Winger Ryan Fraser has revealed that his 86th minute equaliser during Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with Bristol City owed much to work on the training ground with assistant manager Terry Connor.

Fraser (pictured above scoring the goal) broke into the box and slammed Freddie Sears’s low right-wing cross into the net to level.

“We’ve been doing it all week,” Fraser said after the match. “TC has been running it into us about running across the six-yard box. I never do it, he told me to do it and it’s got me a goal, which is really nice.

“Maybe three or four days this week he’s been getting us to run in the six-yard box with different movements and things like that and today, [it was] somewhere in the back of my mind, I’ve done it and it got us a goal. Searsy’s ball was perfect and it was good to score.”

Regarding the game overall, Fraser added: “You can look at it both ways. We didn’t start off too well but we came into the game and then dominated it, we got Chambo’s goal and we got there and felt ‘Right, this is us’.

“They then got their two quick goals and it put a downer on it, but we showed some character to get the goal at the end. They sat back and made it hard for us and we kept plugging away.

“At half-time we said we knew we’d made a slow start but about 10 or 15 minutes in we had dominated the game and they couldn’t get out their half. We were playing some very good football.

“We wanted to go out in the second half and play the way we did at the end of the first, we did that and got the goal but we lost that little bit of belief and they got their goals.”

The Scotland U21 international says the Robins’ first goal was impossible for keeper Dean Gerken to stop: “I was right behind it and the amount of deflections it took I felt sorry for Gerks because he could do nothing about it.

“It’s one of those bits of bad luck and the second was disappointing too, but we’ll look at them and see where we go.”

The Blues have dropped to seventh having been top at the end of August but Fraser points out that it’s only goal difference which separates Town and Reading in third.

“Third to seventh are on the same amount of points and if we go to Blackburn and get three points we’re right up there going into the international break,” the on-loan AFC Bournemouth man continued.

“We’re going to have a big week of training now, we’ve had Tuesday-Saturday most weeks this season and haven’t been able to focus on the game ahead, but now we have that time.

“It’s Saturday-Tuesday and you don’t feel like you have time to focus on the next game, you have one day maybe to focus on the next game and it’s not great.

“We’re going to have five or six days of hard graft training now to get it into our heads how we’re going to play so we’ll be nice and fresh.”

Meanwhile, it’s emerged that Fraser wasn't eligible to win the Football League Young Player of the Month award he picked up for August, at least not under the criteria outlined by the Football League when he won it.

The story announcing that he had won the award on their website earlier this month said: “To be eligible the player must be either under 21 years of age or be playing in the season during which he turns 21.”

Fraser, however, was 21 in February. The Football League, who have denied any wrong-doing and have no plans to reclaim the award, subsequently amended the story to the vaguer “young player who has made the most significant contribution and impact in first-team football”.

Elsewhere, the Blues’ U21s are in action away against Huddersfield Town at their PPG Canalside training ground this afternoon (KO 1pm).

Photo: Action Images

wkj added 07:25 - Sep 28 Lad is definite early candidate for player of the season for me. Busy; battling; fast and intelligent. It's just a shame that were shipping in silly goals as it really does take the shine off of some nice football that Fraser has shown
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cats_whiskers added 08:15 - Sep 28 His attitude is spot on, especially as this just a loan deal McGoldrick and especially Murphy could do with some extra sessions as how to score as Ryan Fraser certainly doesn't make it hard work like those two do this season.
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nbsiyag added 09:15 - Sep 28 You can also add that the second goal came about because Jonathan Douglas managed to get forward with the ball for the only time in the match.
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muccletonjoe added 10:06 - Sep 28 The emphasis should be on 'if' we beat Blackburn on Saturday, we failed to do it last season when a play off place was at stake. There are issues with mm regular 11 and they are not being addressed
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gippeswyk added 11:25 - Sep 28 Hopefully with Bru back and soon to be joined by Bishop, we can supply the strikers and get them scoring again. At the moment Sears and McG are having to come so far back to get the ball. Whether a more attacking midfield with AMN and Fraser on the wings will leave our shaky defence even more exposes (aka Reading) is a worry. The back 4 we put out against Man U did really well and I hope Parr, Yorwerth, Emmanuel and Piotr, and of course Bart, get more chances to show they are more than capable. A good win against Blackburn could help us regain our confidence because the hard work and battling mentality is certainly there.

