AFTER a near eight month wait, City finally won at home in the league this week, defeating Crawley Town 2-0 at Ashton Gate.

The result means City have now picked up seven points from their last three games, although curiously the performances in these games have really been no better than in games earlier in the season when we have lost. Since half-time at the Carlisle game a couple of weeks ago when assistant coach John Pemberton said the players were given “a few home truths”, we seem to have been more resilient and ruthless in our approach to games.

In last Saturday’s game against Oldham we probably deserved to lose but the defence held out when previously it has looked shaky. To Oldham’s credit I thought they looked one of the better sides we have faced this season.

Then on Tuesday night against Crawley, after a pretty dire first half, City took control of the second half and through work rate and pressure forced the visitors into making mistakes that led to our two goals. That man again, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, was the catalyst for victory when he out-muscled former City transfer target McFadzean to break through on goal and calmly finish in front of the East End.

Then in the last few minutes of the game following good work from debutant Osborne, Emmanuel-Thomas slotted the ball through for Bristolian youngster Bryan, who finished with aplomb to put the result beyond doubt.

Hopefully this win will give the players the shot of confidence they need when playing at Ashton Gate, which will be particularly useful as three of our next four games are at home – starting with an FA Cup first round tie against League Two Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday (3pm).

Dagenham have had an encouraging start to the season, lying just outside the play-off places. I’m sure they will come and have a real go at City and O’Driscoll will be keen not see a repeat of City’s abject defeat last month at Wycombe in the Football League Trophy.