Bristol City fans’ panel by Will Collins (From Gazette Series)

Bristol City fans’ panel by Will Collins

10:58am Thursday 4th February 2010 in

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CITY went some way to extinguishing last Tuesday’s nightmare result against Cardiff City from fans’ memories by achieving a decent 0-0 draw at Gordon Strachan’s Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Whenever a team suffers such a horrendous result you always look to the next game to see if it sparks a reaction amongst players, or if the team capitulate further then you begin to question whether the manager still has the full support of his players.

In this instance it would appear to be a bit of both as City were certainly lucky to leave The Riverside with a point and that despite the home side playing over half an hour with just ten men after Barry Robson was sent off for a second bookable offence. Worryingly in that half hour period it was Boro and not City that looked the more likely to win the game.

Nevertheless this was a step in the right direction for City and keeping a clean sheet would’ve been a big bonus after conceding half a dozen in one game.

The big games keep coming though and February is a massive month, particularly the next two games at home to Coventry City on Saturday (3pm) and away to Watford next Tuesday (7.45pm). Both clubs currently lie just a few points behind City in The Championship table and therefore we cannot afford to concede ground to them and be dragged into the battle in the lower half of the table.

It was certainly a boost to see Coventry’s leading goalscorer Leon Best leave for Newcastle United on transfer deadline day and I’d like to see us go and attack the Sky Blues from the off as we did to such good effect in the home game against Preston two weeks ago which resulted in a 4-2 victory.

In January it has been frustrating once again see a couple of City’s most promising youngsters farmed out on loan. Firstly, Christian Ribeiro left for Colchester United having already been at Stockport County this season. He’s a Welsh under-21 international and a couple of years ago was linked with a move to Everton. With only five defenders currently in the squad and with our current right back Bradley Orr in pretty poor form (that goes for most of the defence in fact) I’m amazed Ribs hasn’t been given a chance.

Similarly, young striker John Akinde has always looked useful in his limited appearances in a red shirt but has now been sent to Brentford for yet more ‘first team experience’. Akinde is big and powerful and could be a good partner for Maynard, and surely he couldn’t do any worse than the wretched Saborio and Agyemang?

Do you agree with Will’s views? Have your say below.