Bristol City must “keep pushing” outlines Manning

The latest Bristol sport headlines, from Daniel Wales.

Transcript

00:00Bristol City head coach Liam Manning has outlined how his side must keep pushing as they prepare

00:06to take on Sheffield United in the first leg of their playoff semi-final.

00:10I don't think we've changed how we've approached everything. Everything's been game by game.

00:17We know how difficult it is, we know the level of opposition we're up against, we know we're

00:23the underdogs. When you look at the pressure, the expectation on some of the other teams

00:28we're competing against, naturally there's a different level of expectation. It's one

00:34we spoke to about the lads to a certain extent. It's a terrific opportunity to go and continue

00:38doing what we've done all year, which is create a little bit of upset and surprise a few people

00:43and do it our way. I think that's the biggest bit, whatever the outcome in the next two games.

00:49Have no regrets, give absolutely everything, which you see at the weekend at 2-0 down the

00:53lads keep fighting, keep believing, keep pushing and we're going to need to do that in the next

00:56two. You look at the games we've had against the other sides in the playoffs, we've performed

01:00to a really high level in other games and it's about knowing us, knowing what we're capable

01:06of. So there's always the external pressure, expectation, all that side of it.

01:11And Bristol City captain Jason Knight has responded to claims that Bristol City are the underdogs

01:17going into their game against Sheffield United, acknowledging that whilst this may be the case,

01:21they are still optimistic. Like I say, this was the aim, getting the playoffs and now you've got

01:28to shift your aim and shift the goalposts and now we've got to go and try and go lock horns with

01:32Sheffield United and get the right results we want. You think of the squad they've got and how

01:36they've done this year, they're probably disappointed they didn't go up automatically.

01:40So it's going to be a tough game, but like you say, we've performed well against them this year

01:44and it's going to be two competitive games again and that's what we want. But we want

01:49to come out on the right side and we want to get to Wembley. That's the goal now and we've

01:54got to try and make that happen, especially at home on Thursday. We've got to just continue

01:59what we've been doing all season, sort of take it game by game. Obviously it's a two-legged

02:03tie, but we want to go and win the first game, especially at home in front of our crowd.

02:08We want to take that advantage as well and try and get a good result and then hopefully go

02:12out to Sheffield and try and get a good result there as well.