Having drawn the last 3 games, Bristol City have continued their impressive unbeaten run, and still sit atop of The Championship with a mere 8 games remaining. With Stoke, Watford and West Bromwich Albion all breathing down their necks however, City need to get wins under their belt before they plateau at the wrong end of the season. Ashton Gate believes that can happen tomorrow afternoon against a Plymouth Argyle side that is undergoing a transitional period after former boss Ian Holloway's departure and Paul Sturrock's return to Home Park. Even with the disruption of the change of manager, Plymouth lie in a respectable 7th place just one point behind sixth placed Hull City. With the playoffs within their grasp Plymouth will arrive at Ashton Gate looking to beat the league leaders despite losing their last two away matches.
How They Line Up
Following the mass exodus of key players David Norris (Ipswich), Sylvain Ebanks-Blake (Wolves), Akos Buszacky (QPR) and Barry Hayles (Leicester City) in January, Paul Sturrock has looked to his native Scotland to fill the void left by their former star players. Scots Steven McClean, Gary Teale, Chris Clark and James Paterson have arrived to offer experience and commitment into an organised and disciplined side.
Having seen the only fit professional goalkeeper Luke McCormick sent off on Tuesday night and Roman Larrieu injured, Plymouth have signed Scottish international Rab Douglas on loan from Leicester, and the man who played in the 2003 Uefa Cup Final will start in goal for The Pilgrims tomorrow. In defence, Paul Connolly and James Paterson are attacking full backs and the centre defence pairing of Russell Anderson and Marcel Seip are honest and dependable. They have not kept a clean sheet in 5 games mind, so after two blanks in a week, City could unlock the Plymouth defence and test loanee Douglas in the net.
The midfield contains two of the best wingers in the league, Gary Teale and Peter Halmosi, whom is said to be attracting the attention of several Premiership teams. It is Halmosi who leads the scoring charts with 8 goals so far from the left wing. If the City full backs defend the way they did against Smith and McAnuff in midweek (minus the penalty) then they can be tamed as they were. The centre midfield pairing is likely to be former Serie A man Lilian Nalis and Chris Clark, who will offer plenty of endeavour and in Nalis, good ball retention.
In the two forward positions, Sturrock has the choice of Rory Fallon, who City fans will recall scored a stupendous overhead kick against us whilst at Swindon, Jermain Easter, whom Gary Johnson decided not to sign having met the player, so he will be looking to prove Gary wrong, former Wednesday and Cardiff man Steven Mclean and Nick Chadwick, who scored at Ashton Gate playing for Everton in the Carling Cup a few years back.
Sturrock could change formation and play 4-5-1 bringing in club captain Paul Wotton in the holding role which Williamson utilised so well for Watford on Tuesday night.
Douglas
Latest News
Krisztian Timar who so gloriously sliced the ball into his own net for us in the reverse fixture earlier in the season is suspended, which is a shame with the way our forward line are finishing recently, and fellow centre half Mathias Doumbe is still out with injury. For Bristol City Lee Johnson is a doubt after the awful challenge on him by Darius Henderson on Tuesday, and Jamie McCombe is still struggling with the hip injury that saw him miss Tuesday's tie.
City News
After a tense and tiring match against promotion rivals Watford, Gary Johnson has some difficult managerial decisions ahead, with Liam Fontaine, Ivan Sproule and Darren Byfield all pushing for recalls into the starting XI. Having failed to score again, Johnson may opt for two up top tomorrow, but with the extra man in midfield City dominate the possession in midfield and control proceedings, like in the first half against Watford. Assuming Johnson is out it will be interesting to see if he plays the 3 of Noble, Elliott and Carle or brings in Skuse in a two man midfield. After another full 90 minutes will Adebola get the help of Trundle or Byfield alongside him?
Basso
This fixture saw the introduction to the Ashton Gate crowd of another God loving City player Tony Rougier who tore the place down with a monumental home debut on the right wing and City came home with the points as Rougier helped us to the playoffs.
1 comment:
As little as I know about football I'm highly impressed with these blog entries! Good work Ross old boy!
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