One to remember for Bristol City as Liam Manning's return coincides with draw against Leeds
I am so proud of our football club. In terrible circumstances this club has shown a unity and togetherness that has made me so, so proud.
Huge credit to all of those involved in the visual tribute to Theo John Manning, that took place before the game against Leeds United on Saturday lunchtime. To organise such a display in such short timescales, putting the crowdfunding appeal in place (at the time of writing this column now up to £8,289 with a revised £10,000 target) and then sorting out the logistics to make it happen was simply incredible.
Thank you to all those volunteers that helped to put the display sheets in place and thank you to all the fans inside Ashton Gate for helping to achieve something that will I am sure have provided Liam, Fran, Isaac and the wider Manning family some comfort at this dreadfully difficult time.
In his thank you message on Friday, Liam said that he would see us at the game. I expected him to be on the sidelines for the tribute but did not expect him to take his place alongside his friend and assistant Chris Hogg in the technical area. I cannot comprehend how difficult it must have been for Liam and huge credit to him.
The management team opted to give Marcus McGuane his first start in place of the suspended Joe Williams and Yu Hirakawa was preferred to Anis Mehmeti. Following his two goals against Stoke City on Tuesday evening, Nahki Wells was again selected as the main striker.
Daniel Farke’s Leeds United side have quality throughout, and I was keen to see the impressive Ao Tanaka, a Japanese team mate of Hirakawa. Whilst United have sold quality in the summer, they still have the likes of Wilfried Gnonto, Joe Rothwell, Daniel James and Joel Piroe.
Our record against Leeds United is dreadful, with only 4 home wins against the Whites, the last one coming in the 2016/2017 season with Marlon Pack’s single strike gaining the three points.
I was asked to join the BBC Radio Leeds, West Yorkshire Sport Daily show with Adam Pope and Jon Newsome on Friday evening, live from the Hen & Chicken pub and I said on the show that I would take a point with a decent performance and that’s exactly what we got.
Up until the injury withdrawal of Ross McCrorie just after half an hour, I thought we were slightly the better side. We had taken the game to Leeds United, without creating any clear-cut opportunities but it was a decent start. McCrorie was visibly disappointed at having to leave the game with by all accounts a hamstring injury, albeit to the other hamstring than the one that he damaged at the start of the season.
The Scot has been so unlucky with injuries and this latest blow comes at a time when he was starting to show just why Nigel Pearson signed him.
Manning and Hoggy opted to bring on Kal Naismith as a replacement, but this resulted in a change of shape and saw us switch to a three with Mark Sykes moving from the right to the left. It nullified our offensive attributes and for the remainder of the first half and for pretty much the entirety of the second half, we surrendered possession to Leeds United and had to defend.
I still enjoyed the game but zero shots on target summed it up. Perhaps we used up our share of shots on target in the midweek draw at the Bet 365 Stadium in Stoke.
Marcus McGuane tired but put in a decent performance and whilst I would recall Joe Williams for the next game against Preston North End, I wouldn’t have a problem bringing him on in that central defensive midfield role.
The substitutes were also a talking point after the game. Sinclair Armstrong and George Earthy came on in the 59th minute for Nakhi Wells and Marcus McGuane respectively and Fally Mayulu and Elijah Morrison came on in the 78th minute for Yu Hirakawa and Mark Sykes.
Sinclair had one powerful run which was ended by a crude tackle from Jaydon Bogle but other than that, didn’t do too much. Similarly, Fally struggled to make any impact and the two of them looked like strangers. Their performances won’t give Liam Manning a headache as to who starts against Preston North End Saturday, Nahki is a nailed-on starter; no brainer.
Whilst I will caveat that the two got little service, they didn’t do the basics well enough for me. They didn’t show the required desire and energy to close the Leeds defence down and their touch was poor. Neither showed why they should start the next game. George Earthy came on and showed more than the two of Armstrong and Mayulu put together.
Elijah Morrison showed enough for me that if we keep the same formation at the back, I would be playing Elijah as a starter on Saturday. Elijah showed attacking intent and defended his own box well.
There was a scandalous decision from the referee in the 85th minute, booking the youngster for what was as good a tackle as you are likely to see, Morrison winning the ball, and it wasn’t reckless.
There was one moment when Elijah recognised that the ball forward to Sinclair was not on and rather than playing a safe ball back to McNally, he played the ball across the pitch to Zak Vyner which opened the play up. It was an impressive display.
With the possession that they had, Farke will feel that they should have won the game, but Max O’Leary only had a few saves to make, two particularly good ones from Gnonto and James in the first half but aside from that he was comfortable. I thought George Tanner and Zak Vyner were excellent, Zak making one goal line clearance from Gnonto, with McNally not far behind in terms of his performance.
It was a captain’s display from Jason Knight, man of the match for City. Knight was everywhere and demanding more from his team mates.
The point extended our unbeaten run to seven games, which is no mean feat in the Championship. That is three defeats in 20 Championship games and whilst there have been too many draws, we were closer to winning most of those drawn games than losing them. What I mean by that is that we were the better side in most of those drawn games and we should have got the win.
If last Saturday morning before kick-off against Middlesbrough I would have said that we would pick up five points from two away games against Middlesbrough and Stoke City and a home game against Leeds United, most fans would have snapped my hand off.
We need to be more clinical in the final third, we need to braver and take a few more risks. If we can discover that edge, I expect us to pick up more wins.
Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast average player ratings were Max O’Leary 7.5, George Tanner 7.5, Zak Vyner 7.5, Luke McNally 7, Ross McCrorie 6.5, Max Bird 6.5, Jason Knight 8.5 *MotM, Marcus McGuane 6.5, Yu Hirakawa 6.5, Mark Sykes 6.5 and Nahki Wells 6.5. For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time) we went Kal Naismith 4.5, George Earthy 6.5 and Sinclair Armstrong 4.5. A game average player rating of 6.61. That’s an overall season to date average player rating of 6.12.
For Liam Manning there is only one rating that I can give and that’s a 10. Liam showed unbelievable bravery, humility and heartfelt appreciation. I don’t know how he was able to stand in the technical area for the game and to walk around the pitch at the end thanking the fans. Hopefully, the love and respect shown to the Manning family will help them through.
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