Bristol City boss Gary Johnson accepted personal responsibility for his team's 2-0 Championship defeat at Watford last night. Johnson made four changes to the side which drew 1-1 with Coventry at the weekend and altered the shape of his team, deploying a 3-4-3 system at Vicarage Road. But the move backfired badly as Watford forged a 2-0 half-time lead, courtesy of headed goals from Heidar Helguson and Martin Taylor. Although City's manager introduced Ivan Sproule and Marvin Elliott at half-time and saw his team put in an improved display after the break, he was unable to prevent a defeat which saw the Robins slip to 12th in the table. Brutally honest when meeting the press afterwards, Johnson admitted: "We can all be wise in hindsight and I blame myself a lot for what happened."
Bristol Evening Post

City's Championship play-off pretensions were rendered notional as they crashed to defeat at Vicarage Road. Requiring victory to close the widening gap between themselves and the top six, the Robins instead suffered the kind of setback which suggests they could yet spend the remainder of the campaign scrambling to stay clear of the relegation battle rather than pursuing promotion to the Premier League. If a meagre return of two wins in their last 17 games is not sufficient cause for concern, then a mounting casualty list will surely set alarm bells ringing ahead of testing fixtures against promotion hopefuls Sheffield United, Leicester City and West Brom during the next 11 days. However, the absence of several first-team regulars offered only partial mitigation for a first-half display which effectively ceded the initiative and, with it, the points to a Watford side which needed no second invitation.
Bristol Evening Post

Watford produced an excellent display of attacking football to get their play-off ambitions back on track with a confident 2-0 victory over fellow promotion-hopefuls Bristol City. The Hornets dominated the first half and took a deserved early lead through QPR loanee Heidar Helguson who headed home an Adrian Mariappa cross. Malky Mackay's men doubled their advantage before half-time when fellow loanee Martin Taylor snuck in behind Lewin Nyatanga to find the back of the net.
Daily Mail

Play-off outsiders Watford completed another impressive home victory as Bristol City's poor run showed no sign of abating. Heidar Helguson gave the hosts a 14th-minute lead by heading home Adrian Mariappa's cross. Defender Martin Taylor doubled that lead 20 minutes later by volleying home Henri Lansbury's free-kick, after Alvaro Saborio had been booked for hacking down Jay DeMerit.
Daily Express

Bishop's Cleeve will welcome Football League opposition to Kayte Lane this evening when Bristol Rovers visit in the quarter-finals of the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup. With a home tie against Bristol City awaiting the winners in the semi-finals and the Villagers on a good run of form, manager Paul Collicutt is relishing the tie.
Gloucestershire Citizen