Slaven Bilic reflected on a good point for his Watford side at Bristol City as he admits the Robins showed more than enough evidence they will pull away from the lower end of the Championship.
City were the better side at Ashton Gate in the final fixture before the World Cup break, dominating a Watford side fourth in the table, with a squad supported by parachute payments containing a number of Premier League-quality individuals.
However, as was the case against Sheffield United, who lie second in the Championship - all the Robins had to show for their performance was a minimal points return, albeit on this occasion, at least there was one.
For Bilic, he was just pleased to get out of the West Country avoiding defeat and although he noted that City only created one clear cut chance, as Daniel Bachmann saved brilliantly from Andi Weimann, he was impressed by the Robins' energy and Antoine Semenyo’s pressing from the front.
“More than enough,” Bilic said, in assessing City’s capabilities to move up the table. “(A) very good performance. Apart from the main thing, of course. It’s hard to create chances - that is the hardest thing. The energy, how they closed us down.
“The number 11 who came on, in a couple of moves in the same action he pressed three or four of our players. Left-back, centre-back, right centre-back - boff, boff, boff; I almost clapped, I love it! I have to say!
“I’m not proud of our performance. It wasn’t a good performance, but I’m proud we got a point. We defended well as a team. On the ball, apart from (Keinan) Davis - who had a great game - we lacked quality. They were aggressive and closed us down, so well done to them.
“They didn’t create much, aside from one great header that Dan (Bachmann) made an amazing save for. We defended well and as a team, and had to start without two of our best players in Joao (Pedro) and (Ismaila) Sarr.”
Much like Sheffield United when they were at Ashton Gate last month, Watford didn’t play with obvious fluidity or swagger of a promotion contender, but were underpinned by a solidity and organisation that the best teams possess.
They had arrived in BS3 on the back of four wins from five matches, but with a bug in the camp limiting his squad options and, while Bilic didn’t want to focus on it too much as a determining factor, he thought the Ashton Gate pitch also contributed to the ebb and flow of the game and his team's ability to keep the ball.
The match kicked off just 17 hours after Bristol Bears had finished a friendly against Cardiff on the same turf on Friday night, and although the relative lack of rainfall ensured the pitch wasn’t cut up, the Croatian didn’t think it was of the same quality as the surfaces they’d played on previously.
“It was a war, I didn’t enjoy the game but when I reflect now, it was a good point for us,” Bilic added. “Home crowd - very good. The pitch wasn’t the best. Every game we’ve played so far - Stoke, even Millwall - the pitches were like a World Cup.
"But because of rugby, it wasn’t the greatest. Not awful, of course, because the weather was good. But, no excuses, we didn’t pass the ball well and they were on the front foot. But that’s what made the point bigger for us.”
SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate
READ NEXT
