Bristol City verdict: We may have seen this movie before, Conway's rewards and Manning's timing

The glare of the Ashton Gate lights will now be fixed on Take That, Kings of Leon and Craig David after Bristol City played out their final midweek fixture of the 2023/24 campaign, but the resounding 5-0 thrashing of Blackburn Rovers was precisely the sort of headline-grabbing act that was needed.

It’s been a long, dramatic and for the most part, frustrating and fractious campaign for all concerned but with four matches remaining, maybe, just maybe a sense of balance is being restored once again.

City were as ruthless and relentless as Blackburn Rovers were bad, but the margin of victory has them in positive goal difference and within two points of their total from last season which, for all the desires that may have existed from August through to March in terms of league position, represent a straightforward target to assess improvement.

Tommy Conway and Nahki Wells each scored penalties in claiming braces while Anis Mehmeti fired his fourth of the season, three of which have arrived in the last seven matches. Things are looking up and, my word, it’s a considerably better feeling than the doom and despair that preceded it. Here are the talking points from BS3…

Where did that come from?

A game between a side comfortable in mid-table and one immersed in a relegation battle and two teams that, outside of Blackburn’s slightly freakish 5-1 win over Sunderland, had scored three times between them in the five other games since the international break. It would have taken a brave/foolish punter to forecast a 5-0 victory at Ashton Gate, let alone who would be in possession of that scoreline.

And yet, from first to last, despite what was at stake and the distinct early feel of an end-of-season game (the lowest league attendance of the campaign as well) lacking jeopardy with little for the home fans to initially get stuck into, this was as comfortable an evening for City as they’ve experienced for a long time.

Tommy Conway gleefully commented at full-time that, “it’s been a long time coming since we slapped someone up”, which was very Tommy Conway and added to the sense of glee around BS3, while Liam Manning drew reference to their 28 open play shots fashioned against Leicester City and Plymouth Argyle, so there was a feeling in the camp something had been on the horizon. But I’m not sure that was envisaged externally. More fool us.

City started well, Scott Twine was heavily involved as they played with real purpose, and there was absolutely no sense of taking their foot off the accelerator and allowing Blackburn an enjoyable night.

The way they shifted from defence to attack, Ross McCrorie’s willingness to consistently step forward into space or take his man on with each of his first touches was the embodiment of the “front-foot football” that had been uttered with conviction several months ago, then lampooned to the point of cliche and a noose around the neck, and ultimately a source for criticism given how little it’s been witnessed.

Obviously, we have to get into the mistakes and the absolute nightmare evening for visiting captain Dom Hyam, but these didn’t occur in isolation or out of the blue. Yes, each one was down to the individual and, given the respective experience of Hyam, Callum Brittain and then Kyle McFadzean, it would have been hard for John Eustace to explain them.

But that’s where City step in and the concept of playing with intent, on and off the ball. In a way, we’ve seen this movie before with Conway, and it’s another black mark in Blackburn’s book that they weren’t able to anticipate this kind of stuff.

On 24 minutes, and a little starved for space, Cam Pring switched onto his left foot and sent a curling ball down the line, swinging back into the inside channel for Conway to chase. Out of context, you could rule it a hopeful punt but Manning had implored his team to attack the space behind the full-backs, predicting they would be stationed a little higher up the pitch to try and press City’s wide players.

It therefore wasn’t a lost cause, more a directive, and as Conway has learned this season, for every 20 runs of that nature you make that fail to bear fruit, the 21st can lead to the sort of horrendous touch that Hyam produced that was either him trying to bring Pring’s ball under control or play a pass back to Aynsley Pears.

Instead he teed Conway up to pick his spot low to Pears' right. It wasn’t that long ago, well November into December, where Conway was missing those chances with frustrating regularity. But all he needed was balance, a clear head and one touch. 1-0.

Blackburn were offering little and that channel continued to prove profitable for the hosts as Pring again hoisted one in to have Brittain back-pedalling, the full-back losing his bearings and allowing Mark Sykes through with Hyam then rashly sliding in and whipping the winger’s legs away.

