Nigel Pearson rues ‘error in possession’ as Bristol City concede late against Blackpool

Robins went behind but came back to lead - and were just injury time away from taking the three points from Bloomfield Road.
Bristol City boss Nigel PearsonBristol City boss Nigel Pearson
Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson

Bristol City’s achilles heel is conceding late goals, and once again the Robins’ weakness reared its ugly head in the Championship again.

The West Country side hit three goals to go into injury time in front 2-3 against Blackpool, but Theo Corbeanu came off the bench to score a 90th-minute equaliser for the hosts.

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Nigel Pearson’s side played their part in a thrilling 3-3 draw, and will feel like they should have held on for the win given they were leading so late.

Tommy Conway netted a fifth goal of the campaign to equalise after Josh Bowler’s seventh minute deflected strike had squirmed past Daniel Bentley.

Blackpool went 2-1 up when Jerry Yates found the corner of the goal in the 55th minute before Antoine Semenyo scored his second goal in two games as the substitute converted in the 63rd minute, after coming off the bench only seconds earlier.

Nahki Wells was involved as Marvin Ekpiteta put into his own net with 20 minutes to go but the side from Ashton Gate could not hold on to their lead.

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Following the game Pearson gave his verdict on the match and rued his side – who have scored 11 Championship goals in six games; the joint most in the division – gifting away a late equaliser.

“It was a good game of football. A good advert for the Championship, as people would say,” said Pearson to the official club channels after the game.

“We’re unhappy at the end obviously, not to – I was going to say hang on, but we weren’t really doing that – just to see it through.

“But an error in possession that’s cost us dearly.

“I thought it was a really good game and we showed just how dangerous we can be. I was generally pleased with how we went about it,” said Pearson.

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The final goal for the Seasiders came after Zak Vyner was caught on the ball, miscontrolling a strong Kal Naismith pass.

Although City have scored as many as anyone, joint with Burnley, they have conceded nine goals this term too.

Bristol City do stretch their unbeaten run to six games however.

“It’s the first game we’ve gone behind in and actually we were managing the game pretty well.

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“Like I say, when errors occur like that, we were punished. It doesn’t feel great at the moment but I still think there were lots of positives today because we might have lost that one in the past,” the manager explained, adding that his side had not been bullied or outplayed.

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