Simpson has ‘no magic wand’ to arrest City slide
BRISTOL CITY BARNSLEY 0 1
PAUL Simpson admitted there is “no magic wand” he can wave to arrest Bristol City’s alarming slump in form and has urged the club hierachy to appoint a successor to former head coach Dean Holden as quickly as possible.
Simpson and fellow assistant head coach Keith Downing were placed in charge of the Robins following the sacking of Holden last Tuesday, but they could do nothing to prevent yet another loss – and another poor performance – at home to Barnsley on Saturday afternoon.
The Ashton Gate outfit managed just one shot on target in the entire game, a long-range effort from Famara Diedhiou in the first half.
Simpson told reporters after the game: “Barnsley were physically and mentally tougher. While our players worked hard, there was too little quality for us to create openings.
“There is no magic wand or pills we can use to change our run of results. I know the owner (Steve
Lansdown) has made it clear there is a selection process to go through, but the sooner the club appoint Dean’s successor the better.
“The staff are in limbo at the moment. Keith and I will be as professional as possible, but the improvement we need has to come from inside the players.
“They know that. We have told them to ignore the League table and just concentrate on the next game, which is a very tough one away to Middlesbrough on Tuesday.
“We will prepare as well as we can, but we had 15 players unavailable because of injury today.
“It’s important we get as many of those players back as quickly as possible, but for the moment we have to go with what we have.
“We have told the lads to just concentrate on showing that they are better footballers than is currently looking the case.”
The winning goal was a scruffy 67th-minute effort from Carlton Morris. The substitute netted his third goal in as many games from close range after Alex Mowatt’s corner from the left led to a desperate scramble in City’s six-yard box.
But it was no more than the side from South Yorkshire deserved from a dominant display against managerless opponents who have now lost their last seven matches in a row in all competitions.
Asked about the prospect of a relegation battle, Simpson said: “We’ve been sucked into a mid-table position at the moment, I think we are ten points off of the play-offs and ten points from relegation, so we are in the middle of the table.
“What we need to do is find a win from somewhere. In fact, what I’ll say, we need to find a point from somewhere. We need to find something, get a performance that gets a minimum of a point, that addresses this slump, and gets us to move forward in a positive way.
“We’ve got to get a performance out of them, get them believing in themselves again, continuing to work hard as they have done.”
City: Bentley, Mariappa, Kalas, Moore, Hunt, Vyner (Paterson 69), Lansbury (Bakinson 58), Palmer, Sessegnon (Nagy 76), Semenyo (Wells 69), Diedhiou. Not Used: O’Leary, Pearson, Bell, Towler, Massengo.
Booked: Hunt.
Barnsley: Collins, Sollbauer (Sibbick 75), Helik,
Andersen, Brittain, Palmer, Mowatt, Styles (Williams 57), Chaplin (Morris 57), Dike (Frieser 82), Woodrow (Adeboyejo 57). Not Used: Walton, Kane, Oduor, Halme. Booked: Mowatt, Collins.
Goals: Morris 67.
Referee: James Linington (Isle of Wight).