Bristol City

David Pottier
Fan writer

Image source, Shutterstock

Bristol City made main news bulletins and even drew comment in the New York Times at the weekend. This, though, was not because they bounced back from a 5-0 home drubbing by Derby with a 3-2 win at the MKM Stadium to end Hull's recent good form.

That worldwide attention came because the second half of the game saw a squirrel invade the pitch not once, but twice! The furry creature evaded capture on numerous occasions before play could restart, they delay totalling eight minutes.

It would have been harsh on City, who were leading 3-1 at the time before conceding a second, had the home team scored an undeserved equaliser during the 10 minutes of added time.

City had gone into the game at the end of a troubled week with talk of players feeling demotivated by the transfer out of popular dressing room colleagues Zak Vyner and Anis Mehmeti.

Such rumours only fanned the flames of ire directed towards the club hierarchy with claims they lacked ambition and had written off this season even though the play-offs remain a possibility.

When City went a goal down after a bright opening, the doom-mongers amongst the fan base were poised at their keyboards ready to heap on further criticism through the various social media platforms.

But City hit back with two goals before the break and made the game safe with a third within three minutes of the restart. The third goal was the pick of the three as the hardworking Scott Twine produced a defence-splitting pass that allowed Emil Riis to fire home his 11th goal of the season.

The Robins could not relax in the final phase of the game as an uncharacteristic error by goalkeeper Rajek Vitek gifted the Tigers a second goal but they were helped in protecting that lead when Joe Williams came on as a substitute following his long injury lay-off. He showed enough in the 20 minutes he was on that if he can remain fit, he will offer the team a positive level of aggression in midfield.

With 15 games remaining, the maths dictates that City have to win eight to have a realistic chance of sneaking into sixth like they did last season. It is feasible that exceeding last season's points total [68] could still see them fall short.

Their next league match is on Tuesday 17 February when Wrexham come to Ashton Gate. It is a must-win game which would see City leapfrog the mid-Wales side on the table.

Before then City have a 'should win' FA Cup tie at Port Vale. Expect wholesale team changes from coach Struber for that one.

Barring Luke McNally, still out for a now indefinite period, the Austrian has a full squad to select from which should include another long-term injury returnee, Max Bird.

This season is far from over!

You can hear more from David Pottier on the Forever Bristol City podcast., external

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Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber says he was pleased with the reaction his side showed in their 3-2 win at Hull City.

The Robins went into the trip to Humberside having been thrashed 5-0 at home by Derby County last week.

But the Robins got an impressive win at the MKM Stadium to move within a point off the play-off places.

"We know what we had a week ago and I think today was reaction time and the boys showed a really good face against a team that had a really big momentum and many, many wins," he told BBC Radio Bristol:

"The win and the performance was on a really high level otherwise you could not win here.

"The resilience was on a really high level, and this is something that you need in the Championship, you need in the end front foot style players who are always ready to press high, but also players that are smart and understand what the game needs.

"In the end our box defending was great and to bring the points home in this way was not easy, but we did it."

Hull City's five-match unbeaten Championship run has taken them up to third place in the table, four points outside the automatic promotion places.

The Tigers will be without forward Yu Hirakawa for the visit of Bristol City as he will not be allowed to play against his parent club who themselves are four points short of the play-off places.

• Hull City have won just one of their past 15 league games against Bristol City (D6 L8), a 2-1 home win in July 2022.

• Following their 4-2 win in August, Bristol City are looking to do the league double over Hull for just the second time in the 21st century, the first coming in the 2019-20 campaign.

• Hull City have lost just one of their past 11 league games (W8 D2), with the Tigers' eight wins the most of any Championship side since the start of this run in December.

• No side have kept more clean sheets in the Championship than Bristol City this season (11). However, at the other end the Robins have failed to score in four of their past five games.

• No player has been involved in more Championship goals this season than Hull's Oliver McBurnie (16 – 11 goals, 5 assists). It is also his second best return in an English league campaign, after 2018-19 (22 goals, 4 assists).

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Bristol City need to show a "massive reaction" to their 5-0 thrashing by Derby when they travel to Hull on Saturday, says defender Ross McCrorie.

The loss was Bristol City's biggest defeat at home since 2010 and leaves them 10th in the Championship table.

Hull, meanwhile, are flying high in third, 11 points ahead of the Robins.

"It'll be difficult but we just need to be honest, it needs to be a massive reaction," McCrorie told BBC Radio Bristol.

Bristol City have won only once in their past five games and also lost 10 players through the January transfer window, bringing six in.

Yet McCrorie said he believes the club have the players to push on and challenge for the top six.

"We've lost big players, we've lost a lot of players this window which is not ideal but I always look on the positives - we brought in top quality players," he said.

"We just had a sticky patch in January, it's not been ideal, we wanted to put on a bit of form and start picking up results because a lot of teams are starting to pull away so we just need to concentrate on ourselves, get our house in order and start to pick up three points every week."

