Bristol City boss reflects on a Jekyll and Hyde international break ahead of trip to Blackburn

Liam Manning has said that the recent international break has been a combination of beneficial and frustrating on the back of Bristol City being thumped 3-0 at Derby County last time out.

The Robins had two good chances to take the lead at Pride Park through Sinclair Armstrong and Scott Twine before Kenzo Goudmijn fired the hosts into the lead with an impressive strike in what was a largely dominant first half for City. However, goals from Kayden Jackson and David Ozoh in the second period extended Derby's advantage, handing Manning's men their first Championship defeat of the season.

So far the Robins have five points on the board from their opening quartet of league fixtures, beating Millwall 4-3 in a scintilating game at Ashton Gate alongside 1-1 draws at Hull City and at home to Coventry City.

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This weekend it's another away trip as they face a Blackburn Rovers side that have started the new campaign strongly and Manning has admitted that having a two-week break after a heavy defeat has both its pros and cons.

"I'd probably have to say a combination of the two," the City head coach exclaimed when asked if the international break was beneficial or frustrating. "I think if you look at the first four games, cup included five, I thought there was so many good aspects, so many positive aspects. A lot of pleasing things to come from it so again I think if you finish with the result that we had and the second half performance we want to get back at it.

"So frustrating from that perspective but at the same point really valuable in terms of opportunity to train, work hard. I pushed the guys really hard last week and we're back in this week, albeit with a weekend off. We're in a good spot and ready to go on Saturday."

On the back of a start to the season that has seen plenty of promising aspects alongside clear areas for improvement, City now go into a five-match run before the next international break that includes a number of tasty fixtures while also being games that the Robins will see as good opportunities to add to their points tally.

This weekend it's Blackburn who are one of five remaining teams yet to be beaten in the Championship this term while former City favourite Andi Weimann has started well for Rovers with three goals across all competitions. But a home game against Manning's former side Oxford United, who also aren't a million miles away geographically from Bristol, as well as derbies against Swansea City and Cardiff City either side of hosting Sheffield Wednesday means that there are some significant games to look forward to in the coming weeks.

However, the Robins head coach insisted that he's only focusing on Saturday's trip to Ewood Park for the time being, claiming: "All my energy goes into this Saturday. That's the most important thing. I'm desperate to do well.

"There's a huge amount of prep work that goes into it, be the training, be the video work, the opposition meetings, the individual work that we do. I put a huge emphasis on us as well. I sit with the players regularly to go through their clips and how we work. I think the priority will always be the next game.

"Other people behind the scenes will have aspects of their job where they're getting things ahead so it filters back to us when we need it but all my energy is going into trying to get a win on Saturday.

"Another tough game," Manning added on this weekend's opponents. "It's so unpredictable when you look at it in terms of before the season starts, what people think will happen and then a run of games and even this weekend you're trying to call the fixtures. It's impossible.

"So for me it's about going into the game knowing that we've done all the work that we can. It's going in knowing we've done the preparation, that we've trained right, that physically and psychologically we're in a good spot so that all the work's done. Then the second the whistle starts it's making sure we grab the opportunity and we transfer all the work we've done and all the positivity from so far into the game and go and do everything in our power to go and get a win."

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