Bristol City fan in peace here. I wrote this out Friday night but have only just been accepted to post so I'll just copy and paste it rather than change all the tenses so forgive me. Also, a lot of it feels fairly insignificant now, but I wrote the bloody thing out so am going to post it regardless.
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I'm gonna set my stall out early... I didn't go tonight, so maybe all my comments will be taken with a pinch of salt and if so, I don't blame you. I'm always dubious of those that watch it on the telly. But the two times I've been to Bramall Lane we've lost 3-0 and 2-0 and didn't fancy a Friday night trip back home after coming up to Sheffield three weeks ago to see us nick a point against your city counterparts. (Little one for you - we sang "Just like Bristol, your city is red" for a while. They didn't like that much.)
First and foremost - well played tonight. You guys absolutely battered us and to come away with anything from the game, let alone 3 points, is daylight (well, Friday night) robbery. If it was the other way around I'd be leaving the ground scratching my head how we didn't win. A hell of a lot of luck from you hitting the woodwork numerous times; a genuine top class save from Fielding in the first half that I think any keeper in the world would be happy to make; and a couple of last ditch challenges and blocks. Once you got the equaliser I felt it was only a matter of time before you got the 2nd and then fully expected a 3-1 home win.
And then Fleck made a reckless challenge and it was a different game. I'm not gonna go into it too much because it's obviously a contentious one. But it looked bad from the telly and on all the replays. I'm all for a physical game but on another day that could break a leg IMO. Also, to those who don't know him - presumably all of you, Korey Smith isn't the sort of player to hobble off without it being bad. He's a trooper that has played through injury numerous times. It looks likely to be a contact one and just bruising apparently, so probably only a couple of weeks off like some of you intimated, but if he could have played on, he would. And the injury to a player doesn't classify a red or not. For me it was deserving, but obviously I'm biased.
I'd say from there, Wilder cost you a point. We've struggled this season against teams that sit in and defend. Obviously at home, you don't want to do that. But as soon as you continued to attack us, the opportunity was always going to come and Flint has a habit of winning games late for us right now. The big difference between us this year and last, is we're now winning games in the final ten, not losing them. We weren't at our best tonight, far from it. LJ wasn't happy at full time but ultimately we won and we had patches of nice football in the middle third and scored a couple of good goals as a result of some pretty solid refereeing to give the advantages.
On another day, we'd have been 4-0 down by half time, Fleck probably wouldn't have made the challenge. It would have been a cricket score and we'd be questioning whether this was the beginning of a fall away with all of our league and cup games taking its toll. Instead, we got fortunate and can come away with 3 points. I can't talk for the Wolves game as I wasn't there, but your lot are the best footballing side I've seen this season - much better than the soul-selling dragon-sh*ggers across the bridge; and even with Coutts out, you look solid. Clarke is in the form of his life and Wilder is a top coach. I can see us both in the play offs come the end of the season, possibly us just outside as I fear the injuries we're picking up and the young side we have may mean that we get caught out as we start to tire towards the tail end of the season. I hope I'm wrong.
You're a very similar side in style and squad to us. A bit older in general, but a fairly youthful squad with no real superstars or household names, but a squad that plays for each other, has good movement and attacks well. You'll be there or thereabouts come May, no doubt about it.
I'm sure now is not the time for rational opinions on your end as it's a bloody frustrating one for you, and I've seen some of you say we're the worst side you've seen apart from Hull and others say we're one of the best. I guess it's down to opinion but I'd say we're a very good midtable side that underperformed last year and is overperforming this year. But then I'd have said the same about Huddersfield last year and look how they've ended up.
Good luck for the rest of the season. Maybe the final day will be a preview of the Play Off final a few weeks later.
