Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson was pleased with his team’s ability to get a result against Reading and wants more ahead of Sunday’s trip to Swansea City.
Pearson’s focus is firmly on continuing to distance the club as much as possible from the relegation battle, and he’ll look to continue that on Sunday.
The Robins travel to South Wales full of confidence off the back of a gritty 2-1 win in midweek, and Pearson wants to see his side rise to the occasion.
“It’s a derby so it’ll be a tough game,” said Pearson.
“I know we will be well supported, whether it be at the stadium or whether our fans watch it elsewhere, I know there’ll be a lot of interest in how we perform and of course the result.
“We’re expecting what everyone expects when they play Swansea which is they like to keep possession so we’ll have to make sure we’re good at what we do.
“There aren’t many teams who have scored more goals than us but we’ve been conceding too many, certainly recently but we’re a more potent force than what people have given us credit for.
“It’ll be an interesting game, it’s one we don’t want to lose but we want to win.”
The 58-year-old had to watch Wednesday night’s match from afar after undergoing a medical procedure, but was left satisfied with both the result and the performance.
“Curtis [Fleming, who took charge in Pearson’s absence] had said before the game about the need for us to find a way to win the game, the performance is secondary,” Pearson explained.
“Some of our defending had to be pretty committed and it wasn’t particularly pretty at the end but we’ve experienced that a number of times during the season.”
“Clearly, we could have made the night a bit more comfortable but we also need to give the players credit for being able to win the game which most people would recognize as very important game for us to win.
“Any teams that are below you or having some struggles themselves, we have to stick the knife in and twist it, and it’s as simple as that – there’s no feeling of anything other than a ruthlessness in our situation.”
Pearson also confirmed that Callum O’Dowda will face four to six weeks out of the team following his injury picked up in the game against Reading, and that the club will assess Han-Noah Massengo’s fitness tomorrow.
Nahki Wells missed the midweek game after testing positive for coronavirus, and Pearson is not making any assumptions about his condition ahead of the game on Sunday.
“We can’t just put a ‘one outcome suits everybody’ on it,” Pearson continued.
“We’ve seen players struggle to return to form from it and we’ve seen players have no ill-effects from it.
“We can’t just make the assumption that players that experience COVID can shake it off in three or four days.
“That’s the unpredictability of the situation.”
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Pearson was also pleased to see Antoine Semenyo win the league’s Player of the Month award, and complimented his attitude during his return from injury.
“For him to recognize the potential to learn from experience even when he’s not playing, don’t underestimate the size of that as a comment,” said Pearson.
“He’s an intelligent lad and he’s also very grounded and humble.”
“He’s got a strong link to his own family so I’m pleased for him because he will recognize his teammates have certainly helped him to maximize that for himself.
“Good for him, good for the football club but now the challenge is to go on from what he’s already done.”
With rumours in the press of the club looking to tie down their star player to a longer contract, Pearson insisted that he wants keep Semenyo for as long as possible.
“He’s currently got a year and a half left with a year’s option in our favour so we’ve got him for two and a half years to at least persuade him to stay,” Pearson explained.
“Whether that materializes or not I can’t give you a definitive answer and we have time to work on those possibilities but I can’t speak for other people’s intentions.
“It’s going to take a lot of money to get him out the building at the moment.”
Bristol City are 16th in the Championship, one spot above their hosts this weekend, and a win for the Robins would take them five points ahead of the Swans.
