Bristol City 1 Blackpool 3

Thomas Ince set aside family friendships to put Blackpool firmly back in the promotion race.

Ince scored a second half brace against dad Paul's good pal, City keeper David James before revealing:

"I spoke to Jamo before the game and he wished me all the best. He's still rolling back the years. He played with my dad for England and it's good to see he's still doing it. My dad likes to think he could too of course.

Jamo's nephew was one of my good friends and we still get along and so it was nice to see him. He made one great save from me and kept out quite a lot of our shots which shows he's still got spring in his legs and what a good goalkeeper he is, however old he is. Mind you, our keeper made a few good saves as well."

Grafting midfielder Ince, 20, has picked up his old man's work ethic, but also has some silky skills and pace in his locker that must have had the former England skipper drooling with pride (and envy) as he watched from the stand.

Former Liverpool squad player Ince pegged back Jon Stead's 29th minute opener with a deflected free kick ten minutes after the break that left James wrong-footed and helpless.

Six minutes before the end, the youngster nodded in at the far post for his fifth goal of the campaign as James failed to reach a chipped cross from substitute Brett Ormerod.

Veteran hit man Kevin Phillips sealed the points three minutes later when he buried a five yard volley for his thirteenth goal of the season and Ince said:

"We've got a great blends of youth and experience at the club and the younger players like me are learning lots from players like Brett and the magic LuaLua. We attack teams, home and away, and when you've got the maestro Kev Phillips playing you know he's going to score goals."

Manager Ian Holloway made six changes to the team that suffered a 4-1 midweek mauling at home to West Ham - a performance that he described as the worst of the season, but he was delighted with his team's efforts at Ashton Gate and said:

"We bounced back after a terrible evening which my lads took a little bit personally. They should be really proud of themselves though. If you look at West Ham's budget and our budget, it's a quarter of theirs, but let's see where we are at the end of the season.

Even with injuries I can still produce attacking football that's hard to stop and we showed that by scoring three goals away from home."

As far as Ince was concerned Holloway enthused:

"He's got a fantastic pedigree and he's proving already he's got all sorts of abilities and if he can be a wide man who scores he might end up worth a fortune.

He was never a risk. Because of Liverpool's interest we managed to put him in the Charlie Adam deal and so you lose a very good player like Charlie, but I've managed to pick one up myself."

Bristolian Holloway was also moved by the reception he received from the home support and the former Bristol Rovers player and manager said:

"I was blown away really. I played for the enemy, their enemy. I played as hard as I could and tried as hard as I could. That hasn't always gone down well, but I'm proud of Bristol and at the moment they're the best team in this area and I wish them all the very best."

City have picked up only one point in the last six games and they are now firmly in a relegation scrap. Boss Derek McInnes banned his players from talking to the media after the game and groaned:

"We saw the best and the worst of us today. In the first half we defended with resolve and Blackpool didn't lay a glove on us.

There equaliser was the defining moment and the game started to suit them in the last twenty minutes and they ran out comfortable winners."

The turning point was Blackpool's equaliser and I felt the ref let us down with the award of the free-kick. But we should have defended it better.

A lot of things are going against us at the moment, but there is nothing to gain from feeling sorry for ourselves."

My clipping from the new Sunday paper

My clipping from the today's edition

Albert's Ghana play in the World Cup!

Bristol City’s flying winger Albert Adomah has indicated that he fancies playing for Ghana in the 2014 World Cup campaign.

Adomah, 23, was born in London and played for Barnet before moving to the Robins last summer and has dual nationality. Albert proved himself at Championship level last season and gave a number of defenders headaches when I saw him play. He’s still not the finished article, but has stacks of pace and trickery. From what I saw he still needs to improve on his final ball and decision making, but they are things that come with maturity.

Former Liverpool and Newcastle midfielder Didi Hamann has now been linked with the vacant manager’s job at Swindon. The former German international is currently employed in a coaching capacity at Leicester City and joins Paolo di Canio, Paul Buckle, George Burley, Paul Trollope, my mum and numerous others in the running for the job. Meanwhile defender Michael Rose looks to be off to Colchester. The 28 year old former Stockport defender joined from Stockport last summer and was fuming earlier in the season when Danny Wilson dropped him to the bench after the arrival of Alan Sheehan. He told me: “I didn’t come to Swindon to sit on the bench – not at my age.” It looks as though he won’t be hanging around for more of the same treatment.

Bristol Rovers are also in for Buckle once his play-off involvement with Torquay is over.

