City Chat: A good January transfer window for us (From Gazette Series)

Bristol City fans' panel by Will Collins

9:41am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Sport

THE final day of the January transfer window saw a late flurry of activity for City with want away striker Nicky Maynard finally leaving for West Ham for a fee believed to be around the £1.6 million mark.

It’s a good move for him, and I am happy we received some sort of fee as opposed to him walking for nothing in the summer.

The contracts of Lee Johnson and Nicky Hunt were also paid up and this can only be a good thing. With the arrivals of Pearson, Wood and Foster overall I feel it has been a good January for us.

City fell to their second successive league defeat away from home on Saturday, following a 1-0 loss at promotion chasing Reading.

But despite the defeat and Reading’s lofty league position City turned in a good display and should’ve really been rewarded with a share of the spoils.

Whereas I was very much disheartened after witnessing poor performances at Brighton and Coventry recently, Saturday’s display left me feeling encouraged and confident that we will push on up the table.

Whilst Reading probably created more clear cut chances during the game, City dominated the midfield and had several chances to score ourselves.

Quality in the final third does remain a problem for us, however things on that front do appear to be getting better with the introduction of Chris Wood.

Reading’s only goal of the game came following a penalty that was given against Louis Carey. If the penalty alone seemed to be a harsh decision then the subsequent red card given to Carey was ridiculous in my opinion.

Reading striker Roberts had his arms all over Carey and to me it looked like a 50/50 challenge with both players wrestling for the ball. David James saved the penalty kick but Roberts somehow managed to bundle home the rebound with hardly the most convincing of finishes.

Reading got another penalty late on, this one probably deserved. However, James made a world class save diving to his left and the score finished 1-0.

Hopefully the players’ confidence won’t have taken too much of a dip following this good performance ahead of Saturday’s home game against Leeds United (3pm). Another tough encounter against promotion hopefuls awaits, but our home form of late has been encouraging and I am confident we can get a result.

Do you agree with Will’s views? Have your say at gazetteseries.co.uk/sport