Even the most optimistic amongst the Bristol City faithful, would have expected not to get too much from an away trip to Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. The Cherries sit second in the Championship and you only had to look at some of the players on their bench - Gary Cahill, Todd Cantwell, Jamal Lowe, Ben Pearson and Siriki Dembele - to recognise the difference in quality of player between the two sides.
There has been a fair bit of discussions on forums this week around the fairness of parachute payments and Saturday for me emphasised just how uneven the playing field is for those with payments and those without. That’s not making excuses and it isn’t all about that, but there can be little doubt and the statistics support the fact that those that come down from the Premier League and receive payments for a three-year period have an unfair advantage.
City shocked their hosts by taking an early lead through Rob Atkinson’s header from a good corner delivery from Matty James and from that point on for the majority of the half, Nigel Pearson’s side were forced to defend. Bournemouth were just so comfortable on the ball and always seemed to have runners and options.
