(FM14) Drink up thee cider!!!

Bristol City seize the "Davy"

Bristol City manager has made his 1st signing of the mid-season transfer window and brought in 22 year old Dutch central midfielder Davy Propper on loan from Vitesse. Bristol City will pay a total of around 5k a week to facilitate the move (combination of player wage and loan fee) and this is seen as a bargain seeing the experience Propper has. The former Holland U21 attacking midfielder has bags of technique and has played over 100 matches for Dutch side Vitesse in the Dutch Eredivisie over the past 5 seasons.



Propper is seen as the last piece of Andrew Booy's jigsaw in his quest to get Bristol City promoted this season. He will play in central midfield with Trebel (who may need to play slightly more defensively) and this will allow Strandberg to partner El-Abd in central defence where he is more comfortable. Interestingly Propper is out of contract at the end of the season and Booy will use the next 5 months to determine if he will offer Propper a contract when his deal with Vitesse runs out.

Bristol City vs Notts County - 7th January 2014
3-0
Baldock
Baldock 30, 69 mins
Bolado 68 mins



Manager's review
Bristol City's quick succession of fixtures continued so Booy had to bring in Keane, El-Abd, Reid, Wagstaff, Propper (his City debut), Baldock and Bryan for Moloney, Strandberg, Trebel, De Lanlay, Gillett, Burns and Emmanuel-Thomas. The team comprised of mostly 2nd choice players easily defeated a tired Notts County team that did not have the squad depth to deal with the amount of fixtures in recent weeks. Booy and his players were happy to avenge the opening day loss to Notts County. City's strikers Baldock and Bolado ran the County defence ragged, MOTM Baldock got 2 goals and 1 assist and a 9.1 rating and Bolado scored a 28 yard free-kick and got a 8.3 rating.

Great win over Notts, and he's a "propper" talent!

Bristol City vs Walsall - 11th January 2014
2-0
Bolado
Bolado 2, 15 mins



Manager's review
Booy was finally able to name his strongest possible starting 11 which looks like this:
This side easily brushed aside Walsall with Bolado getting a MOTM performance of 8.8 and taking his recent scoring record to 5 goals in 3 matches. A special mention should also go to Jose Catala who picked up his 2nd assist for City and looked a constant attacking threat from left back. Davy Propper also assisted Bolado's 2nd goal to make his first real impact for the club, he is still working his way to match fitness so the City fans are just getting glimpses of his real potential. It was more good news for Booy as 2nd place Preston and 3rd place Wolves drew 0-0 at Molineux. The Robins now finally have a week off before their next match at Tranmere.

Tranmere vs Bristol City - 18th January 2014
1-2
Bolado 90+2 mins



Manager's review
Andrew Booy named his strongest 11 for the 2nd match running but this couldn't stop Tranmere winning meaning that the Robins have only won one away league fixture in the last 5 matches. In truth City did have the better of the match statistically but they just could not convert this into goals until Bolado's injury time consolation goal. The Equatoguinean striker is in excellent form and now has an average rating of 7.2 for the season meaning he has overtaken Baldock and De Lanley as City's best performer so far this season.

Port Vale vs Bristol City - 21st January 2014
1-1
Baldock 35 mins
El-Abd 79 mins



Manager's review
Bristol City made one change to the side that lost to Tranmere 3 days ago, De Lanlay was tired so in came Williams at CB, Strandberg moved to MC and Trebel to MR. City dominated possession and seemed in control for the entire match until captain El Abd got sent off with 10 minutes remaining. Baldock had given the Robins a one-goal lead but after El Abd's indiscipline this wasn't enough as Port Vale grabbed a late equaliser meaning that City missed the opportunity to extend their lead at the top of League One. Next up is the trip to Peterborough in the FA Cup 4th round.

Peterborough vs Bristol City - 25th January 2014
2-1
Trebel
Baldock 63 mins
Bolado 67 mins



Manager's review
Andrew Booy made one change to the starting 11 as De Lanlay came back in for the suspended El-Abd which meant Strandberg went back to his preferred role at centre back. City went into the game as slight underdogs so Booy adopted a Standard approach rather than his usual attacking approach, especially after the disappointing away results in the league at Tranmere and Port Vale. The Robins played well and the strike team of Bolado and Baldock were on the scoresheet again. Bolado is top scorer in the FA Cup this season with 7 goals in total from the first 4 rounds. MOTM Trebel had stats of one assist, two key passes and three tackles giving him a match rating of 7.8. City have a trip to London to face Championship side Charlton in the 5th round.

