Swansea the next obstacle in Robins’ play-off push

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

Transcript

00:00Dan, looking at Bristol City and their next game in the Championship, hosting Swansea

00:07City at home, I mean obviously the points gap between the top nine and then down the

00:14table you go is very, very tight still really, considering we're so deep now into the season.

00:20If you look at the fixtures coming up, it's only really one scroll, for example, on your

00:25phone to get to the end of the season. We're at that point now where it's really pivotal

00:29to get as many points as you can and get over the line. Obviously, Bristol City were knocking

00:33on the doors not long ago of the play-off places in the Championship. Swansea City were

00:39themselves as well and that just shows they're a prime example of a few poor results, a few

00:44bit of bad form and a bit of bad luck as well, to be fair to them. They slipped right down

00:50to 17th place and they're actually nearer now to the relegation zone, which is quite

00:55incredible. Swansea are quite low on confidence at the moment, Bristol City at home. Is this

01:01sort of basic, look at it, get three points at home in front of the home supporters and

01:05move on?

01:06Yeah, I think it is, to be honest. It's one of those games where Swansea have been in

01:11really poor form of late. They had a decent enough start to the season, but it's really

01:15tailed off in the last few weeks and months. For Bristol City, given they are only two

01:19points away from the play-off places at the moment, yes, they're sitting ninth, but they're

01:23right in amongst it. One win and perhaps results go in your way, it takes them into

01:27it. So it has to be a game where it's routine enough for them. Obviously, it's a Championship,

01:33there's no easy games, there never are, but they have to make it as potentially routine

01:38as they can. It's a game where they're expected to win, they'll be the bookies' favourites

01:43to win and they need to go and show why as well. They can't just be afforded to slip

01:47up in games like this because if they do, then they slip back into that sort of inconsistent

01:51nature that they experienced earlier on in the season and not picking up results where

01:55they should really be picking them up. A win, of course, is great for them because, well,

02:01they could coincide the play-offs with a win. Not guaranteed, of course, but it's another

02:05result. It has to be routine, it has to just be not easy, as I say, but as comfortable,

02:12as professional, as mature as possible for a side who clearly have quality. Bristol City

02:17and Swansea, given their results of late, they lost the South Wales derby against Cardiff

02:22convincingly, then a Cardiff side, of course, themselves lost 7-0 to Leeds United. So it

02:27just shows that Bristol City do have more confidence and more quality at this moment

02:32in time than those type of sides. So they just have to make it easy, they just have

02:37to make it routine, professional, mature. As I say, if they don't do that, then you

02:42just worry about what's going to happen after that, because if they don't, then it's a slippery

02:48slope and you think, well, if they don't pick up the points, other teams will, and that's

02:53the real issue for them. They have to go there and just get the job done, that's the essence

02:57of it.