Liam Manning pulls no punches over Bristol City performance after heavy defeat at Blackburn
Liam Manning has urged he’ll do everything in his power to return to winning ways after Bristol City fell to a 3-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
City were outperformed by a well-oiled Rovers outfit, who outclassed Manning’s men throughout the contest at Ewood Park. A number of individual mistakes proved too costly for the Robins, who are now without a win in their previous three Championship outings.
Max O’Leary gifted John Eustace’s men an early opener after a miss-placed pass found Lewis Travis, who was able to slot home, before Joe Williams’ error 10 minutes into the second half saw City trail 2-0 after 55 minutes.
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Although Scott Twine blew a major chance to cut Blackburn’s lead, Yuki Ohashi’s 70th minute strike proved to be the final blow to the Robins.
Manning was clear his side showed no character in their performance and insisted his side will have to return to basics in order to turn their fortunes around.
“It’s a hugely disappointing result and performance, nowhere near the level we expect or are capable of,” he told Bristol Live after the defeat.
“It’s about dissecting the performance and why. The bits you want in any team you work with, you want to be associated with the desire to compete, to run, to win duels and do the basic side of the game really well and that wasn’t where it needed to be today. It’s hugely disappointing because I know we’ve got a group of lads who all care, want to do well and want to perform.
“For the first goal, we’ve asked the lads to play a certain way and for me when you concede a goal in the manner that you do you get an emotional response which can become quite difficult and that’s where you have to be brave and step up and respond as a group and as a collective. We spent too much time in the build up and I think we could’ve exploited space in behind them first half, which - when Sinclair (Armstrong) came on in the second half - had a real positive impact and he created some extremely good chances. We were close to getting back in the game and then you’re up against it again.
“The big bit for me is that we’ve got to learn from today. We’ll have a big meeting on Monday, get back to the basics and then it’ll be hard work on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’ve got to be harder to beat, we’ve been conceding far too many goals and if you look at where a lot of this group were at last year in terms of the defensive side of the game. We’ve got to get back to that.”
There were boos which rang around Ewood Park both at half-time and again at full-time from the 839 Robins fans. Manning apologised for his side’s performance and was adamant he will do everything in his power to return to winning ways.
He added: “I get it. Fans - especially our fans - they’ll accept losing. Millwall is the game that sticks to mind already this season where we go behind and the fans stuck with us. And they did because of the behaviour that we showed.
“Fans understand that you’re going to win games and you’re going to lose games. It's then how you do that. The bare minimum should be expected of the players, myself, the group and the culture is that you turn up and give everything for the shirt. You run hard, you win your duels, you compete, you fight, you show positive body language, you respond in the right way. They’re the bits I talk about when we’ve got to get back to basics.
“I can only apologise for the performance today but I can guarantee we’ll stick together, respond and do everything in our power to put it right next Saturday.”
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