Bristol City verdict: Williams on edge, Manning bang on and project clear in Oxford United draw

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"Pretty quiet, lowkey and non-eventful," was Liam Manning's response when asked for his initial assessment of Bristol City's draw with Oxford United. The Robins' head coach had his tongue firmly in his cheek as he attempted to dissect a chaotic 90 minutes of football on the side of The Kassam Stadium pitch.

The 39-year-old's smile certainly told the story. Had the Reds been at their best? No, but they had battled against what felt like 12 men at times to come away with a point.

While some supporters who made the trip east may not have settled for a point ahead of kick-off, they would have likely bitten your hand off for a 1-1 draw when they learned their side would be playing the majority of the game with 10 men and the be reduced to nine for the final minutes.

After Joe Williams had been sent down the tunnel in the first half, things could have become ugly in the second period when Gregory Leigh found the net just before the hour mark. Instead, a moment of magic from Mark Sykes ensured that not even a late second yellow for Ross McCrorie could deny the Reds a point.

This was a case of a draw feeling like a win. On an afternoon where it didn't feel like much went the way of Manning's side, they found a way to come away with something. That hasn't been the case too often this season and although everyone of a City persuasion would have wanted to end the winless run on the road, Saturday felt like a step in the right direction.

It is certainly not a game that we will forget in any hurry so here are the main talking points from the Robins' 1-1 draw with Oxford United at The Kassam Stadium...

Williams on the edge

There were times during Joe Williams' injury absence when supporters accused Bristol City of lacking a battling, physical presence with a bit of bite in the middle of the park. When he is at his best, the former Everton man can be all those things. He never shirks a tackle, never gives anything less than 100 per cent and is capable of doing some special things with the ball at his feet from time to time.

However, those characteristics can occasionally be what hold him back. The debate over whether or not Oliver Langford should have shown him a red card for his first-half tackle on Will Vaulks will continue for days to come. While the referee seemed incredibly keen to give the City man his marching orders, Williams' challenge did give him the perfect opportunity.

It felt as though time almost stood still as the 28-year-old took off, landed, got a foot on the ball and then connected with the former Cardiff City man just inside the hosts' half and when the Oxford players surrounded the official, the card was only ever going to be one colour.

(Image: Photo by Cameron Smith/Getty Images)

Was it definitely a sending-off? I wouldn't say so, but why even give Langford the chance to make that decision? Williams is no longer a young player, at 28, he is now at an age where he is one of the senior heads in Manning's changing room. While the Robins head coach is reluctant to take the passion out of the midfielder's game, he knows that controlling his emotions is a skill he is still perfecting.

"I've spoken a lot in the past, and probably had some critics come at me for talking about emotion, but that's the skill," Manning told Bristol Live. "I want people passionate, I want people emotional, but it has to be controlled. You have to be in control of it. Joe's one of those who has improved massively at doing it and like I said, he's obviously frustrated with what happened today, naturally, but what you don't want to do is take it out of someone's game because it is such an important part of it."

Injuries have obviously played a part in Williams' lack of consistency under Manning's management so far, but he has all the skills and ability required to have the same sort of consistent impact that Jason Knight does week in and week out, he has to channel his emotions more productively. The City skipper was clearly frustrated on Saturday but instead of flying into challenges, he covered every blade of grass on the pitch and battled away in a more controlled manner.

Manning gets it right

It has almost become a bit of a joke around Bristol City supporters that you can set your watch by Manning making his first changes in a game on the hour mark, so often has the Reds head coach turned to his bench at that stage this season. Having gone a minute early against Blackburn Rovers last time out, he pulled things forward by 15 minutes at The Kassam on Saturday.

Of course, Joe Williams' sending-off will have forced his hand, but I am confident there will have been plenty of fans both in the ground and at home questioning the 39-year-old's decision to introduce both Sinclair Armstrong and Max Bird for Scott Twine and Nahki Wells at half-time. Wells is the Robins' best finisher and Twine has been a match-winner in recent weeks, why would they be the two players you take off with the game in the balance at 0-0?

