If it’s a good enough test for Lionel Messi then the same parameters are probably justified to be used as a gauge for Bristol City.
For the Argentine, the age-old question was always his ability to do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke. Challenging the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner against Tony Pulis’ inevitably stubborn and ugly Potters team always seemed a funny meter of success.
It would have been hard to imagine a scene any less Stoke-like at the Bet365 Stadium on Good Friday though. Crisp coats of glossy sunshine baked the ground and had locals asking what had happened to the so often bemoaned and famed Stoke downpour.
Bristol City were left singing in the sun, basking in the lights of a splendid away victory to once again muffle cries of change at the club, just before they start to get too loud.
Just like the reverse fixture, and with much in common with the most recent away win against Blackburn, there was a glaring Stokeness and resolute, Pulis-like organisation from City away from home that hasn’t been evident enough this season.
They rode their luck at times, yes, but that’s always necessary. This might have been the most complete away performance of the season in exchange for the wavering faith in the future direction the club are going.
City were compact in a good shape, offered enough going forward through the pace of Antoine Semenyo and correctly sided wingbacks in Alex Scott and matchwinner Jay Dasilva, and the midfield was hard-working in shutting down the slow-building attacks before Stoke had laboured the ball around the pitch.
Was it the gentlest of crowd hums, the walking paced football or the relative calmness from Nigel Pearson in the dugout that showed just how little this game meant to the two sides? Because at the end of the match, with the 728 travelling away fans delirious on Good Friday, a fixture that City always do well in – just three losses in 15 – the end of season swansong has begun.
This was a nice way to enter the end of season tribulations, over a long and hard football filled weekend to tire everyone out.
Here are the moments missed from a strange and very un-Stoke afternoon in Staffordshire.
Weimann dropping back
It’s already been mentioned that City displayed a defensive solidity that has evaded them for large periods of the season. Just one clean sheet on the road all season before Friday shows that, but Pearson once again tweaked his tactics to sure up a leaky hole at the back.
As much as the manager has reduced his own responsibility and blaming mentality over tactics, this was a minor movement that was rewarded.
It’s not something drastic that hasn’t been done before this campaign, but Andi Weimann’s subtle drop to play in a deeper midfield role allowed City to remain compact in a rigid 5-3-2 shape. It added the extra man in midfield, forcing Stoke to use their own wingbacks in advanced positions against Scott and Dasilva who were up for the task.
It did mean that transitions towards Antoine Semenyo and Chris Martin were direct and often wayward, but it likewise resulted in very little coming into the feet of Mario Vrancic or through Lewis Baker.
By deploying his energy and ball-seeking energy into a narrow right centre midfield spot, Weimann was commonly the deepest of the trio alongside Matty James and Joe Williams in a compact layer that kept City’s lines within 30 yards of each other from back-to-front.
It didn’t produce the most entertaining of first halves, played at a dawdling pace apart from the odd counterattack, but it did bring a relatively controlled away performance that showed a new side to City’s more defence-minded approach.
When the Robins did foray forward they did it with intent and proved a handful. Weimann was at the forefront of this as well, bursting from his box-to-box role to take a throw-in by the attacking corner flag within a matter of seconds after losing the ball.
Nothing typified his determination more than his last-ditch sliding block to stop Stoke from scoring in the opening minutes of the first half.
With Dasilva beaten and the goal open for a tap-in, there was Weimann to clear up like a veteran centre-back.
The Austrian’s passing was also allowed to flourish more in his playmaking role, taking the ball from deep and progressing it with slide passes rather than road-running dribbles.
Royal Rumble
After a first half of very little excitement and one that had more than a scent of end-of-season stench, the brief WWE takeover surprised everyone on the stroke of half-time.
As Bentley looked to shepherd a loose through ball out of play, in front of the loud travelling support, Jacob Brown took it upon himself to seize the moment and go for a career change into wrestling.
Bentley initially looked to have judged the ball badly as he found himself outside the box, having headed one clear moments earlier, and instead had to shield the ball out instead.
Like Timm Klose or Robbie Cundy might guard the ball away in defence, Bentley was strong to hold off Brown who continued to hassle him for possession even after the ball was long gone. The following slow-motion joint tumble was as the best of the action in the first 45 minutes.
Brown’s arm became wrapped around the City captain’s head and locked the pair together as they stumbled towards the advertising boards around the pitch. The Stoke forward didn’t let go of his opponent and dragged him towards the board, Bentley took a quick seat for balance but was thrust head over heels towards the ground in a John Cena type takedown.