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Ryorry added 12:28 - Sep 28 Nice one Ryan and TC, good to see El Tel getting well justified praise for his superb coaching.
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battyblue added 13:12 - Sep 28 well done Ryan keep up the good work. PS.what do Mick and the defenders do? sit and watch with an ice cream on the touch line.
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yorksblue added 13:21 - Sep 28 Must do. However, we mustn't criticise his beloved back 4 and GK
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Kesgraveblue57 added 15:07 - Sep 28 Didn't work for me Ryan A very poor result on Saturday nothing to sing about whatsoever The defence was in adequate with senior from players taken the main responsibility for being in adequate we have to get real here folks something has to be done at the back how many people have said Chambers is not right for back I would never criticise MM for what he's done for the club we all know the position we were in when he took over One hell effort on his part to get it out of that trouble but and there always is a but The current back for you never get your promotion

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Superblue95 added 15:26 - Sep 28 Just as well TC's training sessions are reaping dividends and getting us goals as we will need plenty of them with our defence near shambolic this season
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alexsmith111 added 18:33 - Sep 28 time for defensive drill this week then boys!! Get connor with the goalkeepers as well
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hinchers1066 added 19:36 - Sep 28 When oh when is MM going to wake up and smell the coffee!!!! Chambo is not a right back and every manager/coach in this division knows it including Steve Cotterill . Add that to Smith continuing to play out of position and we are defensively inept. Niles, Fraser, Mcgoldrick, Sears, Pitman et al will never be able to score more goals than we concede. I have stated before that any successful team has to have a good spine, and that starts from the back. Everybody on this site has been screaming at MM to address the right back situation and I really do feel for Chambo sitting in the dressing room prior to kick off knowing full well that he will be the target of almost every attack in the next 90 minutes. MM collected a tidy sum for keeping ITFC in this league by, you guessed it sorting out the defence. I may be stating the obvious, but is it not our defence that is in need of serious looking at. Oh I forgot there NO right backs out there worthy of inclusion in the team at a price we can afford, or for that matter an attacking midfielder. Rant over, support dwindling Bye!!!!!

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ozzie added 20:27 - Sep 28 If you look at our goal difference now and think if we keep to concede goals at the rate we are we will be lucky to have +1 by Christmas, we have a right back so just play him, he wont get game time unless he is played. Also I just cannot wait until we have another midfielder fit to play, I was livid to see the ball played backwards from the half way line when we were chasing the game, also on that note ,we played every ball into the box bar 1 in the air, well we scored from the one at a low level , so I do hope that it is taken on board for the next game, all in all as too many people have stated the spine of the team is the start of something good, ours at the moment isn't starting or looking good.

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Cloddyseedbed added 20:45 - Sep 28 At the start of the season I was pleasantly surprised that a different playing approach was being adopted this year with the inclusion of pacey attack minded wingers and Bru in midfield. It didn't take long though and an injury to Bru to resort to type and the dire hoof ball from defence to attack. Where I might add it doesn't stay long and is normally in the oppositions possession within seconds. How long have we all been on about the right back position, 2 seasons +? Our defence was doomed when Berra was signed as we had 3 central defenders for 2 places and none of the 3 are allowed to be dropped. I'm not a Berra fan personally I feel he's all arms, clumsey and his only outlet is hoof. Poor old Tommy had to play out of position and it's not helped his game and as for Chambers, he's played out of position so long now I'm not sure he is capable of being a force back in the middle either. Midfield is also a problem without Bru and Bishop as nobody can take the ball off the defenders and create anything for the attackers. What the hell are our attackers supposed to do with high balls being pinged at them all game. Come on Town, were better than this and it's getting boring again as we have better players but there not being used or desperately found wanting being played out of position. I feel sorry for the players and starting to get angry with the management. As a supporter I'm embarrassed to watch football played this way and I was of the opinion at the start of the season we would not witness another seasons football like last year, AERIAL BOMBARDMENT! You can keep it, that's not football.

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brittaniaman added 20:56 - Sep 28 When one looks on the back of the programme, the size of our squad it is huge compared with other teams ???? our total of players 34 compared to Bristol city 21 even Birmingham have far less players than us ??? YET MM, keeps picking from the same few wether they are in form or not !!!! the players are there to put round pegs in round holes but it his way or no way

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dannyrr added 18:27 - Sep 29 Ryan's goal came from the best bit of football at the game on Saturday. We are always going to struggle as we are leaking goals. The wing backs seem to get beaten too easily. We don't have an outstanding keeper that any other team would be happy to have. I don't know if it's an issue with what we have or are they not receiving the right level of training. Today goalkeepers are expected to defend and be a sweeper. Gone are the days they stay on their line. They are expected to react and get out to clear. I felt that even though the defender slipped in front of goal at the Brighton game the keeper should've reacted and sprinted out to clear with his feet instead of watching it roll across the front of his area. He might not have made it but I think I'd rather see him try than left standing with no options. Let's get back to a quality defensive back four that exudes confidence throughout the rest of the team.

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