That second half probably shows why Manning is in the City dugout while I'm writing this and you're reading it. Armstrong was a nuisance throughout as he battled away at the top end of the pitch, occupying defenders and holding the ball up when required. His run to win the free-kick that led to the away side's equaliser was exactly what you expect from the centre-forward as he got ahead of his man, got his body in front of the ball and took the contact as he did against Rovers last weekend.

Bird may not have had many opportunities to show his quality with the ball at his feet, but when he did, he made them count. His instinct in possession is to always look forward and he also played the perfectly weighted pass into Mark Sykes that created the Reds' leveller.

Having similarly managed to turn the game on its head in the Robins' 2-2 draw at Hillsborough last month with the introduction of George Earthy, Sam Bell and Anis Mehmeti, it seems only fair that Manning is given his flowers this time around for getting his changes spot on. Even late on, bringing Marcus McGuane on for Earthy and George Tanner on for Armstrong was exactly what was required to grind out a result.

Unlike in his first season, the City boss now has some depth at his disposal and what is even more important is that he is willing to use it, even if he hasn't quite yet strayed from the three at the back system.

The George Earthy project

When team news landed at the disgustingly early time of 11:30 on Saturday morning, the majority of Bristol City supporters' eyes will have been drawn to one name in particular, George Earthy. For only the second time in his loan spell with the Robins, the attacking midfielder was deployed as exactly that, an attacking midfielder.

Liam Manning was asked in January what the West Ham loanee needed to do to really kickstart his time with the Reds in the second half of the season and his answer was quite simple: "The big bit for him is the goal contributions, the goals, the assists." While there were plenty of moments to like in Earthy's display at The Kassam, he just couldn't quite find that "big bit" needed to make a decisive impact at Championship level.

His afternoon was almost summed up in the opening exchanges. He made an excellent run beyond the Oxford backline before being picked out by a great pass from Scott Twine. He looked to turn whilst controlling the pass but was unable to gather it in motion meaning both the ball and the scoring chance went begging.

(Image: Photo by Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)

Similarly, in the second half, he showed his class to kill a long ball without breaking his stride before running the full length of the United half into the penalty area. When the time came to shoot, Earthy instead looked to chop onto his right foot and was tackled by a defender who he had left in his dust initially.

Putting the ball in the back of the net is the hardest part of football and if Earthy was at the stage of his career where he was banging them in for fun, West Ham probably wouldn't have sent him to Ashton Gate for the year. This is the attacking midfielder's first full proffesional season so it is only natural that he has taken a little while to find his feet.

His situation isn't too dissimilar to that of Yu Hirakawa and Manning admitted this week that while the Japanese winger would have an impact between now and the end of the season, he wouldn't be surprised if this campaign helped him kick on ahead of next term. Unfortunately, unlike Hirakawa, City may not be the beneficiary of Earthy's development in the future, but that doesn't mean he can't help them in their play-off pursuit this year. He's not the finished article, but he's got more than a bit about him.

A step in the right direction

Is there a better league in the world than the Championship? It may not have the best players, the best managers or the biggest attendances but it seems to always produce the unexpected week in and week out.

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Away from The Kassam, Plymouth Argyle managed to beat play-off chasing West Brom 2-0, Portsmouth picked up a point against Burnley, Watford extended their recent losing run to three games with a 1-0 defeat to Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday could only manage a draw against Luton Town.

Those results probably put into perspective just how crucial the point at Oxford and the point against Sheffield Wednesday could be, come the end of the season. City's draw with Gary Rowett's side on Saturday has moved them to within two points of the play-off places. It is a small, but potentially significant, step in the right direction.

Manning got a fair bit of criticism after the Reds' defeat to Coventry City for suggesting the priority was winning at home while trying to pick up as many points as possible away. Whatever your outlook is on that statement, matches like this weekend are where there is a method in that madness. Sometimes you do have to grind it out and in their last two away games, this team have shown they're capable of that.

"A lot for an extremely young group," Manning replied when asked what the Reds' second-half effort said about his team. "You look at the age of the team that we finished with, an extremely young group. Taking off George Earthy at 20, you've got Sincs at 20-something.

"We're a young team and I think it's going to be an invaluable experience today in terms of how we reflect, how we learn and how we use it in the future."

Of course, some wins on the road will be needed at some point to get over the line, but performances against Oxford and at Hillsborough have provided a solid foundation.

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