Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom declared his side’s win at Ashton Gate as the worst of his time at the Blades and that Bristol City were, “better in loads of departments” as Nigel Pearson reflected on a familiar story for the Robins.
City struck the crossbar and the post and had 16 shots at the visitors’ goal, and just four in response, with the expected goals 1.64 to 0.82 in their favour, but were made to pay a momentary lapse at the back as George Tanner and Zak Vyner were drawn to the same cross, allowing Iliman Ndiaye a free header from close range.
Heckingbottom had to change his shape after just 34 minutes, sacrificing Reda Khadra, accepting that City, and in particular Alex Scott, were running the midfield while he then needed to lean on the considerable experience throughout his squad to secure the three points as seasoned campaigners Enda Stevens, Ciaran Clark and Oli McBurnie all emerged off the bench in the second half.
“That's the worst win I've had here,” said Heckingbottom, who’s been in charge of 60 games for the Blades as interim and now permanent manager.
“I’ve never had a win like that; when we’ve won, I thought we’ve been the better team in aspects, so I can really feel for Nigel, because there were times in the six games when we didn't win [the Blades drew three and lost three earlier this month] when I'd be feeling like he is now. So I'm not going to be smug about it and pretend, but we've got to win.
“They were the better team in loads of departments but we defended our box very well and it does feel nice to get one of those. The experience of the players came to the fore, especially in the second half. How we defended the box and some of the lines they took on free-kicks.
“That performance won’t get us more wins than not. But it’s about three points and one thing we showed was the mentality of winners and the experience of the players on the pitch. When we’re bringing Enda on, Oli Mac (McBurnie), Ciaran - that type of experience, it’s a big help.”
Heckingbottom’s assessment sums up City’s continuing issues under Pearson’s management as once again the Robins were unable to claim sufficient points from periods of superiority and are once again ever so slightly looking over their shoulder with just three points separating them and the bottom three.
Pearson was suitably blunt in his analysis of where it went wrong for his side - yet again - and admitted he would “love” to be in Heckingbottom’s position of winning a game after a substandard performance.
Such are the small margins in the Championship, City can seemingly only triumph in games when they play at their absolute maximum, from back to front, a concept that ultimately isn’t possible through the lack of reliability and experience in their squad, a sharp contrast to the tools at Heckingbottom's disposal.
City will, in that sense, then remain consistently inconsistent.
The City manager also flagged the nagging statistic that the Robins, ostensibly a counter-attacking team, are unable to win games when they have the majority of possession, as was witnessed again on Tuesday night.
“I’d love to say that,” Pearson said, after being told how Heckingbottom viewed the Blades' performance. “I’d love to be coming in here after games saying that. I don’t think I've ever said that because we outplay teams and don’t win.
“We don’t win games where we have more than 52 per cent (possession), that’s a fact. We’ve never won a game this season and we had 56 per cent tonight. The first half was a game where both sides were trying to let the other have the ball. They didn’t want it and when we had it, we didn’t really look as though we wanted it as much as we should’ve done. But there we go.”
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