Blues boss Paul Lambert says he won’t be switching his keepers for Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest, despite Bartosz Bialkowski’s error for Bristol City’s first goal on Wednesday.
Bialkowski was controversially dropped by former manager Paul Hurst earlier in the season 90 minutes prior to the home derby against Norwich City having made a number or mistakes in earlier games.
Lambert says he talked to the 31-year-old at training on Thursday: "I spoke to Bart yesterday and that was an honest mistake from a really top goalkeeper. There’s no blame attached. He tried, I think he just lost his bearings where he was with it, but he also had a really good save in the first half.
"I know the nature of the game, goalkeepers get magnified when they make mistakes and they get praise when they make great saves. They’re in a position where when mistakes happen they do get magnified, but I attach no blame to him at all.”
Lambert says he’s not one to make a hasty change of keepers when they’re going through a tough spell.
"They have to learn,” he continued. "Bart’s in his 30s so he’s not a young kid, he’s an international goalkeeper. He’s been one of the best keepers in the league for a long, long time.
"I’m not going to chastise somebody for what I think is an honest mistake. What happened before [under the previous manager], I can’t control it. His level has been great for us.
"I’ve got two really good goalkeepers here, they’re really neck and neck with each other. The goal was an honest mistake but his level since I’ve been in has been very good.”
He added: "I think goalkeeper is a very hard position because you’ve only got two lads that are competing for it.
"I think when Deano and Bart have been in the team at different times for one reason or another, you can’t keep beating somebody with a stick, take them in and out, you don’t get any consistency with it and you’ve got to try and get through certain periods of your career.
"The biggest compliment I can give the lads is that I’m loving working with them, I really enjoy working with them. I get frustrated when they don’t get wins because they’re playing ever so well. They know that themselves, which is important. But it’s a really good squad to work with and I really enjoy working with them.”
Bialkowski’s defenders, particularly his full-backs, have also come under fire for errors which have led to goals.
How does Lambert, who was frustrated that crosses which led to goals weren’t cut out against Bristol City, feel those mistakes can be cut out? "It comes from individuals. All the coaching in the world [won’t help that], that’s got to come from within and the lads know that. It’s just a basic error, that comes from within a player, an individual player.
"If you do that that’s half the battle. It’s the basics of the game and if you do the basics of the game everything else falls into place. If you don’t master that then it’s a tough gig.”
Lambert, who expressed particular frustration with the Robins’ second goal, dismissed suggestions that some of the goals conceded recently may have been down to his full-backs’ positioning.
"That had nothing to do with it, it was actually shutting somebody down in a one-v-one situation,” he added.
"That’s nothing to do with tactics, that’s nothing to do with positioning, that was stopping a cross from coming into the box and where you should have been, that’s what that is, stop the cross. Stop the source, if the ball doesn’t come into your box they don’t score.”