Bristol City huff and puff but struggle to find quality to open Burnley up in Ashton Gate defeat

Whilst it was a close-run thing I cannot help but feel as if the game and performance against Burnley was a missed opportunity. Burnley are well organised and have quality players, but I think if our final ball had been better and if our first-half performance had matched the much-improved second-half display, we would have got something out of the game. Big word that, 'if.'

Bristol City fans will rightly point out that we should have been awarded a penalty in the second half when Josh Brownhill clearly handled the ball. I honestly wonder what the assistant referees watch!

It was on the assistant’s side and the ball clearly hit Brownhill’s outstretched arm. However, as we know only too well these things tend to even themselves out and it was only a matter of weeks ago that we got away with Yu Hirakawa's handball away at Preston North End. Let’s call that even then.

Liam Manning opted to change his starting line-up despite the fabulous performance and victory last time out away at Norwich City. Rob Dickie is quality, but it meant Cameron Pring dropping to the bench which was slightly harsh. There was somewhat of a surprise on the bench with Scott Twine named as one of the substitutes. It is great that players are returning and the squad's strength in depth is improving.

In the first half, both teams cancelled themselves out somewhat and chances were at a premium. The Burnley goal was well finished, but George Earthy got caught with a ball down the line and then after a shot from the edge of the box and a deflection from Dickie, following a challenge that perhaps he didn’t need to make, it was made awkward for Max O’Leary. Max did brilliantly to get a hand to the first shot, but unfortunately, Anthony was on hand to fire the rebound home.

We huffed and puffed in the first half but never really created anything. One of the many things that I like about Liam Manning is that he is not afraid to change things early and he made a change at halftime bringing on Yu for Earthy and changing shape. Hirakawa did cause Burnley some problems and showed his qualities.

Unfortunately, whilst we improved after the break we still couldn’t find the final ball or create a clear-cut chance, and we didn’t really force Burnley keeper Trafford into a meaningful save. There were moments with Pring and Twine both creating openings, but it was just that final ball.

Sinclair Armstrong and then much later Fally Mayulu came on but neither had the impact that Liam Manning would have hoped for. Our strikers were a topic of conversation at the fan’s forum on Thursday evening and the fact that Tommy Conway, having been sold, is scoring regularly for Middlesbrough and the form of Armstrong and Mayulu has meant we are reliant on Nahki Wells.

Liam Manning explained that both are young and taking time to settle but that he thinks they will be important players and prove their worth in games to come this season and in future years. As tends to be the case, we as fans are impatient and we want players to be performing at the very top levels now. I think with both Fally and Sinclair's early season performances and goals perhaps set unrealistic expectations. However, both do need to improve and give Wells more competition. I wonder if Harry Cornick should be given an opportunity and I never thought I would say that, but you can never question Harry’s attitude.

At the final whistle on Saturday and looking ahead to Watford away on Tuesday evening I would still be picking Wells to start upfront. Whilst we did improve in the second half, with Twine getting involved and as I say Pring doing well, our best opportunity came with a counterattack and a brilliant ball switched across by Max Bird to Hirakawa. Yu’s touch was a little heavy and left him with only one option and when Trafford in the Burnley goal decided to come out, he was able to close down Yu and snuff out the attempted dink over him.

Burnley had opportunities and it took a good save from Max O’Leary and a great block from Jason Knight to keep the score to only the one goal. Whilst we were in the game and asserted a lot of pressure in the second half, Burnley possibly shaded it over the 90 minutes. I don’t think that they would have felt a point would have been unjust to City but to the same extent, we didn’t do enough to win the game.

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As well as the contentious Brownhill handball, referee Madley caused further home fan frustration when firstly only indicating seven minutes of added-on time. Burnley, as is often the case with teams that have dropped out of the Premier League, were taking their time with every goal kick and deadball situation as well as having the trainer on several times to treat players. There were numerous passages of play where the ref stopped the game to talk to players about pushing and pulling at corners or getting players to take thrown-ins or free kicks from the correct place and there were also five yellow cards in the second half.

Seven minutes didn’t seem long enough as it was and then right at the end of the game one of the Burnley players took at least a minute to tie up his laces, with Madley indicating to all that he had stopped his watch, before he blew the final whistle only 45 seconds after the minimum seven minutes.

Twine was furious and talked himself into a booking. With constant rule changes, the timekeeping of a game is something that I have long felt should be done by a separate official as they do in some other sports. All of that said, I’m not sure that had we played another 30 minutes on the day we would have scored.

We go onto Tuesday night and Watford away, which won’t be easy, but as we demonstrated today, we are now a match for these top teams and the gap is closer. It is how we turn those close performances against the better teams into victories.

Our 3 Peaps In A PodCast player ratings were Max O’Leary 6.5, George Earthy 5.5, Zac Vyner 6, Luke McNally 6, Rob Dickie 6.5, Haydon Roberts 5.5, Jason Knight 6.5, Marcus McGuane 6.5 *MotM, Max Bird 5.5, Anis Mehmeti 5.5 and Nahki Wells 5.5. For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time) we went Yu Hirakawa 6.5, Cameron Pring 6.5, Scott Twine 6 and Sinclair Armstrong 5.5.

A game average player rating of 6.00. That’s an overall season-to-date average player rating of 6.32. For Liam Manning, it was 6.5.