Another motion picture we’ve seen before is the 21-year-old doing the business from the spot and he promptly obliged.

If it hadn’t already, it was reaching the point of the ridiculous when McCrorie took Harry Pickering on and forced the defender into a back-pass which, yep, you guessed it, played in Conway for his hat-trick opportunity but this time Pears saved with his legs.

A let-off, yes, but also the story of the half as, outside of a couple of Dilan Markanday snapshots, Max O’Leary simply wasn’t a factor in the game.

Eustace made four changes and switched his system to match up the Robins 3-4-2-1 but all that achieved was to sit them deeper and offer little chance of any attacking adventure. They did fashion some early corners to give the 621 who had travelled from Lancashire something to cheer but it was all too brief.

As Manning likes his team to do, they had needed to problem solve their way around the new set-up and it took them a degree of time, and a change in personnel to find a third as Mehmeti scored within two minutes of his arrival.

Again, chasing down Hyam, as the hapless Rovers skipper tried to shepherd it out of play he left the gate open for the Albanian to regain possession, cut onto his right and do the rest. It was now certifiably getting deeply embarrassing.

McFadzean’s handball compounded that feeling, as not once did he look at the ball as it was swept to the back post, instead solely focusing his attention on the advancing Zak Vyner, and his right arm was dangled out for Wells to do the rest.

The Bermudian then capped a joyous night for City, and himself, playing Cornick down the right for the forward to then square the ball across goal and Wells claim the 100th Championship goal of his career.

Blackburn had been battered, “slapped up”, and they had themselves to blame, no question, but it wasn’t without influence from the Robins who had pressed, harried and played with energy and freedom, devoid of the pressure that inhibited the opposition. In that context, you can definitely see where it all came from.

A corner turned?

Disclaimer: we’re jumping to conclusions here and the sensible side of us should be waiting a few more games before delving into this subject so please take what’s written with a pinch of salt and the potential for it to look horribly wrong in a few weeks, maybe even by Saturday.

But while the final possession stats bore out 55-45 per cent in Blackburn’s favour, and so it was another victory for City against a team that fundamentally dominated the ball, it needs some colour around those numbers. Because they were essentially juiced by the 20-odd minutes before Mehmeti’s goal, whereby the visitors were invariably trying to get something going and having pressed and cajoled consistently in the first half, City dropped back ever so slightly and basically said to them, “come on, what have you got?” which proved to be not a lot. And even though Blackburn were able to see more of the ball, the control for the Robins remained.

It had been a different story in the first half where not only had they made Brittain and Hyam look very silly and kept Pears consistently on his toes with how they closed down every back-pass, they kept the ball especially well.

Possession stats are a little dull and misleading but they’re important for this particular segment because over the opening 45 minutes, as they took a 2-0 lead, they edged ahead of Blackburn in that particular metric with 50.6-49.4. The smallest of margins, yes, but the important part is this wasn’t a City team which stood off and blocked just over halfway, occupying their respective zones and trying to pounce deeper in their own half, which provides a bit of a strange dynamic in terms of which side looks to be dominating.

They were proactive and had the belief (bravery?) to get at a Blackburn side clearly low on confidence and brought an energy, not just on the pitch but in the air as well, on a night that could easily have petered out to a forgettable encounter.

Twine was central to a lot of it in the positions he took up, drifting in the pocket from left to right and back again, always looking to turn and run or swivel and pass, with the 24-year-old the recipient of some pretty robust challenges and he spent a significant amount of time with his hands in the air at referee Bobby Madley (who had an excellent game, by the way), asking him, “how many more?”.

But Twine’s willingness to make things happen was matched by McCrorie who can be such a fun and exhilarating player to watch, almost to the point that he’s like the human representation of the FIFA series (or FC as it’s now rebranded). When playing that game, and receiving possession, you don’t tend to think about taking a controlling touch, patiently assessing your options and going square or backwards, no, you slam on the R1 and attack (granted, this could also be why my son keeps “slapping me” and I have a couple decades of defeats behind me to various mates, but there you go), and that’s precisely what McCrorie does.

