Brilliant Bobby brace seals three points

BRISTOL CITY strolled to a comfortable opening-day victory as Bobby Reid and Famara Diedhiou put brittle Barnsley to the sword at Ashton Gate.

Without last season’s talismanic pair Tammy Abraham and Lee Tomlin, City manager Lee Johnson appears to have found new blood up front in the form of Senegal striker Diedhiou, a £5.3million club-record addition from Angers in France, and Reid.

Local lad Reid, 24, scored twice and set up Diedhiou for a debut goal inside the opening half-hour while Barnsley sub Ryan Hedges provided late consolation.

Discussing his new striking partnership, Johnson said: “You can see they have struck a good relationship off the pitch as well as on it because they are two good people.

“They were both excellent and their workrate and energy made it easier for the midfield and the defenders. It was everything I want to see in a Lee Johnson Bristol City side.”

After both sides had struck the woodwork, the hosts broke the deadlock in the 17th minute when Reid dispatched a rebound from Diedhiou’s initial shot.

The same combination was responsible for doubling City’s lead eight minutes later as Diedhiou rose highest at the far post to convert Reid’s cross.

And with half an hour on the clock, City were out of sight when Joe Bryan cut inside from left-back to deliver a low shot which Tykes keeper Adam Davies could only divert into the lurking Reid’s path.

Davies denied further misery for the visitors with a string of saves, including preventing a Reid hat-trick, before Hedges had the final word in stoppage time.

“In that first 10 minutes there was nothing in it,” Tykes boss Paul Heckingbottom said.

“But the first goal changed the game. Every chance they created there was something wrong.”