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.