The downhill desire of those two was matched by Pring who was regularly wide, whether to take passes from the excellent Haydon Roberts or to win headers from O’Leary diagonals, while Williams and Knight also provided forward thrust from midfield.

But it wasn’t all gung-ho, they did on occasions go across or back to base where George Tanner, Vyner and Roberts were happy to go again and switch focus, but the pace of the play was always there. It was efficient and electric and as Manning declared is what he ultimately wants to see: variation, unpredictability and positive decision-making.

The genesis of which stretches back several months but the head coach continues to maintain the March international break has been hugely important and influential in shaping this encouraging run.

“We’ve tried to be a little bit more out of possession, which helps, but I definitely think with the ball, the international break was quite key in having the opportunity to reset and just have time to work on the grass,” Manning said.

“Since then, Leicester and Plymouth was, I think was, 28 open play shots - a huge number in those games, against strong opposition. Sunderland was a tough game, as we all know, but that’s now three out of four where we’ve consistently produced some really good attacking moments. It takes time for them to understand it, it doesn’t click overnight in terms of what we’re asking them to do.

“I think sometimes we’re trying to teach them the hardest way because we’re teaching them to understand why they make certain decisions as opposed to just giving them patterns of play. So that unpredictability, and when they understand it you become much harder to play against because you process it in the right order; if the space is in behind, put it in behind, if it’s furthest forward feet, then play there, if not, then go square back.

“And sometimes when you go through that process it all becomes a little bit jumbled, whereas tonight the lads made really good decisions in terms of where to play.”

Conway gets his rewards

We’ve discussed repeatedly Conway’s role within this team and, especially at the start of Manning’s time in charge, how on the periphery he looked. Fixed to central areas and not necessarily pressing or heavily involved when in possession, there were a number of games which seemed to pass him by and/or there were a series of missed 1vs1s when he did get the opportunity.

That changed around the FA Cup run as the ties against West Ham and Nottingham Forest put a spring back in his step and served notice of his danger in the final third but, still, in a season where so much was expected, and slightly curtailed by his hamstring injury, it’s been a tiny bit underwhelming even though the Taunton-born attacker is still only 21.

But Conway will have taken an awful amount from the 2023/24 campaign, however his future shapes out, and whether it’s at City or with someone else.

Manning’s message to him has been, in simple terms, to run less, but run smarter. He has wanted the explosiveness and willingness to make chances for himself, but didn’t want the endless energy-sapping sprints in chasing centre-backs simply to show effort. There has to be a method to the mad running.

Subsequently, coupled with the head coach’s wish to keep the striker fixed more to the central region of the pitch, rather than drifting too wide and leaving a lack of a focal point, Conway hasn’t felt that involved in games, something as a young man still learning his trade, he’s had to get used to. Ultimately, every player wants as many touches as possible, be a constant receiver of passes and just make their mark on the game. But Conway can still do that, just by picking his moments.

For roughly 20 minutes on Wednesday night, Conway was once again on the periphery. The game seemed to be playing around him and while he was making runs, bumping defenders and trying to offer options for his midfielders and wing-backs, it just wasn’t quite running in his favour.

That burst down the left to chase Pring’s pass could well have led to absolutely nothing. It should have led to absolutely nothing given Hyam’s positioning and options for him to play backwards to Pears, take a touch, move into space and clear downfield or even, if he wanted, play it out for a throw-in. But having not really featured, Conway created his own involvement with how he closed the defender down before finishing confidently.

Apologies in advance for leaning on a cliche but it really does only take a second to score a goal and for strikers that feeling is gold dust and why they go through the hard yards which seem irrelevant to the naked eye in the overall ebb and flow of the game but they’re vitally important.

For Conway to find the target, as he has done previously this season, after fallow periods in terms of his involvement, it proves to him the riches at the end of the rainbow that lie in wait, provided you do the ugly work.

