Nigel Pearson drops Bristol City selection hint ahead of QPR clash

Nigel Pearson is not expecting to make wholesale changes to his Bristol City side when they face QPR at Loftus Road on Bank Holiday Monday.

The Robins play the final match of their 2022/23 campaign in West London, and are hoping to finish the season on a high. City are on course to achieve their highest finish under Pearson, having registered 17th and 18th placed finishes in the first two campaigns. The 59-year-old is key to finish the season with a win, which could take them to 15th, should Hull City drop points.

The end of season is a period in which teams who are not involved in a promotion, play-off or relegation battle, can experiment with new systems and try new players. Several managers opt to give opportunities to younger players, who can get an experience of being in a match-day squad.

Pearson however has already given opportunities to the likes of Omar Taylor-Clarke, Marlee Francois, Dylan Kadji and Joe Low from the academy this season, with Sam Bell firmly taking his chance.

“​​I’m not gonna mess about too much with the team,” said Pearson in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon. There may be one or two changes there may not be, we’ve not decided yet.

“Whoever starts, the expectations will be exactly the same. I want us to go out there and put in a really good performance.”

From an outside standpoint, this game could be described as a 'dead rubber' but that isn't how Nigel Pearson is thinking. He reflected back to a time when he was in charge of Hull City, and they faced his current club Bristol City on the final game of the 2010/11 season. The Tigers had been on a 17-game away unbeaten record, and had looked to finish the campaign strongly but lost heavily at Ashton Gate.

Jon Stead opened the scoring with a tap-in just three minutes in and then Brett Pitman Jon Stead opened the scoring with a tap-in just three minutes in and then Brett Pitman chipped goalkeeper Matt Duke for a second. Jamal Campbell-Ryce made sure of the victory with a clinical finish, and it secured a 15th-placed finish for Bristol City, whilst Hull finished mid-table.

“I remember when I was at Hull City and we’d broken the club record for the longest away run of games unbeaten,” recalled Pearson. We played at Bristol City at the last game of the season and it was awful. Bristol City won 3-0 and we were c**p. It’s infuriating is what it does, undoing all the good work, and what it does it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

“What we need to do is finish the season with a positive performance which gets us more points and it’s what it’s really all about.”

Despite being the final match of the season, and with pre-season being a clean slate, the performances against QPR could help shape Pearson’s thinking going in to next season.

“These are situations you learn quite a bit about your players, who has got the most motivation and the inner drive to go and play regardless of what the situation is.”

“The pressure of performance is quite an interesting thing to look at. Some players really struggle with big games. Some players are just brilliant in big games and can’t raise themselves for other games.

He added: “What we need to establish is for the team works ethic to be exactly the same wherever it be QPR on the last day of the season, or Man City in the FA Cup, it doesn’t matter, it’s the same thing. We’ve come unstuck in games like Lincoln City this year, with exactly that. Some players have just not turned up and it is infuriating.

“It clarifies how you take the squad forward, and all those things in the moment there are emotional attachments to those kinds of events where you feel a bit of anger. It clarifies where we are and what we need to do.”