Liam Manning had mixed feelings after Bristol City’s 1-0 defeat at Southampton, as the Robins put in an excellent first-half performance at St Mary’s but were unable to prove it as they were thwarted by a Kyle Walker-Peters moment of brilliance.
City frustrated the hosts for much of the opening 45 minutes and created some excellent opportunities for Tommy Conway, who planted a far post header over the crossbar and spurned a 1vs1 with Gavin Bazunu, while Mark Sykes was also denied by his Republic of Ireland teammate.
After keeping the Saints at bay, the crowd inside the stadium threatened to be frustrated by his lack of penetration, but Walker-Peters sliced off his left foot two minutes into the second half for a brilliant winning goal.
City weren’t as organised in terms of ball ownership or momentum after the break, they still created new chances when Harry Cornick stepped forward and lost possession, while Anis Mehmeti worked his way inside only to unleash a weak shot. Cornick also saw a decent penalty disallowed by referee Keith Stroud when his low cross hit Taylor Harwood-Bellis in the arm as he dived to block.
Manning was visibly deflated after the game, with a feeling of what could have been against one of the Championship promotion favourites. “Half by half, I think the first half the game plan worked, I thought we got success, I thought we frustrated them and restricted them to few chances while carrying a real threat the other way and still playing, it wasn’t just like a counter-attack, we had passage where we passed the ball quite well.
“We’ve obviously created some wonderful opportunities that, when you get into a position like this, with the way they play, you’re not going to create eight, nine, ten chances, so it’s about when you create them, you take advantage of make sure you take them. It’s obviously frustrating.
“Second half, a poor start to the half where we actually spoke about being on the front foot, taking it to them a little bit more, playing in their half as much as we can, but within two, three minutes it’s in the back of our net.
“But the most, when I look at it, the guys left everything out; you see they ran at the end, with Harry’s counter-attack, with Anis 1v1 in the box, we’re going to lose games but we have to give everything and we can’t consult the players tonight.
“There’s a lot of momentum in football, the first five to 10 minutes, you know they’re going to come out with the noise and get straight to the point and it’s about making sure you see through the phases, be resilient and supportive. And make sure you don’t reveal anything.
“If you look at it, we lost in a very high-quality moment but with mixed feelings at the moment. In the end, the ultimate is attitude, application, and trying to move the game plan.
“We had our heads in the corners, the goalkeeper made a wonderful save on the post and did well in the 1v1 and sometimes in the finish. We had some smart opportunities that we want to take advantage of. “
Manning discussed at Monday’s fan forum that City would look to target attacking players in the January window with the need for more goals in the squad and that it’s hard to walk away from a night like that – this highlights such a desire.
Against elite championship teams like Southampton, no team is likely to create as large a volume of chances as City do, so when that happens, there needs to be more trust and reliability in the final third.
But Manning is fully supportive of his punching arm and believes he and his team can find the right innovations that need to be made so that the Robins can take advantage in games like this.
“Elements, I would say yes,” when asked if missed opportunities reinforce the need for additions in January. “But I also think I’m excited and confident when I look at the offensive players we have. “They gave me, we can. They gave me confidence in Tommy, they gave me confidence in Belly, they gave me Anis, they gave me Andi, I think they gave us other people. Who can score goals and you can see that with the chances we created tonight.
“I think it’s now a case of doing the video work, analysing it, doing extra work on the grass when we’re able to and then, of course, in January it may be a case of seeing what we can do to compliment what we’ve already got. Don’t forget Nahki is on his way back as well, so hopefully we’ll see him in a few weeks.”
As Wells nears his return, fresh questions are being raised about the injury to Kal Naismith, who left the box in the second half after feeling his hamstring. The Scot missed a month from October to November with a calf problem and will now be evaluated as a Norwich City striker on Sunday.
This game will almost certainly force Manning to make changes, as Mark Sykes will also be replaced on the south coast due to fatigue and Jason Knight will return to do a lot of paintings, with both concerned about the Republic of Ireland’s foreign hiatus.
“Kal felt his hamstring, so we have to see how it goes, which is disappointing, but Sykesy is more tired,” Manning said.
“I have started to do the rival’s homework (for Norwich), but in terms of variety and team plan, there are still a few days left, so we are going to take a look, but we are going to want freshness, we are going to need energy, We are going to want other people to be able to go.
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