Ashton Gate: Bristol City v Stoke City (Saturday 30th September 2023)

Thank for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video! Here is my summary of the days events below:
A battle of the cities with Bristol City taking on Stoke at Ashton Gate. The Robins were unlucky to lose their previous game away to league leaders Leicester to the odd goal. For Stoke, the pressure was firmly on Alex Neil as they were without in a win in their last 5 games in the league, losing 4 on the way.
And it looked like it was going to be another dismal afternoon for the Potters with Sam Bell scoring from a fairly scrappy corner kick after 5 minutes. Then on the quarter of the hour, Ki-Jana Hoever’s dreadful pass back from the halfway line was pounced upon by Nahki Wells who calmly slotted past Mark Travers.
Bristol City were relentless up to this point this was until they lost the ball just outside the left side on their penalty box and a bolt from the blue from Mehdi Leris brought the deficit down to 1. For the rest of the game, the Robins looks depleted and struggled to reach the heights of the opening stages. They did however try to create chances until the whistle blew for half time.
Into the second half and Stoke were on it from the get go with Sean Haksabanovic scoring from a cutback from Hoever, making up for his earlier error to even things out. The tide looked like it was turning in the Potters favour for the last 40 minutes of the game and the home fans were getting restless. Nigel Pearson made a quadruple change just after the equaliser in the hope of lifting the Robins.
This change did not have the desired effect and the home side were lacking ideas and creativity for the remainder of the game. And then disaster struck before the end of the game with Bae Joon-Ho cutting back for an unmarked Nathan Lowe at the back post which brought jubilation in the away end. An incredible comeback from what occurred in the first 15 minutes.
The Bristol City fans were not an all pleased with their side’s collapse on a lovely Autumn’s day. I was amazed with the stages of this collapse during the game, which began with Stoke’s opening goal. But fair play to Alex Neil and his side for staying in the game and having the belief to comeback despite being on a dismal run of form.
Also great to see a young homegrown talents flourishing in the game, such as Sam Bell and especially Nathan Lowe in the context of the day with the winning goal.