Nigel Pearson says new signing Anis Mehmeti proved he has the ability to create moments of magic during dour games as Bristol City were left frustrated with a 1-1 draw against Wigan Athletic.
The visitors were well-drilled and kept the Robins at bay for long periods at Ashton Gate with City registering just one shot on target over the duration of the 90 minutes - Rob Atkinson's first-half goal. Pearson made three changes to his starting line-up, all in attack, with full debuts granted for Mehmeti and Harry Cornick while Andi Weimann came in on the right side.
Pearson admitted he wanted a maverick ahead of the January window and a player that can create chances out of nothing and he did exactly that in the 36th minute. Matty James took a quick free-kick, finding the left-winger and he produced a superb cross to find the head of Rob Atkinson to score his fourth goal of the season.
City couldn't hold onto their lead after looking disjointed at the beginning of the second half. They were punished just after the hour mark when they failed to deal with a low cross into the area which allowed Ashley Fletcher to equalise from close range.
It sparked the hosts into life and on another day, City could have left with all three points. Alex Scott hit the crossbar with a header before Mehmeti saw a speculative cross bounce back off the inside of the post.
Pearson had no complaints with the result but praised the 22-year-old's impact in a gritty contest. He said: "He's versatile and he's creative. You need players to be able to create moments of magic in games that are dull.
"That’s where somebody like Anis will give us a different dimension and Mark Sykes is a similar sort of player, so we’ve got wide players who are exciting on the counter-attack but have the ability to create and that’s where you need different options.
"I'm sure he'll be a very good signing for us over a sustained period of time. He's a young player, he's come in and adapted well.
"He's capable of playing in the two positions he played in tonight, plus more. He played on the left and played in the No10 position when Alex (Scott) came off.
"I think everybody knew what today’s game was going to be like, I don’t think anyone thought it was going to be open and free-flowing, but we tried to make it as much like the type of game we wanted as possible.
"We tried to keep the tempo high, and we did do that for a lot of the time and the second half and even towards the end had we have won the game I think everyone would be saying what a great result, but we haven’t.
"That’s the key thing to it. Having conceded a poor goal, it’s a poor goal to concede but after that, we were the team who were going to win it. I have to give our players a bit of credit for that because that’s a big improvement from what we’ve been in the past.
"Tonight's game wasn't particularly a good game in terms of excitement. It was quite dour. They were here to make it difficult for us and they did."
Pearson was engaged in several conversations with the Albanian during the first half, as he played his way into the game. When asked what Pearson's instructions were to Mehmeti, he responded: "I thought he was too narrow too early.
"Wigan like to defend very narrow, so they defend with a back four and they like to defend 4-4-2 even though they play with a back three and they like to be narrow early, and I didn’t want him to go and follow the full-back because really that was making his decision making easier.
"He’s a really bright player, what you need to do then is you want your full-backs to be really advanced and I thought tonight we were a little bit reticent in full-back positions to be as positive as we had been. But again you have to give your opponents a bit of credit for that.”
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