THE VERDICT: BRISTOL CITY 1 TOWN 0 Toothless Terriers are haunted by familiar woe
TOWN’S INABILITY TO FIND BACK OF THE NET BIG DIFFERENCE IN EVEN CONTEST IN WEST COUNTRY
DAVID Wagner lamented Town’s lack of sharpness in front of goal as they crashed out of the FA Cup 1-0 at Bristol City.
Town lost to a 72nd-minute goal from Josh Brownhill and have now been defeated nine times on the trot.
It’s a miserable run which Town will try and end in the Premier League at Cardiff City next Saturday.
“In general, we didn’t make a good game today,” said Wagner, who gave a debut to loan man Jason Puncheon.
“In ball possession we made a lot of mistakes, even if I think it was an even game.
“It was a tight game where we maybe had better opportunities in the box from different positions where we didn’t hit the target – this is our biggest problem, we didn’t give the goalkeeper some work to do.
“This is a problem we have had more or less the whole season.
“We have seen when you hit the target what can happen when they scored, which wasn’t a position where you have to score – and this went wrong in the game where there was not a lot between the teams.”
Wagner, who made eight changes, added: “We are all part of the team but when you have conceded so many defeats in a row it isn’t so easy.
“This is something we have to deal with, which we have to manage, this is why we are Maenpaa, Hunt, Wright, Webster, Dasilva, Eliasson (Kalas, 66), Brownhill, Morrell, Paterson
(Taylor, 67), O’Dowda, Diedhiou (Weimann, 67). Not used: Kelly, O’Leary, Pearson, Eisa professionals and work in this business.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to show what you have to show in this situation to be enough confident, to create clear situations, and this wasn’t as we have seen us before.”
One bright spot for Wagner was Puncheon’s debut display, Hamer, Durm, M Jorgensen, Stankovic, Lowe, Bacuna (Pritchard, 45), Hogg, Kachunga, Puncheon, Diakhaby (Mbenza, 73), Depoitre (Mounie, 45). Not used: Lossl, Kongolo, Billing, Hadergjonaj after the Crystal Palace man’s loan arrival last week.
Wagner said: “Even if we have not shown a team performance which makes me happy, we have seen some individual performances from some players, like Punch today, which were good.
“I think we have seen that he is very calm on the ball and he can