As the City fans witnessed first-hand a one-off event unlikely to be seen again this season they rushed towards the front of the away end to get a better view, or to be even closer when shouting their displeasure at Brown.
Either way, the upset waltz between them wasn’t done there as Bentley kept his own glove firmly locked onto the thigh of the white shorts and upended Brown in retribution as he tried to get up from the hard floor beyond the touchline.
By this time both sets of players had a real reason to rally behind their teammates and were creating a ring of school kids around the lunchtime fight.
It didn’t descend into blows as the referee stood and waited calmly to play the easy choice of yellows cards for the pair but that only brought about angry boos from the City fans as Matthew Donohue traipsed across the pitch towards the tunnel by the City fans at half time.
Luton lads
When Pearson refers to players being offered a chance to make their way back into the first-team squad, as he has hinted and probed from his players for all season, Dasilva’s redemption ark is the biggest one in Bristol this weekend.
On Easter weekend Dasilva’s goal encapsulated his drastic turn of fortunes and is a testament to the player he has always threatened to be. A dangerous attacking fullback and all-round tireless performer.
It was his cross, because let us be honest, it was a cross, that will take the plaudits, but he has been a fantastic addition to this team since his comeback.
After missing eight games at the end of 2021 and the start of the new year he has played 17 matches in a row, mixing up his positions from right to left, proving his versatility.
Dasilva had an old friend to thank for the opportunity to win the game though. As possibly the league’s current most ruthless dead-ball specialist stood over a freekick placed perfectly inside the centre of the D on the edge of the box, Lewis Baker was primed to score again for his new club.
With eight goals and two assists since leaving Chelsea permanently in January, Dasilva would have sighed with relief as his old mate’s strike clattered into the bar instead of curling into the net.
Both born in Luton, the pair were both a part of the youth setup at Chelsea and although Dasilva left the club earlier, joining City in 2018, they still get on.
They were together at the end of the match, no doubt reminiscing about the past and catching up on the present day.
“I’ve known Lewis for a long time and we’re both from Luton and grew up in Luton,” said Dasilva after he was asked what was said between the pair.
“Being at Chelsea as well it was good to see him and good to catch up, thankfully I scored this time not him.
“He was giving a bit stick for the goal, saying I didn’t mean it,” the wingback laughed at full-time.
Baker wasn’t the only one looking forward to spending time with Dasilva though and soon he had to rush off to be hounded by the adoring aways fans who mixed their own version of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough.
With a quick hug, a fist bump and a wave goodbye, Dasilva was gone and Baker left without any points either.
James’ set-piece jinx
It seems harsh in a game that was almost the perfect away showing, to criticise too much of the match. Pearson would point out at this point that it’s very much more process-based than results-based.
But we have to talk about James’ freekick tendencies. This alone feels quite brutal considering his almost universally accepted importance to the team which was once again demonstrated as he dictated the midfield’s organisation on the ball and off it against Michael O’Neill’s side, but his set-piece delivery failed to satisfy.
Pearson must have felt similarly as he once again let launch on one of his many prized throwing objects, a managerial puppet of emotions, the water bottle.
He’s been known this season to let a rip of his grip and moan when Scott has misplaced free crosses, short corners have been squandered and possession has been lost, but this time it was James, his evergreen coach on the field, that was letting him down and boiling his temper.
On the whole, he kept cool throughout the game as his side carried out their orders to near precision, there were always going to be moments of brief frustration.
The first occasion was James swinging one in from the left side in the first half and massively overhitting his cross-field searching bot, sending it too long for Weimann’s outstretched legs as the attack failed.
At this time Pearson wasn’t in visual anger and instead turned around in disappointment.
Part two was a James corner from the left, primed to be an inswinger as Dasilva occupied the opposite side for added threat. Unlike his delivery against Bournemouth a fortnight ago, this was straight into Jack Bonham’s welcoming gloves.
A more exasperated Pearson this time turned in bemusement to his bench with his arms stretched out wide as if to ask why his senior player was relinquishing such an opportunity so tamely.
By the time the third cross, again from the left, came in via a direct freekick, Pearson was increasingly irate. James this time hit the edge of the box as multiple Potters defenders went in to clear a ball barely above knee height.
Not to say that James is the wrong man for these situations, his technique on the dead ball is one of the best in the City team, his weight and choice of pass is consistently correct and he’s got the trump card of age and experience.
Furthermore, it was his deft touches that set up Rob Atkinson against Bournemouth and led to the opener against Peterborough last week. But with Scott providing such a threatening, often more pacey and powerful delivery, from his whipped right boot crosses, maybe there’s less room for failure in the coming matches for James’ set-piece mix-ups.
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