Monday, 11 March 2013

Bristol City 2 Middlesborough 0

My clipping from yesterday's paper

Steven Davies showed he is City's goal-den boy to help lift them off the foot of the table.

Bristol City have picked up five home wins and are unbeaten at Ashton Gate since Sean O'Driscoll arrived as manager in mid-January and they are now sucking several other clubs into the relegation scrap.

O'Driscoll said:

"I've been very happy with every performance we've had since I've been here. I said when I arrived that it was going to be a team effort by the players, staff and the crowd and that's what we're getting.

"We've been consistent and we're not concentrating on the outcomes, we're concentrating on the processes and doing the right things. Everyone's playing their part which is pleasing.

"Everyone comes in and puts in a shift which is a trait of a successful team and we want to be a successful team."

Hot shot striker Davies netted his twelfth goal in thirteen starts for City following a summer move from Derby County.

In the 53rd minute Neil Kilkenny played a free-kick to fellow midfielder Stephen Pearson who split the Boro defence for Davies to pounce and comfortably slot in from the left side of the box.

Albert Adomah opened the scoring with a scorcher for his sixth of the season in the 33rd minute.

Substitute Adomah replaced Jon Stead in the eighteenth minute after the striker pulled up with a groin injury.

Ghana international Adomah left defender George Friend flat-footed on the right angle of the box before curling a superb shot into the far corner past helpless keeper Jason Steele.

Adomah was the subject of a transfer window bid from Crystal Palace while on duty at the African Cup of Nations and no doubt Ian Holloway will be weighing up a summer move for the lively winger.

Boro have now lost twelve games on the road this season and did not do anything to suggest they were going to shake off their away day blues in this game.

Boss Tony Mowbray knows they need to improve the form on their travels if they are to snatch a play-off place and said:

"My job this week is to spin the psychology of negativity and depression after two defeats in one week

"For whatever reason after New Year we've dropped away dramatically and the same thing happened last season. We're searching for the answers.

"If you got anything for possession, we should've got something from this game. I thought we were in total control of the football match, but we didn't ask enough questions of them."

Davies could have netted a brace, but Steele did well to push his fourteen yard drive over the bar in the 77th minute.


Davies has now scored twelve goals in thirteen starts since moving from Derby in the summer and is impressed with O'Driscoll. He said:

"He's got it spot on. He's very organised. He knows what he wants from every single player and from us all as a team."


And O'Driscoll gave in insight into his management style when he explained:

"I played for a long time and never understood why I did things. I was told to do things and I was always asking, 'Why am I doing this?' It wasn't that I didn't want to do something I just wanted to know why.

"You want people to think for themselves. When I played, thinking for yourself would get you out of the team!

"Thinking for yourself is understanding why you have to be organised. There's no point in being organised because the manager tells me this or that."

Tony Mowbray saw his team slip further away from the play-off pack and knows he needs to stop the rot quickly. He said:

"Because we have fallen away from the top of the table since the New Year, in a similar way to last season, there is a lot of negativity and I have to turn that around.

"We must have made 500 or 600 passes without getting a meaningful strike on goal."

Both teams were cagey before Adomah's opener, but Steele had to be alert to claim long range efforts from Davies and midfielder Kilkenny.

And midfielder Marvin Elliott should have double City's lead in injury time, but headed Pearson's corner over the bar from six yards.

Liam Kelly is using City's relegation scrap to make up for lost time - and enjoying every minute.

Winger Kelly, 24, was dumped as a 19-year-old by Paul Ince at the end of the Mk Dons' double winning campaign in 2008 - despite being told that an offer was on the table. He explained:

"On the last day of the season thought I was signing and then went in to the club and was told I'd been released.

"I really enjoyed it up in Scotland and there are a lot of good players up there, but I'm in the Championship now, one division below the Premier League. Some things work out for the better and I think it has. I wouldn't change anything now."

Hard grafter Kelly moved to Ashton Gate in January after more than four years at Kilmarnock, but saw his new City boss Derek McInnes sacked only one day after making his debut.

The Robins looked certainties for the drop, but have won five in six unbeaten home games under new manager Sean O'Driscoll and Kelly believes they now have a real chance of survival. He said:

"We try not to look at the whole picture, but look at each game at a time. If we keep up our home form and pick up one or two results away, it gives us every chance.

"All the boys in the changing room are confident. We've got the momentum at the moment and we've got to keep that going."



My clipping from today's editon

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