Oxford boss Chris Wilder has signed Eastbourne Town’s Ryan James, a 21 year old central defender. James played youth football for both Millwall and QPR. James combined playing for Eastbourne with work for the Nike Academy which helps young players join professional clubs. He has been given a six month deal.

Bristol City 2 Portsmouth 1 - Run on

City brought Pompey’s six game unbeaten streak to a halt and in the process extended their own run ‘on’ to four games.

My clipping from this morning’s copy of The Sun

I had a quiet chat with Keith Millen after the game and he is now looking up the table for the first time this season rather than sweating on how many teams are chasing City. I think it’s fair to say that this was the game that effectively sealed Championship survival.

Earlier in the season I found myself in the uncomfortable situation of having to ask Keith how he was coping with the pressure as City lurched from one poor result to another. At that point in the season, Millen and City were at a crossroads. He had been with the club in a coaching capacity for some time and seen managers come and go after similar spells. So how was he coping?

Keith is one of the game’s good guys and politely handled questions even though you knew that he’d rather be anywhere else.

“I’m a fighter,” he told me. “I believe we can get ourselves out of this situation.”

In the car park I had a chat with one of the players who told me that Keith had their full support and they really believed that they’d be able to turn things around.

To both Keith’s credit and that of the players, they have.

Millen still wants to reach the fifty or fifty-two point safety mark as soon as possible, but realistically it’s now all about finishing the season on a high and putting themselves in the right frame of mind as they start to prepare for next season.

Of course diehard Robins will tell you that they are still in with a shout of a play-off place and it is certainly a possibility, but how many felt that they would be struggling to stay up during those dark early season days?

Now they have a team that is full of self-belief and players who look like they could beat anyone – they’re also playing some nice stuff.

The return of striker Nicky Maynard from long term injury has also given them another dimension, but it would be unfair on the rest of the lads to point to his return as reason for their change in fortunes as they have all been contributing and have been doing so for some time.

Millen heaped praise on his team after the game and said:

"I'm so proud of my players. Some of them have gone through the pain barrier and done everything and more than I asked of them to beat a very good Portsmouth side. They are full of players with Premier League experience, were full of confidence after a great six-match winning run and showed that in the way they played.

We've had to hang on in there, scrap and fight for every ball and defend for our lives, but the lads have shown incredible fighting spirit and an amazing will to win and I'm really pleased with them. This was a big, big test for the lads and they've come through it with flying colours."

Pompey boss Steve Cotterill shrugged off the defeat and said:

“If we were to losing to anyone, City would be one of those sides. Keith Millen is an honest and hard working guy and has done a great job here. There won’t be many teams who come here and football them like we did. We were better – but just didn’t stick the ball in the back of the net.

We were fitter and stronger, we passed the ball better. ‘The only thing we fell down on was they scored two and we’ve scored one. That’s the only thing we fell down on. All the other aspects of football I thought we were superb, absolutely superb.



Bristol City 1 Crystal Palace 1 - Catch Up

Following a couple of weeks of bad weather, man-flu, Christmas celebrations and not a little alcohol abuse, I will attempt to catch up on the couple of games I managed to attend over the festive season.

First up was the Championship clash between the Robins and Palace.

My clipping from the paper

I saw the same game last season when Palace had a perfectly good goal ruled out after the referee failed to spot the ball hit the frame in the back of the net and bounce back into play – assuming it had hit an advertising hoarding behind the goal.

In this game Palace had the right to feel aggrieved as well after Brett Pitman equalized from the spot in the 94th minute.

Neil Danns had opened the scoring in the 2nd minute and was a class apart in midfield as Lee Johnson and Marvin Elliott failed to cope with him.

On wag in the press box wondered aloud whether there was any chance of Palace swapping number eights during the transfer window and while this might have been a little harsh on Johnson, the fact that Danns is out of contract in the summer must see him packing his bags for a final career move at some point soon.

Keith Millen’s side rode their luck in this one, but to their credit, they never gave up and so for guts and determination alone, they probably deserved something out of it, although Palace will beg to differ.

To their credit, Palace played with a passion that belied their position in the relegation zone and they certainly didn’t look as though they were a team who wanted rid of their manager. Surprising then that George Burley found himself out of a job only a few days later when Millwall stuffed them by three goals.

Talking of Millwall; one of the south London press lads took a call from a colleague in the first half and was in stitches after ending it. It turns out his colleague was down for the Millwall game that afternoon, but had been told the game kicked off at five o’clock and so was desperately trying to get to the New Den before the final whistle!



