Bristol City players playing for Nigel Pearson’s future as well as their own says boss

Nigel Pearson says his Bristol City squad needs a shake up whether it be transfers or not after their 1-1 draw against Peterborough United.

The Robins were below-par in the first-half but took the lead through Rob Atkinson. And despite having a man advantage after Joe Ward’s sending off, Jonson Clarke-Harris scored an equaliser with the Posh the better side.

At the full-time whistle, the home supporters, who had stayed until the end, showed their displeasure with loud boos.

The result leaves City 19th in the table, the same position they finished last year, when Pearson took over.

“We haven’t necessarily got a problem with quality but the squad needs a shake up,” he said.

“Are they poor players? No they are not. It’s something else.

“We’ve got five games left, the players that are here can either be here next year or not. It goes for me as well, so whoever comes in has got the same problem and that is getting players to play.”

At half-time, Pearson introduced Zak Vyner for Robbie Cundy, as he reverted from a 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3, whilst Han-Noah Massengo was also brought on early on. Antoine Semenyo made a return from injury, but like the other substitutes, he was unable to impact the match.

“It was two poor teams. They are poor because of quality and sometimes our personality let us down. We should do more and we had enough situations to win the game. Wasteful.

"We play against good sides and we’re good, we play against poor sides and then we match them whether they’re good, bad, or indifferent. That’s why we’re where we are.

“It’s another illustration of the work that needs to be done. The performance today really is a reflection of us as a club, easey-osey, it’s us as a club.

“The performance today really is a reflection of us as a club, it’s easy, that’s us.

“The substitutions today, all of the ones that went on today didn’t make any impact and do anything of note. They fell into the trap of being very similar.

“It’s something that I’ve seen so many times already. Play well against good sides, average against average sides and poor against poor sides.

“It’s mentality and personalities. Simple.”

Whilst there weren’t too many positives to come out of the match, given the nature of the performance, centre-back Atkinson continued a goal scoring run.

He scored his second goal in as many games after netting his first for the club against Bournemouth last week, as he continues to mark a respectful first year at Championship level.

Pearson said: “I thought Rob played okay today, he was solid and he had a good goal. Two in two and a good strike rate for a centre-back.”