“Season of goodwill – it certainly isn’t today,” were the thoughts of Nigel Pearson after Bristol City’s toothless 2-0 defeat to West Brom on Boxing Day on one of the darkest days of the City manager’s tenure so far.
There were the first chants of “sacked in the morning” and although we’re not quite at the point of bedsheets displaying ‘Lansdown get your Pearson out’, it certainly feels as though the tide is turning against the man in the dugout.
With goals in each half from Matthew Phillips and Brandon Thomas-Asante, helped once more by moments of defensive frailty from City that have become a matter of when not if in recent weeks, the Baggies were deserved winners.
The Championship never gets any easier, let alone during the festive period and few of the Ashton Gate parish will be looking forward to the prospect of an away trip to The Den to face Millwall followed by the high-flying Coventry City.
But every time Pearson has needed a result, he’s been able to pull one out of the hat. Even if it wasn’t a win against Watford before the World Cup break, the positive performance felt like a win, but an extra point won’t be enough in the next couple of games.
Away from the doom and gloom (as much as possible) of the league table, here are the moments missed from Ashton Gate on Boxing Day...
The Rob Atkinson cheer
It won’t have been missed by anyone who was inside Ashton Gate on Boxing Day, but for those who weren’t in attendance, the majority of the noise created by the home crowd came from demonstrating their frustrations as City were well beaten.
There were boos and chants of, “we want Pearson out,” and it’s completely understandable that fans are beginning to lose their patience having only seen four wins at Ashton Gate this season, the last coming in October against Preston North End.
But even away from the negative noise from the crowd, the biggest cheer of the afternoon greeted the introduction of Rob Atkinson as he replaced the injured Andy King early in the second half.
It was the first example of the City fanbase showing their disagreement with Pearson’s decision to play a veteran midfielder ahead of his own £1.5m centre-half, who has for the most part impressed this campaign. As Pearson himself said after the game, he’s not bothered by the fan reaction so the reaction of the crowd will have done little to suggest Atkinson will return to the starting XI against Millwall.
Chris Martin still around
“Not in the squad.” That was the simple reply of Pearson when asked about where Chris Martin stood having been left out of the matchday 18 on Boxing Day, the first time he hasn’t at least made the bench this campaign
“That happens to a lot of players, we choose the squad for the day, but players are still in the squad even if they’re not involved,” explained Pearson. “The players that are playing are the ones that are showing the most in training, so that’s the answer to your question.”
With Sam Bell’s electric form in front of goal for the under-21s he has earnt his place on the bench and with Antoine Semenyo a certainty in the squad if Martin is to be selected it would limit City’s options to refresh in both the midfield and the wing-back options.
However, it’s easy to forget that Martin was such an important member of the team last season, starting 43 times and only not being introduced from the bench on one occasion. He also started the first three matches of this campaign but hasn’t been able to make a true impact in increasingly limited minutes this season.
You’d have to assume, as we suggested earlier this week, that Martin is one of those who won’t be extending his stay in BS3. But if Semenyo or Tommy Conway are poached in January Martin may well find himself back involved more frequently.
Kadji and Taylor-Clarke close to the action
While Martin, Han-Noah Massengo and Timm Klose were all absent from the entire matchday squad, it was interesting to see both Dylan Kadji and Omar Taylor-Clarke make their way off the City coach and be involved in the warm-ups.
Both have been deployed in midfield during this impressive spell for the under-21s and while Kadji has already featured for the first team, Taylor-Clarke is yet to make his senior debut.
The pair were part of the opening stages of the warm-up, while Stefan Bajic also completed his usual role as the third keeper with Dan Bentley and Max O’Leary, before completing a set of sprints across the width of the Ashton Gate turf.
Pearson’s bench on Boxing Day didn’t have a player on it that could be considered a central midfielder, with Kal Naismith being pushed into the middle of the park in the closing stages. Both young midfielders must be in the City manager’s thoughts for the coming weeks, with Pearson admitting that he’d need to, “freshen things up.”
Ugly statistic
Now we know the expected goals model is rather like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. But whether you’re a believer in it or not, only registering 0.03xG in the second half of a home game that City were trailing in is pretty dire.
The only shot actually registered by the Robins in the second half was from substitute Mark Sykes in the 94th minute from a rather optimistic angle, which was saved by Alex Palmer with absolute ease.
Pearson cited that the Baggies sat deeper in the second half, limiting the space that both Conway and Nahki Wells could find behind the backline, yet there was still no time on the ball afforded to the engineers in the City midfield.
It felt as though as the Robins came out for the second half they were already out of ideas, with countless passes being exchanged between the defence and midfield. Of Andy King’s 31 accurate passes in the game, only one was into the final third.
Even the normally quarterback-esque Kal Naismith could only complete four of his 20 attempted long balls. Bristol City and Pearson need to find a way of playing against a low block.
Red and Robyn in BS3
To be frank, the introduction of the new City mascots, Red and Robyn, wasn’t exactly greeted with widespread praise by those fans on social media when it was announced of Christmas Eve and Monday’s game will have ensured even less focus was on them.
The pair of Robins were seen around Ashton Gate ahead of kick-off and were stationed in the top tier of the Lansdown Stand, taking plenty of photos with fans in in the family section who certainly enjoyed the new mascot.
Hopefully, Red and Robyn won’t be the only new additions over the next month at Ashton Gate with us getting closer to the January window, but, like the loss of Scrumpy, maybe another familiar face may need to depart soon.
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