Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Pearson’s demanding better from his Robins
BRISTOL City manager Nigel Pearson insists there will be no room for sentiment when the Robins take on his old side Sheffield Wednesday today.
City will be looking to build on last weekend’s goalless home draw with Nottingham Forest when they play the struggling South Yorkshire club who are currently second-bottom and eight points adrift of safety
Speaking earlier this week, Pearson told reporters: “I spent seven years as a player there, experienced some good times and some difficult ones too. But I don’t get sentimental about it. I’m very professional in how I approach my own career. Every job that I’ve had I’ve always been totally committed to the club I’m at.
“I recognise both my part in Sheffield Wednesday’s past and also Sheffield Wednesday’s part in my path. It’s still a club I have a lot of fondness for, but I’m working for Bristol City. Bristol City’s my current club and I’m a professional, so it’s really about trying to get the right result for us, it’s very straightforward with my work-head on.”
Meanwhile, Wednesday boss Darren Moore is suffering from pneumonia triggered by his contraction of Covid-19. The 46-year-old returned to the Owls’ training ground on Monday having completed the required coronavirus isolation period.
However, the former Jamaica international felt unwell after Tuesday’s defeat by Swansea and must stay away from the club to recover.
Pearson said: “I worked with Darren when he was a player at West Brom. I was the assistant manager there and he was a player. I know what he is as a man. As a football man, he is very well-respected, a great guy, a really good guy. He will expect nothing less than total commitment from his players. It’s going to be tough for them to avoid relegation now, it’s been a hard season for them in many ways, changing the manager four times if you include the stand-in. Three permanents and one temporary managerial slot.
“That’s not easy for players, and everybody, to deal with in that regard. With having the points deduction, which initially was minus 12, it ended up being minus six, but it’s still a mental blow to get into the positive points.
“They’ve had a season where they’ve never really been out of trouble. That’s never an easy situation to deal with. They’ll be fighting for their lives.
“We certainly have to perform better than we did against the last team we came up against in that position in Coventry City. We were disappointing on that day. We need a better performance, absolutely. It’ll be a tough game but they all are at this stage in the season.”
Asked how injury concerns Antoine Semenyo and Danny Simpson doing were doing ahead of the game, Pearson replied: “Antoine’s been training all week, Danny hasn’t, so Danny is a doubt. Antoine is fine. That’s really where we are. There are no more changes apart from that, so the players who you know as being out are no closer to being back. The only changes would be people like Nathan Baker who is back on the field running. He looks better.
“We’ve got players like Chris Martin, who has done running this week. He’s back on the grass which is good. Cam Pring is probably going to be joining him with training next week so we have players who are making progress in their recoveries.
It’s not really going to affect the squad makeup this week.
When pressed on whether Baker could make the squad, Pearson said:
“No, I wouldn’t think so. I’ll be more specific, no!”
With City having had a full week to prepare for today’s game, Perason said: “We want to try and finish the season in a positive fashion. One of the things that is really important is that we play with a bit more cohesion. We’ve been disappointing in possession at times.
“The players recognise that themselves. I think that’s also a bit of a spin-off from the run of games that we’ve had, the poor run of results.
Maybe it’s a bit of a confidence thing.
“As far as I’m concerned, I just want us to finish with a positive feeling towards the end of the season. I don’t want it to peter out in a negative way.
“Having said that, there are always things to be learned from disappointment and poor performances. I want the players to enjoy the remaining games, and take the challenge on to be as good as they can be. It’s simple really. There’s no rocket science there.”