I thought first half was like so many games last season before we switched to wing backs - no movement or showing for the ball, centre midfield completely empty leading to constantly going long to an isolated striker and giving them the ball back. In L1 when we had the superior individual quality to come up with a moment of magic our hard work, fitness, battling and set pieces could grind out wins despite a limited method to our play. But in the Championship when we no longer have the higher quality of player you can't get by on hard work and fight alone. It's not that the hard work can't carry you far, or long ball can't be effective but you have to play it well and we have never been that good at it - we are far better mixing it up. If you go long to a lone strikers head with no one close enough to pick up knock downs or flick ons like we did for the first half it is obviously not going to work very well.
By contrast Bristol played a more coherent version of long ball mixed in with some pass and move. Every time their target man Martin went for a header there was someone running beyond him for a flick on and someone running in behind him for a knock down. Every time they looked to the channels there was a runner already there while we generally put balls into the channels before there was a run and we often didn't get it. Poor Magennis was winning nearly everything in the air but the 3 attacking mids were so often miles behind him so all his hard fought aerial dual went straight back to Bristol. But the attack mid despite being too far behind the striker to play off him when we went long were too far ahead of the def mids and full backs when we were looking to play out so there was often no passing options though midfield. It was effectively the worst of both worlds from the attacking mids - too high up to link up and create and too deep to play off the striker leaving a big hole in the middle of the pitch that Bristol had uncontested. We were restricted to Power trying to play very difficult speculative passes from his own half due to a lack of options.
I thought us and Bristol played similar tactics first half but they had attacking movement to make it work while we didn't. By half time we could've conceded another goal and maybe a penalty but despite our struggles we still managed to get 3 good chances for Magennis who somehow missed all 3. It showed if we got our act together Bristol were vulnerable.
For the controversy i thought Williams was sly and stuck his knee into Bennett as he got up looking to provoke a retaliation and Bennett took the bait. It was a soft petulant kick out, not dangerous but regardless of that you're asking for a straight red if you last out. So I think we were very lucky it was only a yellow. To be fair I have noticed for a while refs do seem to use a bit more common sense for the handbags than they used to and I think the game is better for it.
In the second half I think a few things changed the game; Bristol ran out of gas in the heat and stopped pressing and surrendered midfield while our superior fitness saw us keep pushing and we pretty much played the game in their half with them hitting us on the odd break. Power took the game by the scruff of the neck and was everywhere driving us forward - he was at the heart of everything attacking wise - I wish we had another couple of players like him - always willing to take responsibility and trying to be positive. Aasgaard made a huge difference coming on as sub. But I think the main thing was we started to move off the ball which allowed us to start to play though midfield more, there were runners and Magennis finally got some support.
As soon as we started to play a bit and not just giving Bristol back posession so easily they started to struggle, by the end of the game we were dominating and they were clinging on for dear life. It wasn't like we completely changed style, more we started doing the fundemental things to make it work. By the end i thought we deserved the win and were the only team likely to get a winner.
Overall we had to ride our luck again with some of the chances they missed (second half header from Conway was far harder to miss than any of Magennis') and key decisions going our way. But we showed good spirit and fought back well after a bad start and on overall balance of play i think we shaded it. If Magennis could finish we'd probably be celebrating a win.
I hope we really learned after that first half that if we want to be a direct team we have to be far smarter in how we do it than we were last season. I think Bristol will struggle for sure and be down with us in the dog fight. We won't be able to afford to play long like we did first half and get a draw many other times this season but if we can play like we did in the second we'll be competitive against most. It was a mixed performances with encouraging things and stuff we need to work on.
Individually:
Amos - no chance on the goal and despite Bristol creating chances wasn't called into action before injury.
Darikwa- typical erratic did some hard things very well before making a mess on some of the easier things. Defended pretty well but didn't offer much going forward - although lack of options in front of him didn't help. I think Nyambe will be starting ahead of him in the next game or so.
Bennett- lucky to not get a red, defended well but like Darikwa couldn't get forward much except one sublime cross Magennis missed.
Whatmough - outstanding again.
Kerr - playing on the wrong side he still had great game except arguably could've given a penalty.
Naylor- good defensively but needs to take a bit more responsibility in posession. He too often gets a ball in space and just gives it straight back when he has the opportunity to turn or carry the ball or pick a forward pass. He's quite good with the ball when he takes it on but I think sometimes he is over cautious.
Power - sloppy pass lead to their goal but was our driving force in the middle, especially in the second half. His crossing keeps getting better - you can tell he works on that hard in training. Always wanted the ball and looking to take responsibility.
McClean - you always get high energy and aggression but it wasn't his best game, crossing was off again with the exception of a sublime lofted pass to Magennis.
Keane - seemed to go missing in the first half, improved but still quiet in the second half but popped up with the important goal.
Lang - struggled in the first half but seemed to slowly find his rhythm in the last 30 mins and started to beat men and cause havoc like he did last season. I think Lang has really felt the step up in competition but hopefully he's adjusting.
Magennis - probably his most dominant performance as a target man, winning so much despite having so little support. Looked very good on the few occasions we played it into his feet rather than aiming for his head, would like to see more of that. But his finishing was poor, could've had a hatrick.
Aasgaard - I think that was his break out performance, sensational considering it wasn't his natural position. Has to start the next game, he's got the quality we need in the starting 11.
Nyambe - good cameo, didn't do anything spectacular but looked promising.
Broadhead - came on as a no10 and didn't get much of the ball but looked decent on the few occasions he had it.
Jones - don't think he had anything to do.