Monday, 10 January 2011

Bristol City 0 Sheffield Wednesday 3 - Video Nasty

Bristol City allowed Wednesday back into this Cup tie after dominating the first half in which they had several shots on goal and even saw diminutive Owls midfielder James O’Conner head the ball off the line.

My clipping from today's paper

City boss Keith Millen was fuming and kept his players locked in the dressing room for thirty minutes after the game before saying:

“I have sent all of my players home with a DVD of the match and will be looking for a response from them at our next training session. We were weak mentally after falling behind and the dressing room was too quiet afterwards.

We looked a bad side in the second half and it showed we still have a lot of work to do over the rest of the season. It was a damaging result financially for the club and just how bad we will only know when we see who Wednesday draw in the next round.”

Well they ended up with a home tie against either Wycombe or Hereford (depending on the outcome of tomorrow’s delayed third round tie) and so while the Yorkshire boys won’t be exactly salivating at the prospect of that one, at least it's at Hillsborough and gives them an opportunity of 5th round Cup glory against one of the big boys.

Winger Gary Teale, 32, started the demolition job on City with rare header in the 48th minute for his 4th of the campaign and admitted:

“The work rate was there in the first half, but we weren’t showing quality that we can do. In the second half we played off the front foot and created a lot of chances and luckily enough we managed to put a few of them in.

That’s the way the manager wants us to play and it suits us. Obviously in some games it doesn’t work out that way, but hopefully on the back of this result we can kick on. We’ve just been lacking a wee bit of consistency.

You know we’re not going to win the Cup, but winning games breeds confidence especially when we perform like we did today away from home. If anything that’s been our downfall this season and so hopefully we can now kick on and add some consistency.

Teams in the league look at us as a big scalp. We’ve maybe let ourselves down a bit away from home, but hopefully with this result we can build on it and add some consistency.”

Preston loan striker Mellor, 28, nodded in his 13th goal in the 55th minute and the Sheffield born former Liverpool star said:

“It was good result. We believe that we’ve got a squad full of Championship players and so when you come to a place like this it’s important to try and prove that point and I think that we proved we can play against a Championship team, but we’ve got to do the same in the tough games in League One because we’ve got players capable of playing at this level. We can’t afford too many more slip ups in League One though.

I really enjoy it here, I really do. The manager and Chairman both want us to get promoted and the whole point of coming here was to gain promotion. We’re all pushing in the same direction. It’s a huge club and anything’s possible and so I’m hoping it takes off here. I’m still only 28 and I still have ambitions. I don’t want to be playing in League One. I want to get promoted to the Championship and then one day play in the Premier League with Sheffield Wednesday. It’s a long term ambition, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen. Smaller clubs have made it into the Premier League.

It’s such a fanatical club. Every away game we take three or four thousand with us. There’s a lot of passion in the city and if we can get it going they’ll be right behind us as they have been so far this season.

My targets are to stay in the side, score goals and get promoted. And of course enjoy my football and it’s no secret that I’m enjoying myself.

I really enjoy playing alongside Clinton. He’s got loads of experience and brings so much to the training ground and on match days. He has so much enthusiasm.

We know though that if we don’t keep running for 90 minutes the gaffer will drag us off. So far we’ve had a good understanding and we’re both scoring goals and so long may it continue.

He’s the best coach I’ve ever worked for. I just love his training sessions and if you’re doing that you can take it into the matches.”

Clinton Morrison, 31, wrapped things up and slid in score the third goal from 4 yards in the 65th minutes after winger and was in a positive mood afterwards when he said:

“To get balls like we were getting into the box was brilliant in the second half. We haven’t been doing that recently and so it was great. That’s what Neil and I like to feed off as strikers and that’s how we get our goals.

I got to the quarter finals last year with Coventry and we played Chelsea at the Ricoh and they brought their big guns, John Terry, Lampard and Drogba. It was a good experience and to go on a good Cup run would be a great experience, but first and foremost our aim is to get promotion.

Cup runs help to breed confidence. In terms of fan base and stature of the club this is a big one, but the reality is that we’re in League One and our aim has to be to get back into the Championship. I said to the lads after the game that we’ve just beaten a side that are flying in the Championship at the moment. They’ve just beaten Cardiff and drawn away at QPR and even though they’re on a high at the moment we’ve battered them in the second half. We can’t go backwards now. We’ve got to go back to League One and play teams there and play the same way. I think it will happen because the gaffer’s strengthening the squad which will put everyone on their toes and mean you’ve got to fight for your position.

I’ve scored eight goals now this season, but I’m looking to get nearer to twenty so hopefully I can keep going. I should’ve scored more to be fair. I’ve created a lot for others, but should’ve scored more. My New Year’s resolution is to be more greedy and not pass anymore. Neil’s just going to have to deal with it.

Brighton have got a ten point lead over us, but I guarantee we’ll catch them. They’re bound to have a little slip up and we can kick on and catch them.

The gaffer’s said that a team will go on a roll this season and get up there and win the league and hopefully that will be us.”

Wednesday manager Alan Irvine was delighted with his team’s performance and said:

“I told the players at half time that they were better than they were showing. We gave the ball away too much and did not show enough self belief. The second half performance was tremendous. Goals change games and by the end everyone wanted the ball and every player was showing composure on it.

The goals we got were terrific and we could have had some more. We were aware of the threats from Bristol City. The two wide players have been in very good form so we were conscious of the danger that they posed down the sides, but in actual fact we probably created more than they managed to do.

I was delighted with the clean sheets and delighted with the debuts. I thought the two lads did very well. A couple of things early on in the game where people were maybe unfamiliar with each other, but I thought that they grew into it.

We know Reda can head the ball and head it a long way – probably further than I can kick it now! He’s a real threat in the air in their box and defends well in the air in our box and we hardly lost a header today.

Clearly our priority is the league without any question and that’s what well be judged on at the end of the season.

I’ve been told that it’s ten years since we’ve been this far in the Cup which was a huge surprise to be honest. You expect a club like this to have been beyond this round and so

If anyone asks if it’s a distraction I’d say no, it’s a fantastic competition. I said to the lads before the game that this is one of the special days in the English football calendar and it was a day that was important to me important to our fans, important to Milan and the players showed it was important to them as well.”

As far as Wednesday were concerned the general mood seemed to be one of pleasure at a job well done and a good result against a decent side from the league above, but they know that the main aim is to gain promotion and so the Cup is of secondary importance.

The tie against either Wycombe or Hereford won’t change that attitude and should they get through to the 5th round it will be interesting to see how much of a help or a hindrance the Cup becomes.

City meanwhile need to look at this result as a huge kick up the backside. Losing to a club of Wednesday’s size isn’t a major Cup shock (ask the Newcastle and Sunderland fans about Cup upsets), but Millen was right in saying it has cost them financially and after seeing the 4th round draw they’ll see it as am wasted opportunity. It’s time for them to get back to basics in the league – once they’ve watched the video nasty Millen gave them!

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