Nigel Pearson brands Coventry situation a ‘farce’ as Bristol City prepare to face Kasey Palmer

Nigel Pearson has branded the pitch situation ahead of Bristol City’s Carabao Cup tie with Coventry City ‘a farce’.

The Robins will travel to the newly-arranged venue of Burton Albion’s Pirrelli Stadium after the pitch at Coventry’s home ground was deemed ‘unplayable’

A pitch inspection took place after Sunday’s postponement with Rotherham United and an improvement hadn’t been made in the days after the original decision.

News of a change in venue only broke on Monday afternoon which has meant logistical changes for City, such as a change in hotel, with a longer journey to be made.

Asked in the pre-match press conference, he said: “It’s in the north section and it’s been a bit of a farce. I try and concentrate on the football. I’m not an administrator and I think it’s been very poorly handled.

“I’m not getting too much in the whys and wherefores of availability of the pitch. We have to concentrate on football because the rest of it has been really poor.

“The hotel for a start, which has been hard to get somewhere close. Travel arrangements and hotel arrangements have been difficult to organise.”

City may come up against one of their former players in Kasey Palmer, who was allowed to leave for an undisclosed fee this summer.

Palmer fell out of favour under the current regime and hadn’t played a league match for City since last October.

A cameo appearance off of the bench against Fulham took place but he wasn’t considered for further match day squads and his time at Ashton Gate went out with a whimper.

“No not really,” responded Pearson when asked if there was a particular game plan to deal with the former Chelsea youngster.

“We know what Kasey is about and where his strengths and weaknesses are. We are preparing ourselves for the game. He’s one of their squad.

“I’m sure if he does play that he will want to do well. We need to get a result for our own season to get it up and running.

“We will have a few changes but I don’t know what they are going to do. Whatever transpires we want to try and win the game.”

As for team news, it has been confirmed that midfielder Matty James will be out for the next fortnight or so, limiting midfield options.

James injured his calf in the warm-up against Sunderland and was withdrawn completely from the match-day squad.

There is also an illness amongst the squad which could see their numbers dwindle even more in what a depleted side already.

“We’ve gone or two with illness at the minute, we will have a check on those tomorrow,” Pearson revealed.

“He’ll (Matty James) be out for a couple of weeks, two or three weeks, something like that.

As to whether Cam Pring could feature, he said: “He has missed a lot of pre-season so he will have to wait for his chance like everybody else.

“If he gets an opportunity it’s up to him to take it so it is quite straight forward.”