Bristol City verdict as Liam Manning left facing familiar questions after dominant QPR draw

If Tuesday night's draw with Sunderland was one of late heartbreak, Saturday afternoon's tie with QPR will have felt like a gut-punch for the Bristol City supporters inside Ashton Gate.

Having dominated for all but a single passage of the game, the City faithful were forced to watch on as important points once again slipped from their grasp as Paul Smyth rounded Max O'Leary on the halfway line and curled in from long range.

Although the performance was much more akin to the 4-0 thrashing of Plymouth Argyle at the end of November than it was the smash-and-grab draw at the Stadium of Light, Liam Manning was left facing the same questions that he has to deal with far too often already this season.

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The Robins should have and could have put the game to bed after Scott Twine's delightful free-kick gave them the lead in the second half, yet no matter how hard they huffed and puffed, they didn't produce that moment needed to keep all three points in the West Country.

It won't feel like it now, but underneath a disappointing result and a frustrating afternoon, there was a really good performance from Manning's side at the heart of their display.

Of course, football is a results business however and that is how City, their manager and their players will be judged. With all that being said, here are the main talking points from Saturday's draw with QPR...

The game falls at Mehmeti's feet

While O'Leary's error will be the moment that the majority of fans will focus on after the full-time whistle, perhaps the biggest turning point in the game came when the ball dropped to Anis Mehmeti just minutes after the Robins had taken the lead.

The Albanian international did excellently to control a pass into his feet from Zak Vyner before turning his man and cannoning an effort with his right foot right into the midriff of Paul Nardi in the Hoops' goal.

While the angle was tight, Mehemti could have found the net had he either directed his shot towards the near post or attempted to smash past Nardi into the bottom corner. Instead, he opted for power and wasted perhaps the Reds' best chance to double their advantage.

That effort possessed an xG of 0.34, the highest of any of City's shots in the entirety of the game. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to suggest that was the game slipped through the Robins' fingers and Manning himself seemed to be aware of that.

"If you actually look at the stats, we did [create chances]," insisted the City boss after the full-time whistle. "We missed three chances, if you go off xG which doesn’t tell you everything, it would be two.

"That’s a good indicator of high-volume, high-quality chances, I’ve seen numerous ones back as well, so when I look at it, that’s the bit for me."

Mehmeti has been one of the Reds' most dangerous attacking players so far this season and although he has lacked consistency, most fans would have bet their season ticket on the fact he would have beaten the keeper in that position.

Had he scored his seventh of the season, City would have been home and dry before QPR had even come close to scoring a goal and the entire mood around Ashton Gate would have been completely different. If they really want to kick on and push for a place in the play-offs, Manning's side need to start putting games to bed.

The two sides of Max O'Leary

In the final seconds of Bristol City's 1-1 draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday evening, O'Leary lept into the air to produce an excellent save to tip Dan Ballard's header over the bar and ensure that his side didn't concede for a second time in injury time.

Ultimately, that save was forgotten about because of Patrick Roberts' late equaliser. Similarly, O'Leary's great stop to deny Colby Bishop early on in the Reds' 3-0 defeat to Portsmouth last weekend won't have lived long in the memory of supporters as the City keeper went on to concede three goals at Fratton Park.

What fans won't forget is the fact that the 28-year-old came rushing out to beat Smyth to a loose ball on the halfway line, only to end up standing in no man's land as the winger's 40-yard shot slowly drifted into the vacant Robins net.

Of course, O'Leary made a mistake, that shouldn't be forgotten and the keeper owned that after the full-time whistle, but as Manning suggested after the full-time whistle, the academy graduate has kept the Reds in games at times this season and one mistake shouldn't cloud that.

"There's been numerous times since I've been here where he's saved us as well," explained the 39-year-old. "He's put his hands up and said he probably should have stayed, especially when you see the lads' attitudes in the middle of the pitch which was top."

Is O'Leary the perfect keeper? Of course, he isn't, if he was he wouldn't be playing in the Championship but he is at the same level as the rest of his Bristol City teammates. When he is at his best, he is unbeatable, but he is also capable of looking out of place when he has an off day and the challenge for the Robins now is to ensure that his good days, and his teammates', come around more often than his bad ones.

Hopefully, O'Leary will be back to his best when the Reds make the trip to The Hawthorns to face West Brom next weekend. He won't lose his place after one error and nor should he having been a regular over the last three seasons.

Max Bird is the new ace up City's sleeve

Few players have hit the ground running in City colours like Max Bird. The former Derby County man has been impressive from the moment he arrived at Ashton Gate, even though he has played as an attacking midfielder rather than a genuine number-eight for much of his time in red.

But with Twine once again fit and available, and on the scoresheet, and George Earthy chomping at the bit for his chance in his preferred position, the competition for places in attacking midfield is greater than ever.

Fortunately, Bird's display on Saturday afternoon served as a reminder of just how good he can be in a deeper role and it also showed that he is able to impact the game in an attacking sense, even when he has two like-minded midfielders ahead of him in a more advanced position.

No player on either side created more scoring chances than the 24-year-old's three and in total, he played 14 passes into the final third of the pitch. Some of his link-up play with the likes of Earthy and Nahki Wells was a joy to watch and the only reason the Robins were able to have 17 attempts on goal was because Bird and Jason Knight did so well in and out of possession in the middle of the park.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the ex-Derby man shouldn't be an option in attacking midfield in the future, but if Manning is keen to find a way to get Mehmeti, Twine, Earthy and even Yu Hirakawa into the same side, it doesn't necessarily mean that Bird has to be the man to drop out.

However, QPR did very little to impose themselves on City on Saturday. Against a side with a greater attacking threat, having the more defensive-minded presence of Marcus McGuane on the pitch could well be more important than an added forward player.

Killing games off

Saturday's draw means that Manning's side have now dropped 11 points from winning positions this term, with four of those coming in just the last week against Sunderland and QPR. On the other hand, the Reds have managed to pick nine points from losing positions, the bulk of which came in their crazy win over Millwall and their victory over Oxford United at Ashton Gate.

If you add those 11 points to City's points tally, they would be sitting pretty in the play-off places with 38 points, the same as Scott Parker's Burnley who are currently fourth in the table. Even if you were to take away the nine points won from losing positions this season, those extra two points would see the Robins close the gap to just five points.

That may not seem like a huge difference in the grand scheme of things, but a gap of five points would mean the Reds could be in the top six with just two wins if other results were to go their way. At the moment, Manning's side needs to better the results of every club above them in the table on three separate occasions to have any hope of leapfrogging their way into promotion contention.

Had they managed to see out the three points against Sunderland and Marti Cifuentes' side this afternoon, the Robins would be ninth in the table and just a win away from sixth-placed Middlesbrough. The margins in the Championship have always been tight, but City are making life a lot more difficult for themselves by throwing away points needlessly.

It would be wrong to lay all the blame at Manning's door. As the 39-year-old said himself after the defeat at Portsmouth, the lack of consistency is something the "club has done for quite a while now", but it is his team now and his side is struggling to put together a run of form and is struggling to see games out.

Somehow a solution has to be found and sooner rather than later. With the games coming thick and fast over the Christmas period, the Robins risk ruling themselves out of the top six race by the new year if they continue to let chances slip through their fingers.

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