Bristol City manager Lee Johnson has spoken of his frustration at seeing the side held to a goalless draw on Friday evening by Burton Albion.
Hosting the side at Ashton Gate for the game, despite utterly dominating possession on the day (75%) and with Burton failing to get an effort on target, we simply couldn’t find a way past their keeper with our efforts.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media for his post game press conference, Johnson knew it had been a missed opportunity to pick up all three points, but it did extend our unbeaten run to 12 games and lifted us into 3rd place in the table for a period.
‘It was a frustrating one wasn`t it. I thought we huffed and puffed, we worked ever so hard in possession. Tactically we nailed it because we had 75 per cent possession but we just didn`t have that quality in the final third tonight. On numerous occasions we had an opportunity to deliver but we didn`t – either it went into the goalkeeper’s hands or it went behind and that`s important. It gives the opposition time to settle and start again.’
We did get the ball in the back of the net through Bobby Reid, but that was chalked off for a foul in the build up.
‘I thought the lads worked hard. I thought the two at the back were outstanding, the way they tidied play up, the way they won everything and limited Burton to nothing. We scored which was dubious whether or not it should have been allowed but we felt it should have been. It was a frustrating night for us. I thought the clean sheet was a positive, the fact that we restricted Burton to nothing, extending the run and being a point closer to the top. There were an awful lot of positives there.’
Johnson added.
‘It was an interesting game. I learnt a lot more about my players today and maybe it would have been nice to have been a bit more direct with somebody like Milan Djuric. I was thinking about sticking Aden Flint up front for the last five to ten minutes but I also wanted to make sure we got the point at least. I`ve played in games like that where you dominate and get stung by a sucker punch right at the end and it`s a real smash and grab.’
With Niclas Eliason getting his first league start, Johnson described his performance as being ‘indifferent’ as whilst there were some good parts to his play, he didn’t really show his overall quality.
‘It was a big chance for him, I think parts of his game were good. He looked sharp, he looked neat ad we know the quality he has got but he didn`t really get a chance to get that out, whether it be set-pieces or general play.’
With Korey Smith suffering a hamstring injury in the game and limping off before the half time break, Johnson added.
‘The early assessment is he`s tweaked or pulled his hamstring, which is a real nuisance. We are a bit light in central midfield anyway but we`ve got some good young players. We might have to recall somebody, but we will have to see. We`ll get him scanned in the coming days to find out how bad it is.’
Adding.
‘We have players to come back: Eros Pisano and Djuric are training again now. Matty Taylor shouldn`t be too long after rolling his ankle against Ipswich.’