Process is also important in the execution, because Conway did have a period where the sort of chances he finished against Pears weren’t being taken. He had to re-learn his role to an extent because, as Manning noted, the vast majority of his goals last season came from crossing positions or were directly assisted with the goal in close proximity.

That’s very different to having time and space to bear down on a goalkeeper and then make the right decision. It’s very evident he’s doing it now after so many hours on the training ground, refining how he thinks and what he does when presented with such an opportunity.

When they then go in, it makes it all worthwhile and means in the future, he shouldn’t require any such encouragement to meticulously go through aspects of his game that need improvement and small steps can lead to giant strides on the pitch.

Bigger picture stuff

Timing is everything and with recruitment meetings to be held this week, in anticipation of the summer window, where the decision-making process significant accelerates and budgets are discussed more specially rather than generally, Manning certainly has a fair bit of ammunition to enter the room on the back of four games unbeaten, no goals conceded and a 5-0 victory amongst it all.

Cynically you could suggest, “hang on a minute, maybe not that much needs to change over the off-season given what this squad is capable of”, but that would be a silly thing to say.

Defensively, the Robins look well set and although injuries to Kal Naismith, Rob Atkinson and now Rob Dickie have slowly stripped back resources, Manning has managed that situation especially well, to the point that if Dickie was fit for Huddersfield Town on Saturday, there’s no guarantees he would come straight back into the team.

George Tanner has been excellent and so consistent, Vyner has experienced the odd wobble but in the main has led the defence with real authority and calming leadership, while Roberts looks to be improving at an impressive rate with every game and it’s a mark of how good he was that in a 5-0, a defender was awarded Player of the Match. Behind them you have the increasingly formidable presence of Max O’Leary who is just a model of consistency right now.

Expand this conversation to the wide areas with McCrorie and Pring, plus the development of Jamie Knight-Lebel, who earned his home debut in the final five minutes, and providing that department can secure a clean bill of health over the summer, which isn’t a given of course given Naismith and Atkinson’s issues over the last 18 months, then that area looks well set and, what’s more, still with significant growth potential in pretty much everyone.

Jason Knight is now surely cast as a deeper-lying midfielder/No8, freed of creative responsibilities and is all the better for it, and he will be joined by Max Bird for next season who’s in a similar mould positionally. The futures of Joe Williams, Matty James and Andy King still need to be decided which could end up changing a lot in terms of transfer focus, but with the desire to commit most of time and resource to matters in the final third, surely there is a will to retain at least one, if not potentially all three.

As frustrating as he must be, you can’t deny that Mehmeti is making clear strides forward in his first full season as a Robin, while Sykes has battled injuries but is increasingly a proven now performer at this level, but clearly there is a need for at least one Twine-like playmaker, if not Twine himself, even in light of Josh Stokes’ arrival.

Conway’s future remains a huge question mark, which could then dictate whether City target one or two strikers in the window and what sort of forwards as well. Clearly there is some excitement around Seb Palmer-Houlden’s skillset and return from Newport County but that also needs to be tempered given his age, inexperience and lack of Championship football.

It’s ironic therefore that as City have recorded their biggest league win of the season and the first time they’ve hit five goals in a Championship fixture for almost two years, from just seven shots on target, that Manning’s meeting with the recruitment team will essentially be formed around making this squad better, more dynamic and efficient in an attacking sense. But that increasingly looks to be the final frontier for this group of players, albeit with subtle tweaks and improvements made elsewhere (another goalkeeper, perhaps?).

Nobody is getting carried away, least of all City fans who have felt these flushes of optimism before only to be washed over by crushing financial reality and frustration. But if the Robins continue on such an upward trend between now and May 4, and with Manning having received significant spiritual backing from the hierarchy - the club now in possession of exactly the type of head coach they’ve long craved - it would seem strange for him not to be backed in a capacity where you can justifiably see a desire to take clear strides further forward in the here and now, rather than glossing up the shuffling of deckchairs, however shiny and new, or making moves that while encouraging require years rather than months of patience.

SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate