Johnson calls for siege mentality

Wednesday, January 1st 2020

Lee Johnson says he has “full belief” in his City squad who will learn from their disappointing start to 2020 against Brentford.

Bryan Mbuemo opened the scoring before Ashley Williams was dismissed for a challenge on Ollie Watkins.

Saîd Benrahma ensured Brentford would extend their lead before the break, while Watkins was at the double in the second period, despite a resurgence from the ten-man Robins.

Head Coach Johnson praised his players for working hard but acknowledged against a side like Brentford, City would face “an uphill task” in the circumstances.

‘Sloppy’ start

“I think the sloppy first 15 minutes really ended the chances in terms of giving us an opportunity to build something. At 1-0 down you can cope, there’s still a long time left in the game but with a sending off against a very good side who are very good at controlling the game, controlling the ball, it was always an uphill task.

“Players worked their socks off”

“I thought the boys were brilliant. I thought from the second goal to the third goal we absolutely worked our socks off. The wide men in Andi (Weimann) and Marley Watkins with Famara Diédhiou up top were outstanding, the midfield worked their socks off and defenders did their job.

“It’s always difficult on a pitch as big as Ashton Gate against a side like Brentford with a spare man. Of course I’m hurting but at the same time it may seem strange but I take a lot of positives from the performances.”

Eyeing the “siege mentality”

“You can’t play catch up against a side like that. It comes back to the sloppiness, but we have to quickly forget that one and take the punch on the nose and have that the siege mentality as a team and a club now. I truly believe we can go on a really good run, that’s what is so upsetting about that result. It was after a very good performance against Luton and you want to give yourself every chance to compete and to compete until the end. Unfortunately we didn’t.”

Response to first substitution

“I could hear the grumbling for the Niclas Eliasson one. That was 100 per cent nothing personal. He has been fantastic but the truth of the matter is he is a player who is very, very good when the team is in the ascendency and when the team wasn’t going to be in the ascendency, 70-30 per cent possession then we had better wide men on the pitch to be able to go both ways, defending and attacking. I spoke to Niclas, he knows we love him and he will be champing at the bit for the Shrewsbury game."

“Lessons learnt”

“You get horrible things that go on and sometimes it feels there is a domino effect. We thought we had put a block on it against Luton but we have to go again. I have full belief in the boys and in the squad but we can’t start the game as sloppy as we did and that’s the lesson learnt.”