Manager Paul Merson did ring the changes for the away game at Ashton Gate this afternoon, with six differences from the Blackpool match. It didn’t help much, as the first half performance was abject.

Walsall lined up Murphy, Pead, Westwood, Gerrard, Bennett, Leitao, Kinsella, Kris Taylor, Harkness, Constable, Nicholls. Osborn was rested, so went to the bench, which consisted of him, Bradley, Standing, Daryl Taylor and Oakes. Out of the sixteen completely went Staunton, Roper (who hadn’t trained yesterday) and Wright, who had suffered a reaction to playing the whole game on Saturday following his long lay off, his knee having swollen up. Fryatt’s hamstring kept him out.

The first half was, as seems usual lately, terrible. Westwood had a good chance from a header early on and Nicholls fluffed a one on one towards the end of the half, but, apart from that, City were in complete control. The midfield of Kinsella and Taylor was over run and outplayed and Bristol were in cruise control when Jorge Leitao failed to track winger Scott Murray back and he burst into the penalty area to score. Jorge’s Walsall career then seemed to come to an early and very sad end when he picked up what looked like a hamstring strain and he was replaced by Daryl Taylor. If it is a strain, he is highly unlikely to make his last appearance at Barnsley next week.

Scott Murray added a second before half time, when Pead misjudged a cross, leaving the dangerous winger to chest the ball down and blast home.

City had been much, much the better side in the first half, with Walsall failing to keep possession at all either in midfield, where Kinsella and Taylor were awful, or up front, where the two young strikers showed that they are both the sort that needs someone to hold the ball up for them, so something drastic had to be done. Merson decided to take off Kinsella and Taylor for Osborn and Standing.

There was a vast improvement in the second half, with the new Saddlers central midfield pairing keeping hold of the ball far better. Bristol City still had the edge, however, and we only really troubled them from long range (Standing and Daryl Taylor) until around ten minutes to go, when we neatly got Nicholls in, but the teenager’s lack of experience and composure ensured he fluffed that chance.

Eventually, a set piece (a free kick) led to a near post header from Aussie Luke Wilkshire and a 3 – 0 defeat.

It was, all in all, a fairly routine home win for improving City, with the Saddlers only really starting to play again when it was far too late. Whatever is said about the festive period, a final haul of four points from four games is just not good enough. What’s even more worrying, we have now taken a mere one point from the last twenty four away from home and the pressure is mounting to maintain the home record.

For the record, the match stats were (Bristol City on the left, as if you couldn’t guess):-

23 Goal Attempts 8
13 On Target 5
12 Crosses 2
11 Corners 4
1 Offside 3
9 Fouls 14
0 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
56 % 44