City Chat: Signs of progress in two draws (From Gazette Series)

Bristol City fans' panel: Reaction to draws against Blackpool and Brighton in the Championship

7:00am Friday 8th March 2013 in Yate and Sodbury Sport By Will Collins

THE signs of progress at City under manager Sean O’Driscoll continued over the past week despite two goalless draws.

Whilst it may not have been pretty to watch, City ground out their first away point under O’Driscoll’s stewardship at Blackpool on Saturday.

The pitch was in awful condition as both teams struggled to play the ball on the floor and City can feel aggrieved that Steven Davies had a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside.

Then on Tuesday City put in a fine display against one of the in-form teams in the league – Brighton – at Ashton Gate. City’s performance was a lesson in organisation and discipline, and for the majority of the game – particularly the second half – we outplayed a team full of quality players.

Before the game I was not expecting a team that had recently beaten Hull and league leaders Cardiff to shut up shop in the second half and be content with a draw at the league’s bottom side.

But after City had so effectively stifled Brighton’s play in the first half, the visitors had no answer and no ‘plan B’.

Astonishingly, Brighton had no shots at goal in the entire game compared to City’s 13..

It was a timely performance as the run-in really hots-up with just 10 games left. It goes without saying that what City really need to stay up is wins, and we must convert these encouraging performances into results.

Middlesbrough are the visitors to Ashton Gate on Saturday (3pm) and present a good opportunity for three points in my opinion. They have struggled away from home this season, and have been in particularly poor form of late with their last 10 games reading: won 2, drawn 1, lost 7. In addition, City recorded a rare away win up at The Riverside back in November last year.

Our own away form is not the best so we have to make these home games count with just five left this season. We really need to be looking at winning four of them minimum, in my view. It’s certainly achievable given our recent home form; let’s hope we can keep it up.

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