Nigel Pearson delivers Bristol City verdict after ‘workman’ performance against Huddersfield

Nigel Pearson was pleased with Bristol City’s performance in their 2-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at Ashton Gate on Wednesday night.

Goals from Nahki Wells and substitute Antoine Semenyo proved enough to earn the Robins a third consecutive home victory with three clean sheets recorded.

City are just a point off of the top six after the win, trailing Reading by a point whilst possessing a vastly superior goal difference and a win on Saturday could put them in the automatic promotion picture.

“It’s a good result, we played alright at times, could’ve seen the game out better. But, I think we deserved to win,” Pearson said in his post-match press conference.

“I think it was a pretty workmanlike performance, we deserved to win the game and it’s nice to be not overly satisfied having won the game.

“Tonight was about the result more than it was the performance. We were ok, we deserved to win, but we could have shown a bit more authority at times.”

The Robins have netted 13 goals in seven league matches this season, and the return of Semenyo has further strengthened their attack in recent matches.

He is still recovering from a lengthy shin injury, and Pearson is therefore being cautious with his minutes. The Ghanain has scored three goals in three substitute appearances since his return to action.

“We’ve got some good options, it’s nice to be able to change things and still get an impact on the pitch,” the manager said.

“Antoine’s come back from his difficulties in the summer and doesn’t look any different so that’s good.

“Nahki Wells has taken his chance well. He played a support role very much last year, but he’s taken his chance so far and as I have said before, if players are in the team it’s up to them to stay there. If you’re a striker, it’s about trying to score goals.”

The 59-year-old was also very keen to emphasise the offensive progress that his side have made over the last 12 months.

“We look like we’re gonna score, that’s the important thing about it. We’ve got a group of players who we know that we’ve got a chance of scoring goals. That’s a massive shift from where we were in the early part of last season, because it felt like a struggle last year,” he explained.

It is the Robins defence that has been their downfall in recent times. They conceded three away at Blackpool on Saturday, but have now kept three home clean sheets in a row.

There were a couple of moments in the match where errors in playing out from the back could’ve cost the Robins, but Pearson was relaxed when asked whether his heart was in his mouth at any moment.

“Not really, no,” he said. “Did we make mistakes? Possibly. But no really, no. You’ve seen some of the errors that occur but we’ve won the game, so most people will go away happy because we’ve won the game.”

The Robins will face an in-form Blackburn Rovers next at Ewood Park, on Saturday, September 3.