Bristol City 2 Derby County 0 - Matador

Christian Ribeiro and I had a brief chat after the game on Saturday and he admitted that City were fortunate to have kept eleven men on the field after David James had cut down Kris Commons – but pointed out that they had also had their fair share of bad luck.

Wales defender Ribeiro, 20, gave an honest assessment and said:

“As David rushed out I was thinking ‘don’t take him out’ as I was sprinting back to cover, but to be frank I don’t think I would have made it. We were lucky David was only shown a yellow card, but decisions were going against us earlier in the season and so I guess it shows that our luck has changed.”

There is no doubt about that, but you often make your own luck in life and City have worked hard to change their fortunes and are reaping the rewards having lost only one of the last nine. The problem is that the division is so tight; they need to maintain this form to stay away from the scrap at the bottom.

Looking at the situation from a ‘glass half full‘ perspective though; if they do manage to continue this form, the play-off places are within their grasp as well.

If they are to keep the momentum going they also need the whole squad to pull in the same direction and in Jamaica central defender Damion Stewart they have men with the right attitude. Stewart was signed from QPR by former boss Steve Coppell in the summer and two weeks later saw the former Reading boss quit.

After City’s dodgy start to the season Stewart was dropped but said:

“Keith Millen is the gaffer. He’s the boss and I told him from day one that he had my full support even when I wasn’t in the side. I was used to playing every week at QPR and so it was a new experience having to wait for the opportunity to get back in. I kept my head down and worked hard and now that I’m back in the team, hopefully I can continue to show what I can do.”

Brett Pitman scored a brace to take his tally to five goals in three games to show why the Robins paid £800k to Bournemouth for his services, but the stand-out player for me was former Barnet winger Albert Adomah who – like Pitman – was signed from the lower divisions and showed he too has what it takes by setting up both goals.

Pitman was fully appreciative of Adomah’s contribution, but preferred to spread the praise about and said: “He played in a couple of great balls, but everyone is working hard, running hard and filling in for each other. We work a lot on shape in training and while the players don’t like it and find it boring, it certainly pays off during the games.”

Nigel Clough was understandably furious with the decision not to send off James, but – unlike some managers – didn’t lash out at the officials. He said: “At the start of the season we have to attend a meeting with the referees where they show us videos of incidents from around the world to explain how decisions are made. If we don’t turn up we’re fined. If we complain about the referee we’re fined.”

I spotted Clough going into the referee’s room for a chat once the obligatory thirty minute cooling off period had expired and he was in there for a good fifteen minutes while his players crowded around a laptop in the corridor outside studying a DVD.

Watching it with them, it was obvious that Ribeiro was right and James was the last man and James should have walked. Commons had knocked the ball away from goal though in an effort to get past the keeper and I suspect that this was the referee’s defence. However, to suggest that a player of Commons caliber couldn’t have reached it and knocked the ball into the net is also daft. The rules definitely need clarifying here.

I also wondered whether the referee felt a little intimidated by the fact that it was the former England number one he faced red carding and reluctant to do so and be accused of trying to make a name for himself. We’ll probably never know, but Ribeiro was right, Bristol City rode their luck with that incident. Then again, maybe it was time they had it on their side.

The highlight of the day in the Press Box was when one of the radio commentators described midfielder Alberto Bueno – on loan from Valladolid – as gesticulating in Spanish. I’m still trying to work that one out. Maybe I missed him doing an impression of an angry matador!

My clippings from this morning's copy of The Sun

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

Bristol City’s Goalscorer David Clarkson and Sven – Freaky, freaky

David Clarkson spoke about the freaky and audacious 40 yard goal he scored to seal the win against Leicester on Saturday and explained:

“I read the throw out to be fair. The keeper tried to throw it to the left back and I knda read it and it fell perfect for me. I just thought ‘hit it, he’s off his line’. It could have gone anywhere and I was delighted when it went in.

I didn’t have a clue whether it was going in and I just wanted to hit the target. It seemed to be in the air forever and took an age to go in. If you don’t shoot, you don’t score. I;ve never scored from that distance before in my life unless it was in the U-10s when you want to shoot from anywhere. It’s just one of those things. You see players doing it now and again. It just fell perfectly and I hit it.

I was thinking that I should take it to the corner at that stage, but luckily it went in. I’m sure I would’ve got a bit of grief for it if it hadn’t.

