'Players were relentless' - Johnson

Saturday, November 30th 2019

Lee Johnson saluted his players for bouncing back from their West Brom defeat after they put five goals past Huddersfield Town.

The Robins extended their unbeaten Ashton Gate run to eight games and scored five goals at home for the first time since April 2018, through Josh Brownhill, Niclas Eliasson, Nathan Baker, Ashley Williams and Andreas Weimann.

And here’s what the head coach told Robins TV:

Relentless

“I thought we were exceptional in short bursts today. We started well and were relentless in and around their final third with our energy, delivery and runners in the box. It was a great response after Wednesday - we all took that result bad, including fans, staff and players - and it was a case of creating that siege mentality.

“The players that came in did extremely well and obviously we changed the shape and got at them. In wide areas we were dangerous with runners, momentum and of course quality.

“It started from our pressing, our distances were good, the boys were on point with the triggers and we are difficult to play against when we are like that because we can break quickly with quality.

“Even though it was a home game, it was almost that siege mentality of being away and under the cosh. When we get in good areas we have the one-on-one ability of Eliasson, fullbacks overlapping, Diedhiou getting across people in the box and Brownhill making the box then we can be dangerous so I’m very happy with the players today.”

Stand-out

“There were some stand-out performers today and that’s due to the work we have been doing.

“I was very pleased with Han-Noah Massengo. We have been talking to him about staying in his lane and a bit more discipline in holding his body position and I thought he was outstanding today.

“Niclas Eliasson trains unbelievably all the time and had a very effective game today, Jack Hunt steps up…there're too many to really mention but, as a team, everybody drove everybody forward and we stayed concentrated. I was disappointed to concede the second goal but at that point we’d done enough to kill the game off.”

Han-Noah Massengo impressed Head Coach Lee Johnson

Unbeaten home run

“To continue the unbeaten run at home is important and I think we have been building up to that. We got a bit of unfair criticism after the home game against Forest and you saw their result straight after that game, winning 4-0 (at Queens Park Rangers).

Forest are a very good side so although we didn’t have a shot on target, we created some golden opportunities slap bang in the middle of the goal, so we felt that a four or five-goal stint was coming, so credit to the boys.”