Bristol City 0 - West Bromwich Albion 0

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Ratings submitted so far: 9

Brendan Clegg:

Feels like a missed opportunity that one because having survived being as bad as I’ve seen us 30 years in the first half, we had enough chances and situations to win it.

Were we really that bad in the opening 45? I’d have to say yes… I cannot believe how bad we were and I’m used to being disappointed by us.

There was just nothing there. The 3-4-2-1 was narrow and we couldn’t string two passes together. We played quite a high line but didn’t pressure the ball so Bristol clipped balls in behind our wing backs and pulled us all over the place.

The attitude was over relaxed… so so casual and the chance we conceded via Palmer and them hitting the post was just one example of us strolling about and not seemingly taking the game seriously. Even in the immediate aftermath of that moment we did the same thing again.

Swift played like he’d never kicked a ball in his life… his timing, touch, judgement… everything was bad.

Wallace once again was playing like a very bad number 9 instead of a winger although we saw glimpses of what he might do out wide a couple of times. Mostly he just lost the ball back to goal.

BTA worked hard but his decision making was also really poor and, finally, what I found unforgivable was our total lack of desire or urgency to get people into the box or shoot. We had breaks but nobody gambled. It was negative garbage and we were lucky to be level.

2nd half we brightened up through effort and some shape tweaks although I’m amazed no subs were made, but the game swung in our favour when Maja came on and we went much more like a 3-5-2. His was brilliant in the pockets with BTA stretching them and gave us something Swift or Wallace couldn’t- looking after the ball and creating space to get us into attacking positions.

We hit the bar, should’ve scored but he slightly over hit a cross to Townsend and I think on another day he’d have won a penalty as he was clattered through on goal before any ball contact was made.

Corberan’s switch from ultra conservative to last 10 minutes of gung ho introducing Grady and Sarmiento possibly disrupted us a bit too much when on top and we missed BTA but they both looked lively. It did also leave us open to a sucker punch and we needed a big Palmer save at the death. Despite our 2nd half dominance I don’t recall their keeper making a stop. It’s a problem for us.

• Palmer - 6 Lucky with big error but then point saving save
• Semi - 6 Stretched at times but did enough.
• Kipre - 6 Just okay… some bad passing there
• Pieters - 5 Always a worry he’s not big enough and pace is a problem. Calm still.
• Furlong - 6 Good outlet for us.
• Yok - 5 Slow and leggy
• Molumby - 5 got caught a fair bit on the ball
• Phillips - 6 couple of decent moments but couldn’t influence it
• Wallace - 5 Struggling to influence anything
• BTA - 6 Effort but sometimes lacked quality. Looked good with Maja
• Swift - 4 Was he ill? Amazed he lasted beyond 20 mins he was so bad. Unlucky with the header and improved a bit after the break but had a shocker.

• Maja - 7 Link up play was really good and looked fitter. Looks better in the hole than up top. Really promising but should’ve found Townsend for a tap in.
• Mowatt - 6 Though this was a very tidy showing… kept it well and always wanted the ball. Much better than Chalobah.
• Townsend - 6 Gave us good balance having a natural left footer out there.
• Sarmiento - 6 Felt we needed him sooner. Did more in 10 than others in 80. Shape change made it harder for him but he still showed class and desire.
• Grady - 6 Involved and tricky.