5), Paterson 6, Semenyo 6, Martin 7.
SWANSEA: Woodman 6, Cabang Cabango 6, Bennett 7, Guehi 7, Roberts 6, Sm Smith 6, Fulton 6, Grimes 6, Bidwell 6 6, Ayew 6, Lowe 7 (Gyokeres 76, 5).