A welcome win but all is not great

‘ A welcome win but all is not great ‘

By Carl Curtis
That was a welcome returning to scoring and winning but before we start saying things are all rosy in the garden it is far from it.

Our two goals today, despite both being very good finishes from Kenwyne and Connolly, they were both set pieces and that is my biggest concern.

We are not creating enough chances in open play but today’s performance was far better than we have seen for some time.

It was 9 hours and 35 minutes since a City player scored before Kenwyne ended the drought after 44 minutes this afternoon.

What pleased me most today was that Slade finally conceded to playing Joe Ralls in the middle, we can argue that with Whittingham out through suspension that Ralls would get his chance but the horrible truth is that most of us have been saying since last season that Ralls is a centre midfielder but Slade would not give the youngster the opportunity.

Well today Mr Slade it proved that fans understand football too and the question is why have you waited so long to play Ralls in his most obvious position.

We did have a few opportunities throughout to score from open play, once and probably the best chance came through a bit of luck for Gunnarsson but he pulled his effort wide.

Gunnarsson and Ralls provided energy and tempo that has desperately been missing from our midfield for a long time, even before Slade was appointed, and if Whittingham regains his place against Derby in the middle of the park then I am sorry to say but Slade will prove to me with no doubt that he has very little idea of what the team needs.

Hopefully the manager will at least keep the same side against Derby and if all goes well we can start to build consistency into our performances, results are hard to swallow when they don’t go your way but poor performances, which City fans have witnessed recently, are much more difficult to comprehend.

I want to finish being positive and that is that we got goals this afternoon, kept a clean sheet again thanks mainly to David Marshall and we are one place and just one win from the play offs, there is plenty in this season for us to push and play for, I believe we have the squad capable of doing something this season and after taking four points from Preston and Middlesbrough in the space of four days I said to friends then that I believed Slade would get us to the play offs.

The Bristol City and Leeds performances knocked my belief slightly but overall defensively the manager has made us solid, today showed that there are goals in the team, albeit from set pieces, now he just has to get the attacking part of the side working, today is a start, let’s see if there is more improvement against Derby and Burnley.