"He's been brilliant" - Bristol City boss praises Robins goalkeeper despite Leeds United defeat

Bristol City manager Liam Manning said his goalkeeper Max O'Leary has been "brilliant" in recent weeks despite another defeat in the Championship on Friday.

The shot-stopper limited Leeds to scoring just the once in their 1-0 victory in the Championship tonight. “He’s been brilliant since I have been here (O'Leary)," said Manning. "I can’t speak highly enough of him. There was a few previous games as well where I remember he has made some terrific saves and kept us in it or allowed us to go on." The 38-year-old also praised the keeper's character at full-time and he said he wasn't shocked by the consistency of the Irishman. "It doesn’t surprise me he seems quite a calm guy, it doesn’t surprise me that he performs and responds like that he did extremely well, his level was good.”

The two sides went into interval level this evening, despite the visitors' domination throughout the first-half. The City players would have been happy to go into the break all square, but Manning wasn't too impressed with his players reaction after his half-time chat. "It clearly didn’t work as you could see right at the start of the second-half, which is frustrating. The biggest bit is the timing of the goal, which makes it so difficult in momentum and having the opportunity to implement the things we spoke about at half-time, there wasn’t enough time to do that, the message at half-time was around that calmness and about going back to basics and doing the simple things really well, making sure we dominate duals, making sure we control space and making sure that we land on second balls."

Willy Gnonto was the difference maker for Leeds on the night, as he scored his first goal in over five months for Daniel Farke's side. The win for the Yorkshire side pushed them up to second in the league, with Ipswich Town and Southampton breathing down their neck but with two games in hand on west-country outfit. Defeat for City leaves them in 13th place and winless in seven in the league. Manning's side will have to dust themselves down and go again as they face Nottingham Forest in their FA Cup fourth-round replay next Wednesday.