I’m not sure if it was the goal of the season, but I’m absolutely delighted to have scored a goal like that. It’s one of the highlights of my career probably.”

Bristol turned the tables on Leicester in the second half and Clarkson said:

“I was warming up at half time in case I was needed, but whatever the gaffer said, it worked. It was important for us to come out in the second half fired up. We kinda got a grip of the game, created a few chances and go the first goal.

Brett coming on and scoring kick-started us and we defended well and got the second goal and killed them.”

And the Scotland international forward revealed that the Robin’s large squad has its advantages. He said:

“We’ve got a big squad now and everyone’s waiting for their chance. It was good for me to come on and for Brett as well. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to come on and get his goal and hopefully give the gaffer a problem and something to think about. He knows what he’s got on the bench plus there are players coming back (from injury).

I’ve not been on for a while and so for me to come on with still a bit of the game to go and try and put your stamp on the game was good. And I managed to get the goal which was absolutely great.

It’s a great result which sends us home on a high and the fans home on a high and hopefully we can kick on and get the results.”

On the lack of reserve team fixtures, Clarkson said:

“It gets you games, but at the same time you can work just as hard in training. Sometimes training is better than playing reserve games. It’s up to the boys like me to work hard in training to be sharp when you get the chance. If you get a run in the team you get your sharpness back.

If you’re just training you have to work that extra bit harder to make sure you’re at your best and the boys and myself have been doing that.

It’s difficult sitting on the bench and watching people get their chance, but you’re there to support the boys and you want the team to win. At the same time it’s up to us to come on and score goals and give the gaffer something to think about which we did.”

Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was not a happy man and when someone suggested it had been a bad day at the office, he agreed. He said:

“Definitely. Once again we showed we are a good football team and can play very good football. I think we were in total control for 45 minutes, but it was a day when we couldn’t score and gave away two goals much, much too easy. Too easy and it’s a pity because if you’d left after 45 minutes you wouldn’t believe we would lose the game.

You have to take your chances and we created chances first half, we created chances second half and we didn’t take it. And then you are punished and we were punished.

Bristol City played much better in the second half. They went to 4-4-2 and put more pressure on us, but they scored too easy in my opinion.

We know how to play football and we do it very well, very often, but of course we have to score more goals and we can’t concede goals like that. Too easy.

The first goal was a good move from Bristol City, but you have to read that he will pop up there. We didn’t and it was a goal.

What can you say about the second goal? It’s like an own goal even if it was taken very well by the Bristol City player. Bad day.”

The Thai consortium that own Leicester have said they want to be playing Premier League football next season, but Sven brushed off any talk of pressure. He said:

“It’s nothing we talk about every day. I think it’s more positive than negative that you’re working in a club that has such ambition. It would be much worse if we had no pressure and who cares where we are. If we want to finish high up in the league, we can’t lose football games as we did today”

Looking forward to tonight’s Forest game he said:

“I didn’t know (they had won against Cardiff) and so congratulations to them. After this it’s even more important to us.

We’ll give the players a couple of days off now.

Bristol City 2 Leicester City 0 - P**s and Vinegar

In the post-match press conference the written press invariably have to wait until the television and radio guys have wrapped up their interviews before asking their own questions. However, the newspaper reporters will also have their own portable recorders running so as not to miss anything. And so it was on Saturday when Sven-Goran Eriksson stood in front of the board bearing the logos of the sponsors.

The Sky interviewer positioned him and then turned to the assembled press and said: “Right, everybody happy?” To which the Swede instantly replied: “No, I’m not happy.” And you could understand why.

Last Tuesday night I watched Walsall squeak past Fleetwood in an FA Cup replay after the non-league outfit had dominated the first half. The Bescot faithful jeered their side off at half time, but Walsall scored in the 58th minute and then at the death to see them through.

On Saturday it was practically a carbon copy, although in fairness to Bristol City they looked much more interested than the west midlands outfit.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football



Substitute Brett Pitman’s 57th minute goal- his first for the club – and David Clarkson’s 90th minute lobbed volley from 40 yards settled the game, but Leicester must have kicked themselves all the way home for not making the most of their first half possession.

David James clattered Andy King in the 22nd minute to give away a needless penalty and then redeemed himself by saving Steve Howard’s spot kick with his feet.

Foxes skipper Howard has – by all accounts – been playing out of his skin this season and, while it was obviously a great opportunity to take the lead, the Leicester camp will have been wondering how they didn’t turn their dominance into goals.