Ed Hadwin
BBC Radio Bristol

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Bristol City fans have certainly been through a proper emotional rollercoaster over this transfer window.

It all started relatively well, with Sam Morsy and George Earthy arriving early, while a number of senior players who have not been able to make a big impact on the team leaving to make space in the squad.

But the elephant in the room was the contract situations of two of their key players, Anis Mehmeti and Zac Vyner. Both of their deals were finishing in the summer, and despite the club offering what they characterised as very good offers, they had not signed them.

So it was no real surprise when both left for Championship rivals, with City earning about £5m in transfer fees but losing arguably their two most important players.

Cue huge levels of frustration and angst from City fans. Their departures played into a narrative that the club continues to sell their best players (Adam Webster, Josh Brownhill, Bobby Reid, Antoine Semenyo and Alex Scott to name just a few in recent years) which is why they continually fall short of their goal of reaching the Premier League.

This season in particular seems like a great chance for teams like City to finally have a real go, with the very top teams in the Championship not quite reaching the peak of some in previous seasons.

To see rivals significantly strengthen, while their club appears to be getting weaker sparked some real anger. That was only made worse by some poor recent performances, topped off by their 5-0 hammering by Derby County, which left a lot of supporters looking for the club to prove they had not just given up on this season.

Middlesbrough's Delano Burgzorg arrived on loan to bolster their attacking options, and on deadline day, they signed two very interesting players. Tomi Horvat, a Slovenian international midfielder with a lovely left foot, came from Sturm Graz, while young Swedish defender Noah Eile moved to Ashton Gate from MLS side New York Red Bulls with a reputation as an impressive ball-playing centre-back.

Both look to be very good players who could add significantly to the team this season and for the next few years. But neither has played in the Championship before, and while the hope is they will hit the ground running, it might take a bit of time to adjust to the pace and physicality.

So, have City swapped their best chance of winning now for the long-term future of the team? We will have to wait and see.

David Pottier
Fan writer

Image source, Shutterstock

Last weekend was not a good one for Bristol City.

The club approached the Friday night game against Derby County knowing a win would move them into the top six, if only overnight until Saturday's games had been completed.

It was a bad day at the office as the Rams recorded an emphatic 5-0 victory to propel themselves into sixth, leapfrogging City in the table.

Every Derby goal came from basic defensive failures, poor positioning, slow reactions and naive decision-making.

John Eustace's side did not need to do anything spectacular - they simply executed the fundamentals far better than we did.

The fact of the matter is that City's form has dropped off significantly since the last time they conceded five which was at Stoke at the start of November. The 18 games, including that reverse, have yielded only 21 points which is in stark contrast to the opening 12 games where 22 points were gained.

Has Struber's style been found out? Are we too easy to play against? No matter, the Austrian has the support of the fanbase whose discontent is aimed in another direction.

In the first half of the previous weekend's game against Sheffield Wednesday, chants of "sack the board" came from a small section of the crowd. Such words have not been heard at Ashton Gate for decades.

There is no 'board' in the literal sense as this club is owned by one man, Steve Lansdown. Even though his son carries the title of chairman, Steve has the final say on everything. As he reminds the fans, perhaps too often in their eyes, why shouldn't he as he pays the bills!

Why were the fans reacting in this negative way?

Never mind looking at the progress made by the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford, these fans see careful stewardship taking precedence over being overly ambitious.

This transfer window has seen the club sell or loan first-team squad members to play-off rivals. There is a sound business case for this, namely getting money for players now who could walk out the door for nothing in the summer when their contracts run out [Mehmeti, Vyner] or not featuring in the coach's plans [Hirakawa].

In all, 10 players have exited the club in January and, with the last-ditch signings of Tomi Horvat and Noah Eile as the window slammed shut, six have come in. Has it been a good window? That is open to question - all the players have something to offer but I don't think anyone can say the squad is stronger.

Derby were in a financial mess three years ago but boasted a strike force of Patrick Agyemang, Ben Brereton Diaz and Rhian Brewster. Any of those would walk straight into City's offensive positions.

This weekend's opposition, Hull City, have had financial issues such that they are currently under a transfer embargo. The constraints of that are so loose that they have made a plethora of signings in the window as they seek to consolidate their current top-six placing. These were a mix of free agents and loans with the latter including Lewis Koumas and Toby Collyer from Liverpool and Manchester United, respectively.

It baffles me why City have ignored the loan market at this time.

The fact is that the vocal minority were inferring what the majority are thinking: When compared to other clubs aiming for promotion/play-offs, who recruited for the here and now in an attempt to ensure good results, we appear to have not.

The 'noise' of that minority did enough to prompt Lansdown to make himself available for an interview with Radio Bristol prior to Friday's game and to say that it was an error of judgement would be an understatement.

What the owner had to say was heard by many fans on their way to the game alongside those who chose to stay at home on a very wet night and on a day when traffic issues in the Greater Bristol area were horrendous.

