Robins can’t overcome Robins – Barnsley 2-3 Bristol City

By: Oli | October 25th, 2009

You don't know what your doing!

People talk about issues in football a lot, and when they come up in a big game, there are often calls for reform. But thing such as diving and dissent really don’t bother me that much, because I see them as part of the game. Referees of the standard we saw yesterday are not part of the game, they just wreck football. I doesn’t matter how well or how badly a team plays if the Referee ruins their chances.

I don’t really believe in true referee bias, but when you see performances like Andy Haines’ yesterday, sometimes it seems like the only reasonable explanation. Although, the checked flag linesman in front of the East stand was just as bad, if not worse. At this point in my miniature tirade, can I just make it clear that we didn’t deserve to win the game. Bristol were clearly the better side, on the day, and in a fair world, they should have won by about one goal, which they did. However, if we’d had a standard, or even slightly bad, display from the man in the middle, then we would almost certainly have got a largely undeserved point.

There was an uncountable number of laughable decisions against us, many when challenging for aerial balls, but in particular I’d like to look at penalties. The penalty that was given looked harsh, because the forward only went down under Shotton’s challenge when Steele seemed to have won the ball. It wasn’t stone wall. However, when Anderson’s right wing cross hit a Johnsons arm a good yard inside the area, the previously mentioned linesman’s flag shot straight up, for a free-kick. If it wasn’t so serious it’d be comedy. We also had a penalty shout in the first half, when Nyatanga appeared to handle a ball while on the ground, again, nothing doing.

But, enough about the Referee, I could go on all day. We played poorly. Bristol looked like a mid-table side, who if we’d played to anything like our best, could have been over-turned. But we didn’t, and on the day were the worst side. The unavoidable did happen, and a lot of the players seemed to have half an eye on Tuesday’s big game. In many cases, the performance just wasn’t there.

Shotton did another excellent job in defence, which just rubs salt in the wound of him, and Dickinson, being cup-tied. Foster, again, wasn’t up to his best, and that’s a fair summary of his season. Apparently, Moore was unsighted for the first goal, which he could have cleared before the bounce. As a unit, we weren’t too bad. Really, I can only think of three top class chances for Bristol, and they all went in.

If we’d converted our chances, it could have been different. Yes, I’m looking at you Hume, and you Campbell-Ryce. Until the first goal, we were on top, with most of the possession, but the attack gave up once Nicky Maynard slid it past Steele. The second half was better, but only when Anderson and Butterfield came on to revive it. JCR looked uncommitted, unmotivated and out of his depth. Could this be the end for him? Hume didn’t cut it at all today, and after scoring (sort of), Bogdanovic has got a shout for a start against United.

Ratings
Ryan Shotton: 8 MOTM – Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up…
JCR: 4 – Awful, has Robins had enough, the reaction as he was substituted was petulant.
Adam Hammill: 7 – Great shot, as usual.
Hallfreddo: 7 – The drive on him is world class, only a matter of time before some ‘keeper is picking one out of his net while the Icelander celebrates on the half-way line.
Anderson: 8 – If Beckham gets MOTM match for England, then Anderson can have it here. Really brightened us up.
Lewin Nyatanga – looks just like Shotton. Just like Shotton.

This is almost a game that we had to get out of the way. Bristol is over shadowed by the looming leviathans of Manchester United and the Blunts. Tuesday will have no connection to our league form; it’s a one off, a cup game. Like Robins said post-match, “I am disappointed with how we played today because we are better than that. You will see a different side on Tuesday night.”