Moves like Jagger? City fail to keep to the beat

At the start of a busy week for the Exiled Robin, Stuart Radnedge returns with this post-mortem on a desperately disappointing display from the Robins at the Amex Stadium at the weekend.

A 2-0 defeat only tells half the tale as City were sorely missing any sort of rhythm and mustered only a single, injury-time shot on target on the south coast.

“Taking positives from disappointing results has become something of a past-time for City fans this year.

However under McInnes’ leadership fortunes have changed a little and, more importantly for me, we clearly have a manager who won’t beat around the bush too much in saying what the problems are.

Tempo.

The boss said on the City website after the match that we have to try and generate a tempo that allows us to win games more often than not.

Personally I believe the man is right. We have general belief from the crowds and the Bristol City Family on Twitter but there has been something amiss again this season – like last. And that is tempo.

Obviously both this season and the one before started badly and both have seen managers leave long before the half-way marker.

The revival under McInnes has been clear to see, but do we have the players who can generate that match winning tempo that we had in our first season in the Championship?

During that inaugural season I recall witnessing a number of occasions when City should have taken nothing from a game which they created little in – but then there was just one moment of magic and we were on level terms.

With Pearson and Adomah out of the squad on Saturday’s trip to Brighton we clearly missed the pair who feature regularly in our starting line-up creating some of that magic.

New recruits Richard Foster and Chris Wood earned their debuts which the gaffer was happy with, and there appearances from Pitman, Cisse and the smiling assassin (as I like to call him) Yannick Bolasie.

But we created little, as the stats show. Just one shot on target was all we had to show following 90 minutes of football. Those types of stats are not the type of tempo that the gaffer wants to see.

A few silver linings, for me, can be drawn from the cloud of Saturday’s two-nil loss away at Brighton.

Getting the debuts for two new singings out the way will do something to address some of the nerves they may have. And, more importantly, there are no fresh injuries to worry us before the visit of Doncaster to Ashton Gate on Saturday.

You could expect this Saturday’s match to be described as a must win “battle at the bottom” for both teams. And you would be right - it is a must win. Before we start drawing out teams in the office Euro 2012 sweepstake we all want to see our team with its’ head above the troubled waters of relegation.

I’m going to be brave and stick my neck out by saying we won’t go down. But we will if we continue to create one shot on target in a match. Fingers crossed Saturday will see the result we all so desperately want to see."

Follow Stuart on Twitter: @Stu_Radnedge

Follow The Exiled Robin on Twitter: @TheExiledRobin

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