Coventry a “winnable” test for Bristol City

Daniel Wales and Charles Hague-Jones preview Coventry City vs. Bristol City.

Transcript

00:00Dan, looking at Bristol City and their next game and away trip to Coventry City, who obviously

00:07sit 16th in the Championship, a big gap between the two. Obviously, we mentioned how competitive

00:15the Championship division is in one week. You can be on the brink of play-offs in the

00:18next couple of defeats later and you are sort of down the bottom of mid-table especially.

00:25Coventry City have obviously had a decent start under Frank Lampard, a couple of draws

00:29and a big win over Plymouth as well, but they just need to really stabilise this season.

00:36It was obviously looking quite ropey at the start of the season just before Frank Lampard

00:40came in. How do you see Bristol City approaching this game, an away trip that they're going

00:48to need to start picking points up on the road if they are to make those play-off places?

00:52If you look at the difference between sides that do just miss out on the play-offs and

00:56sides that do get into the play-offs, those are huge differences on the road. Can you

01:01go somewhere, a tough place to go, for example, and actually return three points? Teams need

01:07to do that and promotion teams are the sides that tend to do that, especially play-off

01:11contenders as well. What do you see going into this game and how can the fans expect

01:16Bristol City to come away from this one?

01:18Well, it's certainly a winnable game for them and I think it's an opportunity they have

01:22to take, to be honest, because their home form has improved slightly, Bristol City,

01:27in recent weeks. It wasn't great, to be fair. Liam Manning did make clear not too long ago

01:31that their performances were always there at home but the results often weren't. And

01:35then, in terms of away form, sometimes both were missing, although in fairness to them,

01:40they actually were picking up some decent points away from home, albeit maybe not loads

01:44and loads, but still some decent points here and there. And so, bridging on that, therefore

01:51this is an opportunity to really kick-start something on the road and away from Ashton

01:56Gate because they have started to improve things at home but now they need to start

02:00improving things away as well. It's just that consistency, something they've lacked, let's

02:04be honest, the majority of this season. And as good as they have been at times in terms

02:09of getting themselves into eighth place, if they'd been a little bit more consistent or

02:13held on for wins where they've been winning towards the end of games, they would be right

02:16in there, right in amongst the play-offs, but they're not. But, luckily for them, there's

02:20still a lot of games and a lot of football still to be played, so they have plenty of

02:24opportunities still to come and they've got a couple of good, winnable fixtures to come

02:28and, starting with this one, away at Coventry City, yes, they've had some good results themselves.

02:34Obviously, as you say there, beating Plymouth, they also won in the FA Cup on penalties against

02:39Sheffield Wednesday too, but for Bristol City, it's just a game where they have to think,

02:45yeah, we've got this squad with more quality here, let's go and show that on the stage

02:51and let's go and actually win this game and exercise a few demons and make sure that if

02:56we are winning later on in the game, we hang on to it.