Fronting Up

I can't imagine the pressure Bristol City boss Derek McInnes is under at the moment. Seven straight defeats, his team propping up the Championship, injuries to key players and Ashton Gate reverberating to the sound of jeering at half time and, again, as the final whistle blows. It must be tough for the guy and I can honestly say I wouldn't fancy it.

However, sending his assistant - Tony Docherty -  in to face the media after yesterday's home defeat to Charlton was a big mistake. Don't get me wrong, Docherty handled himself well, but the punters want to hear from the main man ... especially at times like this.

And whether you work for the papers, radio or television, your job is merely to try and ask the questions the fans themselves want answered. Sometimes we can ask them bluntly or even in a clumsy way, but by blanking the media, McInnes is merely snubbing the club's own fans (or customers as the board room would have it).

Some people in football (and public life generally) are a little paranoid and think the media are out to get them. They can take the questions personally. They shouldn't. Rather they should spend some time reading blogs or scanning Twitter or Facebook and read some of the things supporters are saying about them ... and then thank their lucky stars that the media present their questions in a measured way and with a little less emotion and vitriol.

I didn't hear anyone in the media room calling for McInnes's head yesterday afternoon, but I lost count of the number of supporters wanting to see various other parts of his anatomy removed!

Docherty made a big deal of telling us how hard McInnes is working and I'm sure he is. I suspect that he is having sleepless nights trying to work out ways of re-building confidence in a squad that is so obviously lacking it, but part of the job entails speaking to the fans ... and the great unwashed in the media.

McInnes isn't in a great situation at the moment and I for one would love to see him turn it around, but in the meantime I think it's important he fronts up.