Monday, 14 January 2013

Bristol City 0 Leicester City 4

Chris Wood backed Bristol City to beat the drop - despite costing former boss Derek McInnes his job.

McInnes, 41, was sacked shortly after relegation-threatened Bristol's lacklustre show against promotion chasing Leicester.

Striker Wood opened the scoring in the eleventh minute and then crushed the hapless Robins by netting two more in the following twenty minutes.

Kiwi international striker Wood was signed by McInnes on loan last term and helped the club stay in the Championship, but his ruthless one-man-show on Saturday ended the former St. Johnstone chief's fifteen months in charge at Ashton Gate.

Wood, 21, has now scored six goals in three games since joining Leicester on New Year's Day from West Brom and said:

"They're too big a club to be in the relegation zone and they've got a great squad. They definitely have enough to get out of it.

"I know a lot of the players and they just need to get a few draws or wins and then they'll be flying. It's not nice to see them doing badly at the moment, but the quality's there and it's just about finding the right combination."


Hot shot striker Wood opened the scoring in the twelfth minute.

Winger Ben Marshall fed Wood on the left of the area and the Kiwi cut inside two defenders before firing in a low shot past keeper Dean Gerken at his near post.

Relegation candidates Bristol immediately lost whatever confidence they may have had and Wood's second only six minutes later appeared to finish them off.

Gerken flapped at Marshall's corner and the ball bounced off central defender Liam Fontaine before Wood pounced to stab home from five yards.

Wood then made it three goals in 29 minutes when he collected a pass from midfielder Matty James and to skipped past midfielder debutant Liam Kelly on the edge of the box before drilling a low shot past Gerken.

Kelly arrived at Ashton Gate in a £200k move from Kilmarnock on Friday and must already be thinking about sacking his agent after suffering in this sorry show from the Robins.

James sealed the win only six minutes into the second period with his first strike for three years.

Wood held the ball up and then fed James who ran past Bristol's static defence before firing in a low shot from just inside the area.

It took Bristol 72 minutes before they launched any serious threat on Kasper Schmeichel's goal.

Debutant striker Wes Burns crossed the ball from the right wing and fellow substitute Paul Anderson's shot from twelve yards was well saved by Schmeichel.

Substitute Lloyd Dyer made sure the Foxes protected Wood's three goal cushion at half time when he cleared defender Greg Cunningham's in-swinging corner off the line in the 26th minute.

Marshall also came close when he rifled a shot just wide from the edge of the box two minutes before the home side were booed off at the break.

Robins Managing Director Jon Lansdown revealed that the decision to sack McInnes was made in a emergency Board Meeting hours after the club had dropped to the foot of the table. He said:

"There is no hiding the fact it wasn’t a good day. Derek is disappointed but he does understand. It's a decision we felt we had to make for the good of the football club."

“He has been good to work with and we gave him every opportunity to succeed here, but we’re looking at ourselves from now until the end of the season. We want to give ourselves the best possible chance to get out of where we are now."

But Lansdown's dad, Steve, is the majority shareholder at the club and he was backing McInnes up until the eleventh hour.

On Friday McInnes was given £200k to buy midfielder Liam Kelly, 22, from Kilmarnock and were even in negotiations with Crawley on Saturday morning about a move for central defender Kyle McFadzean.

McInnes pipped Mark Robins to the job in 2011, but the the aptly named former Barnsley boss is available and has been installed as a 3/1 favourite to land the role this time.

Before learning he had been dumped, McInnes blamed his players for the defeat. He blasted:

"A lot of players let the fans down in the first half. The first three goals were self-inflicted. We were too pedestrian in our play and made it easy for a very good Leicester team. You hope the players can produce better than that because they are better than that. As good a side as Leicester are, we played a part in our own downfall."

Meanwhile Foxes boss Nigel Pearson was delighted his team after seeing them move to third in the Championship table.

Midfielder Matty James scored his first goal in three years in the 49th minute to seal the win, but Pearson was particularly pleased with Wood and said:

"Chris is doing what we hoped he would do, things are falling for him and he's taking his opportunities, but the most important thing is that we win games as a team and he's playing his part in that. We needed something different up top and he gives us that.


"All in all it's a good day, but we've got to keep this level of performance going. Chris is taking his chances and gives us the aerial challenge we didn't have before. He's doing what we hoped he would."
My piece from the morning paper

... and from Sunday's edition

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