Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson felt his side were a little bit unlucky not to take something from their 1-0 defeat to the Blues at Ashton Gate following what he believed as a very tight match.

Nathan Broadhead’s 16th-minute goal was enough to see the Blues to the three points and their fifth win out of six on the road in the Championship this season.

“I think we were a little bit unlucky tonight, I think we’ve played well. I can’t ask a lot more of the players in terms of how they approached the game,” Pearson, who was in the running to become Town boss in 2006, said afterwards.

“I think we started the game really well, you can see how they’re a good side. I think it was a very tight game of football, I don’t think there was too much in the game.

“I’m a bit disappointed with the goal that we conceded just based on the fact that it came out of nothing, really.

“But when you’ve played against sides who are on a really good run themselves, those key moments in terms of taking chances, it was just a really positive performance from both sides, a really good game of football.

“We were a bit unlucky, but having said that, both sides had lots of opportunities or created dangerous opportunities.”

He added: “When you’re playing in really tight games against good sides, obviously you’ve got to be there in the moment to take those chances.

“We’ve created pressure on a side who are doing exceptionally well in the league. They’ve carried their momentum forward, you can see that they are a very compact group of people in terms of not just the team but the team behind the team.

“They’ve got a positive atmosphere going, and you can see that. But I think they’ll be quite happy to go away tonight with the three points because they’ll know they’ve been in a game.

“If they say anything other than that then they’re pulling the wool over people’s eyes personally, because I think we stretched them right to the limit. And we put them under pressure like a lot of sides haven’t done this season.”

Pearson, who laughed ruefully when asked how Harry Cornick’s effort which struck the post, then Vaclav Hladky didn’t cross the line - “I’ve got no idea!” - in the second half was asked what he made of Town.

“I can see why they’re up there, and it’s not just about performances, it’s about atmosphere, and I can see why they’re in a good run,” he said.

“They’ve got some good players, of course. It will interesting to see whether they can sustain it for the whole of the season but I don’t look at it in terms of ‘the best side’ or stuff like that.

“I think they are a very competent team, I think they play with a lot of togetherness, which I think is very important and on top of that they’ve got some real match winners in the side. A good side, but a long way to go.”

Photo: TWTD

bobble added 05:09 - Oct 26 a very handy little win for us
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hello66 added 06:50 - Oct 26 See you on March 5th … we will see how your team plays, not in front of 3,000 ITFC fans but a full house ! ….. looking forward to this one now !
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Saxonblue74 added 07:06 - Oct 26 A fair assessment. Yes, they put us under pressure in the second half but on another day we'd have been out of site by then. Also feel we were playing 2 opponents, BC and the appalling Ref!
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Umros added 07:28 - Oct 26 Seems an assessment with a sour grapes undertone to me, no real genuine praise for us, suggesting we won’t last the season. Well I wasn’t I pressed with them, little quality on display, no football played and somehow managed to avoid a booking. Hooofff!
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SpiritOfJohn added 07:30 - Oct 26 It shows how far we've come in a short space of time when an experienced opposition manager is clearly pleased to have been competitive against us, even after they just lost at home without troubling the scoresheet!
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muhrensleftfoot added 07:54 - Oct 26 A fair assessment by Pearson. I don't think there's any sour grapes, but he's under a bit of pressure now. They had the better of the first 5 minutes and the last 10 minutes, but otherwise we were the better team, despite not being at our absolute best. Had Morsy's strike gone in, then I think it would have been a bit less anxious at the end with a 2 goal cushion

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MK1 added 09:03 - Oct 26 That's fair. Not our best, but that is the sign of a good team. Winning when not at your best gets you places.
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ArnieM added 09:31 - Oct 26 Not sure why he should think the Town staff would feel Bristol wasn’t a tough game. McKenna said as much pre game. One thing ITFC staff and the players have is respect for all opponents and humility.
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virginblue added 09:51 - Oct 26 Whoever thinks that Bristol City didn’t pay football and hoofed it must have spent the night in the pub.
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BobbyBell added 10:02 - Oct 26 A lot of games have been close and we haven't really played a poor team yet. Even Wednesday gave us a game before their slump started. The point is that we are winning whether it's 1-0 or 3-2 or 4-3, we are playing some awesome football and scoring some amazing goals. Plymouth won't be easy either but as long as we keep playing the McKenna way the points will keep coming.

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Bert added 10:18 - Oct 26 He is right about most aspects because last night we were, as he said, competent. What he didn’t see was our entertaining, sizzling, beautiful passing play that we know epitomises our team. Yes, we were fortunate with the clearance from the line but they were fortunate we didn’t score two or three ……… and the referee was a tad unfair with our four bookings when they should have had two.

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Churchmans_crate added 10:30 - Oct 26 that seems like a fair assessment to me, too. We do not need, and should not expect, every opposition manager to be fawning over how brilliant Ipswich are. We were very good for most of the first half, and City pegged us back in the second, but without making many real clear-cut chances. Pearson is famous for giving serious, level-headed, and considered responses in press conferences and interviews.

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Nigeglos added 13:54 - Oct 26 12 games played and a goal difference of 13. Few games have not been really tight but the incredible thing is to keep coming out on top, even if that is by the odd goal. It's going back a while but when we reached the prem before, the most common score line and lots of them, 2-1.
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Europablue added 13:56 - Oct 26 I remember when we played QPR (who were supposed to be the league whipping boys) how tough it is to beat even the supposedly poor teams. Then we played Cardiff who went 2 nil up against us. The difference between the sides was clear when Bristol tried to play like us and it didn't work for them. We played poorly without having a disaster and we were still better than a decent side away from home. They were unlucky not to score on one occasion and we were unlucky not to add one or more goals. 1-0 is always a dangerous scoreline regardless of how well you are playing because it only takes one freak deflection or other bad luck to lose 2 points.

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