‘Great learning curve’ for City against higher opposition
Jerry Gill described Saturday’s loss to Cardiff as ‘a great learning curve’ against their lofty opponents.
The Bluebirds gave the Romans the runaround at times, especially in a dominant first half where City were powerless to prevent the might of Mick Mccarthy’s men.
Gill conceded he expected a challenging afternoon.
“Today was always going to be a tough ask,” he said. “It tough for us physically – they were big, strong and quicker than us. They smothered us.
“We know where we are, that’s a Championship team that’s come here today, but we need to be better in certain areas of the game for sure.
“The disappointing thing about the game is we’ve conceded three goals from set-pieces. They’re a very big side, it’s hard to deal with.
“I chatted to Mick [Mccarthy] before and after the game. He said afterwards that all they do is deliver very good balls into the box, into areas where big, strong players can win it. Simple as that.
“They did that better than us – we couldn’t defend it.
“But it’s about reactions to the second balls as well, when you’ve got players like Aden Flint in your team they will win the first contact, you need to react to the second. We didn’t deal with that well enough today.
“It was a bit of a reality check.” The second half saw City prevent a further wave of onslaught from the visitors and the display pleased the Bath boss.
“I have to be pleased with the second half because it was a great reaction,” said Gill.
“We changed the shape, only conceded one goal, albeit a poor one. All of the goals were poor on our behalf.
“Mick gave us credit after saying the best thing in football is seeing a reaction from your players. We certainly got that at half-time.”
Mo Dobre’s cameo appearance helped City become more of a threat in the second half, and Gill didn’t rule out seeing him in black and white stripes again.
“We think he’s about to sign for Forest Green Rovers,” admitted Gill. “He came along to play a game of football.
“I need to look at loans as well. If he goes to Forest Green there’s a potential for us to take him on loan. At the moment it’s just a case of him playing some games, a bit like Coniah from Reading.
“Mo’s come up from London on the train today, hasn’t trained with us, goes on and you see what he does. He excites people, makes you smile, gets people off their seats.
“He’s a great character and a great lad.”
The youngster thrived off a sellout 830 crowd at Twerton Park and Gill enjoyed seeing supporters back at the venue after nearly 500 days without.
“When you turn up for a football match and there are fans back in, that excitement comes back in your belly,” he said. “Cardiff packed out the away end and started singing quite early. We could hear it downstairs in the dressing room.
“It was nice to see our fans back as well.
“The stadium’s looking great and credit to Andrew Pierce for the pitch looking fantastic.
“There are lots of thanks for lots of volunteers who have the place ready for us to come back in.”
The first three friendlies have seen just 13 different players in the starting XI with an unfortunate crop of injuries in the Bath playing camp.
Ryan Clarke’s knee issue will rule him out for more of pre-season but Jack Batten is expected to be back in training for the two-night stay at the University of Bath, starting tomorrow with a friendly against League Two side Exeter City (KO 7pm).
“We’re not up on numbers because I can’t carry 22 players,” said Gill. “That’s just the facts. I haven’t got the luxury to change teams too much. They’re having to dig deep.
“We’ve managed to change the shape in every friendly because I want to look at different systems.
“It’s a balancing act – these boys have played a lot of football. The training camp is the most invaluable thing in pre-season. It helps us become more of a unit.
“That takes time. There are a lot of new faces in there but some of the new signings have shown up really well in pre-season. They’ve been doing okay.
“By the time it comes to August 14 we have to make sure we haven’t overcooked them.
“I’ve not finished my recruitment.
“We’re so close to a couple of signings and we’re waiting on the lads at Bristol City, there are a couple there that I’ve identified who I want to bring in as well, I’ll speak to Brian Tinnion.
“I want to be competitive for that Exeter game. They’ll bring a different challenge to what Cardiff brought today.”