Both sides started with 4-3-3 formations, but whereas Leicester looked to attack, Danny Rose (on loan from Spurs) and Albert Adomah did little to support striker Jon Stead who at times could be seen frustratingly waving his team mates forward desperate for their support.

In the second half Robins manager Keith Millen changed to a 4-4-2 formation by bring on former Bournemouth striker Pitman, 22, for midfielder Lee Johnson while Erksson understandably persevered with the line-up that had them on top in the opening 45 minutes.

Pitman scored 28 goals for the Cherries last season as they stormed to League One promotion and also added another three before his £800,000 move to City in August, but had not figured in many of this season’s games.

The Jersey-born hit man started the first three games following his transfer, but from then has had to make do with a few minutes here and there as a substitute as he built up his fitness to cope with the higher level of Championship football.

His goal showed everyone that he hasn’t lost any of his goal poaching prowess while he’s been busy in the gym.

Full back Jamie McAllister pulled a free kick on the right back to Pitman in the area and he rifled the ball home despite a desperate goal line lunge from Ritchie Wellens.

Clarkson’s goal was worth the entrance money.

Former Robin’s number two Chris Weale threw the ball out to full back Gary Cunningham on the left, but Clarkson was sharp enough to intercept the ball and hit the ball back over the back peddling keeper for his third of the season.

Afterwards Millen refused to be drawn into comparisons with Eriksson or accept he had won any tactical battles with the former England chief and when asked if he would be opening a bottle of wine for the Swede he nodded, but joked: “Mid you he might not want any as the stuff I have tastes like vinegar.”

I suspect that Sven refused; after all he was already leaving with a bad taste in his mouth.

More quotes tomorrow from Eriksson, Millen, Clarkson and Pitman

Off to Ashton Gate - All change

A last minute change for this weekend's game.

On Tuesday I was asked to cover the Walsall/Yeovil clash up at the Bescot, but have just been informed that I'm no needed in Bristol to watch City play Norwich.

It will be good to get along to Ashton Gate for the first time this season and I'm looking forward to seeing Paul Lambert's high flying Canaries.

I interviewed Lambert a few times when he was in charge of Wycombe and the guy is a typical dry humoured Scot who had an excellent reputation as a player, turning out in over four hundred games for St. Mirren and Celtic while also serving Borussia Dortmund with distinction.

Lambert was capped by Scotland 40 times and - after cutting his managerial teeth at Livingston and Wycombe - joined Colchester briefly before taking Norwich up as League One champions last season.

It looks as though they haven't lost momentum if the early season results are anything to go by as they are tucked in behind QPR and Cardiff at the right end of the table.

City on the other hand are playing well below their best and don't seem to have recovered from Steve Coppell's shock resignation at the start of the season.

Keith Millen took over and the heat is now on despite being given the manager's job by the board.

One win - away from home at Scunthorpe - in isn't quite the start that the Bristol fans had envisaged when they parted company with Gary Johnson towards the end of last season.

At the time,  I remember thinking that maybe everyone was expecting too much, too quickly from Johnson. He had taken them from the foot of League One to a defeat in the Championship Play-Off Final and - in my humble opinion - deserved full backing from the board despite a below par showing last term.

It would indeed be ironic if Johnson were to take Posh - sitting pretty in fifth spot in League One - back up to the Championship at the first attempt while City passed them going in the other direction.

But of course the season is still young and anything can happen. Ask Norwich fans who saw their side thumped 7-1 on the opening day last season by a Colchester side managed by, er, Paul Lambert!

A mixed first weekend for the clubs on my ‘patch’ – Mixed Bag

I was at Swindon to watch last year’s play-off finalists lose at home to Brighton while the two Bristol clubs both lost by three goals; Rovers at Peterborough and City at home to Millwall. Meanwhile Northampton fell to Torquay after a long coach journey to the south coast in holiday traffic (I wouldn’t have fancied being on that bus on the return trip!) and Reading lost at home to Scunthorpe in the Championship.

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun

A link to The Sun's footy pages: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/

Oxford managed a goalless draw away to Burton on their return t League Two while Cheltenham managed a 1-1 draw at Gillingham.

At least Hereford and Wycombe managed to chalk up wins away at Crewe and at home to Morecambe respectively.

I’m off to watch Oxford play Bristol Rovers in the Carling Cup tomorrow and so will have splinters in my arse after sitting on the fence in the press box!

I managed to get along to see Oxford in their victorious play-off final win at Wembley and have to say that they looked better than a lot of the League Two sides I saw last season.