For me, it seemed to create an air of despondency among the crowd which seemed to spread on to the pitch. Indeed, if the words of the television commentator are to be believed, Struber had to explain to the players the rationale behind selling popular team-mate and star man Mehmeti during a promotion challenge.

There was talk of investment from outside parties but fans were reminded by Steve that "I pay the cheques" and we had a recruitment department that was "second to none" - two comments that provoked ire in the eyes of some fans I am sure!

Can City bridge the four-point gap between themselves and sixth?

The games coming up against the Tigers and Wrexham will have a bearing on that and sandwiched between those two fixtures is a tricky FA Cup fourth-round tie against Port Vale. City's form right now suggests a cup upset could be on the cards.

You can hear more from David Pottier on the Forever Bristol City podcast., external

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Bristol City striker Fally Mayulu has left the club after signing for Portuguese side FC Arouca.

The 23-year-old Frenchman scored twice in 28 appearances for the Robins after moving to the Championship side from Rapid Vienna for an undisclosed fee in July 2024.

City have not disclosed whether the side from the Portuguese top flight have paid a fee for Mayulu, who still had more than two-and-a-half years left on his deal at Ashton Gate.

Having scored twice in his first three appearances for City, Mayulu did not manage another goal and was loaned out to Sturm Graz a year ago.

He has made 10 Championship appearances this season, nine of them as a substitute.

Image source, Getty Images

Today is the final chance of the season for your Championship team to do transfer business.

The window closes at 19:00 GMT, meaning teams - and fans - can avoid the usual late-night transfer scramble.

It has already been a busy window - for some teams anyway - but whether it turns out to be a day of transfer action or a pretty quiet one for your club, you will be able to keep across it all on BBC Sport.

Follow our live text coverage throughout the day here

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Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber said he hopes the club hierarchy supports his team by making another signing before the transfer deadline window closes on Monday.

Struber has brought in four players so far, with Sam Morsy and Seb Naylor both signing permanent deals and George Earthy and Delano Burgzorg arriving on loan.

But speaking following his side's 5-0 thrashing at home to Derby, Struber said he did not know whether another deal would be done but remained hopeful.

"I don't know what's going on, I hope we can do something," he told BBC Radio Bristol.

"We have tomorrow [Saturday], Sunday and Monday time to bring one or other player in, we should do it and I hope the club support my team in this direction."

Struber was not able to confirm whether centre-back Zak Vyner would remain at the club, after being linked with a move to Wrexham, but said they would need to replace him him if so.

"I have no final information right now, we will see how this will go," he added.

"We know that Zak Vyner is for us a really important player and when he would move to a different club then it's important that we find a replacement."

Image source, PA Media

Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber said the 5-0 loss to Derby was "far away" from the team that he knows.

The defeat was the Robins' biggest league loss at home since January 2010 and saw them drop two places to ninth in the table.

"In all aspects it was not really the day to control or to realise a good performance," Struber told BBC Radio Bristol.

"In all aspects it was nothing. We have to be honest it was not our standard. It was a game far away from the Bristol City team that I know.

"It's the first time that I would say we come completely under the bus and under the wheels with the energy from them, with the physical power from them. We were not ready and create the resilience against a team like that.

"This was not the level you need against Derby, and also the body language - I must say this was far away."

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Gerhard Struber says Bristol City will need to be wary of Derby's development when they meet at Ashton Gate on Friday night (20:00 GMT).

The Rams picked up their first point of the season as they grabbed a late 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at Pride Park in August, but have climbed the table to sit a point behind the Robins on the fringe of the play-off places.

Struber told BBC Radio Bristol: "Derby showed the past few months really good development, very clear, very pragmatic, top in transitions, in counter-pressing. It's very interesting to watch.

"They have improved many things [since we last played them], especially their directness.

"We have to be on the highest level of pressing. In our transitions we have to be sharp and clear, very compact - it's super important, especially against a team with an approach like that."

Defender Rob Atkinson will miss the game with an ankle injury which could rule him out for a fortnight, and Struber said: "He's a really big one for our success. He's big in aerial duels and super reliable, in set-pieces he's really helpful."

The Austrian however revealed midfielder Joe Williams could be involved after his own ankle injury, while Max Bird might be back in time to face Port Vale in the FA Cup fourth round on 14 February.

Struber expects some surprises in the final three months of the Championship campaign but is hoping the Robins can achieve a finish which "makes everyone really happy".

He said: "In the end we will see some surprises in this league, I am convinced about it, especially what's going on behind us.

"We have all the power in our team, in our performance, every game we want to bring out the best possible.

"In the end the table will hopefully look in a direction which makes everyone really happy."

Sheffield United have joined Blackburn and Bristol City in the hunt for Barnsley winger Reyes Cleary, 21. (Sheffield Star, external)

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Friday's gossip column here.