City falter at the Palace

On Saturday Bristol City faced one of their toughest away games to date, against a Crystal Palace team who were unbeaten in 14 matches going into the game. Realising the big task City faced I soon accepted a point would do nicely against a side completely rejuvenated under Neil Warnock.

In October his side were struggling at the other end of the table and a relegation battle looked likely. Now they have a great chance of securing a play off place, which creates even more competition against the top 10 teams all eyeing a top six finish. So in the circumstances a point would have been a great result for us as they would not have gained any ground on us, but this wasn’t to be the case.

Usually when City are playing I am watching them or listening to radio commentary of the match. But on Saturday, I had to settle for watching the scores on the TV, which was frustrating as I had no idea whether we were playing well or not. We soon fell behind to a Clinton Morrison goal which at the time sounded scrappy, and after seeing the highlights it was a poor goal to concede. Had Louis Carey not been injured we might have avoided it. Judging by the reporters’ comments it sounded an exciting game with chances at both ends but unfortunately we hadn’t found the net.

Our new signing Nick Carle was making his debut, playing just behind Enoch Showumni in a 4-4-1-1 formation which has worked well in the past. Judging by the reports it sounded as though he was having a good game, creating a few chances and nearly scoring himself with a looping header.

As the game wore on I became even more disappointed as West Brom were losing at home to Cardiff 3-1 and we were failing to capitalise on their mistake. As we pushed for an equaliser we left ourselves open in defence and eventually Palace grabbed a second five minutes from time. A free-kick into the box was misjudged by goalkeeper Adriano Basso and Hudson headed into an empty net.

The defeat was only our sixth of the season, which is still a fine record and the second best in the league behind Stoke City who have lost five. From the last two games we have only picked up one point which is disappointing, but we have already demonstrated this season we can bounce back from slip ups.

Next Saturday’s match against Blackpool is the perfect opportunity to put things right. The Seasiders were one of our promotion rivals last year in League One and they have settled in the Championship nicely, especially considering their transfer budget is not quite as large as other teams. Nevertheless this is a game we should expect to win if we want to still be challenging for promotion at the end of the season and Gary Johnson should have the players fired up and ready to go.

This time next week will see the January transfer window coming to an end which is sure to be exciting and hopefully by next week City may have a few new faces in the team help us push onwards and upwards.

ANDY DAVIES