Sheff Utd vs Bristol City - 28th January 2014
2-0
Bryan
Bryan 25, 61 mins



Manager's review
Three players were tired from the nice FA cup win at Peterborough so in came Cunningham, Osborne, and Bryan for Catala, De Lanlay and Emmanuel-Thomas. It was the surprise inclusion of Joe Bryan that reaped the rewards for manager Andrew Booy as the young left winger got both goals (assisted by Propper and Bolado) and the MOTM award on only his 4th start of the campaign. City has 63% of possession and restricted United to only long shots at goal to end of the month of January very happily. The only bad news was that after the game top scorer Sam Baldock was diagnosed by the City medical staff to have picked up a bruised rib at the end of the game and will miss the next match against rivals Swindon at Ashton Gate. Strandberg also picked up his 10th yellow card of the season and will be suspended for the next two matches.

January 2014 - THE REVIEW

Fixtures

Carlisle vs CITY - 1st January 2014 2-1
CITY vs Birmingham - 4th January 2014 2-0 FA Cup 3rd Round
CITY vs Notts County - 7th January 2014 3-0
CITY vs Walsall - 11th January 2014 2-0
Tranmere vs CITY - 18th January 2014 1-2
Port Vale vs CITY - 21st January 2014 1-1
Peterborough vs CITY - 25th January 2014 2-1 FA Cup 4th Round
Sheff Utd vs CITY - 28th January 2014 2-0

Monthly Awards

Best Player - Ivan Bolado - average rating 7.32

Ivan Bolado was nominated as the League One player of the month for January and came third in the running like his Manager Andrew Booy in the League One manager of the month award. The City striker scored 7 goals in 7 matches in January to take his total tally for the season to 20 goals. Bolado won the MOTM award twice in January and now has an average rating of 7.17 over the whole campaign to make him City's best performer so far this season.

Highly commended
Jose Catala - average rating 7.14
The attacking left wing-back has been outstanding down City's left hand side since his arrival in November and contributed 3 assists in January in addition to his strong defensive performances. Was the key element of the Robins defence that kept 4 clean sheets in January.
Derrick Williams - average rating 7.10
The young central defender has progressed well in training all season and has therefore seen his first team appearances improve in January. Williams started 5 games in January and made 5 key tackles and 5 key headers in these matches in a solid month for the Irish defender.

Booy offloads Elliott and Fontaine on deadline day

There was nobody coming in through the doors at Ashton Gate during a busy end to this mid-season transfer window however Bristol City manager Andrew Booy did use this opportunity to offload two players whose contracts are expiring at the end of this season and they would not be renewed. Both players have taken large pay cuts to join their new clubs so Bristol City have to pay them compensation until the end of the season but it is still less then would be needed to pay if they saw out their contracts at the club.



Centre-back Liam Fontaine joined League 2 Portsmouth for 1K. The former City captain starting the season as Booy's 2nd favourite CB partnering El-Abd in defence but soon fell out of favour after he was the only member of the first team squad to deteriorate in terms of ability in training. He made 9 appearances for the Robins this campaign (mainly at the start of the season) with the highlight being the MOTM performance against Gillingham in which he scored an important goal. His average rating over these matches was 6.70 and Andrew Booy was quick to wish him luck at his new club.



Defensive central midfielder Marvin Elliott started the campaign in Bristol City's first team squad but was soon demoted to the reserves after the summer arrivals of De Lanlay, Trebel and Strandberg. The Jamaican international failed to make a 1st team appearance for Andrew Booy and has joined Scottish championship side Dundee for 2k to aid their bid for promotion to the top flight.

Bristol City vs Swindon - 1st Febuary 2014
3-2
Emmanuel-Thomas
De Lanlay 4 mins
Emmanuel-Thomas 37, 61 mins



Manager's review
Booy made three enforced changes to the side that won in Sheffield 4 days ago. Keane was tired so in came Catala, Baldock was injured so Emmanuel-Thomas came in up-front, De Lanlay came in for the suspended Strandberg. The changes proved instrumental as Emmanuel-Thomas and De Lanlay were the men to make the difference. MOTM Emmanuel-Thomas relished the chance to play up front and got two well taken goals to take his tally to 7 goals this season. De Lanlay was a constant threat down the right ring and opened the scoring in the 1st 5 mins and also assisted one of teammate Emmanuel-Thomas's goals. The only disappointing aspect was that Swindon scored two goals from a match in which they rarely threatened.

City appoint Goalkeeping Coach Corrigan

Andrew Booy has added further past international experience to his back room team with the appointment of 65 year old former Manchester City GK Joe Corrigan. Corrigan has 9 England international caps to his name and was most notably GK coach at Liverpool for 10 years between 1994-2004. His last full-time job was at Hull City in 2011 which he left after a training ground incident with Jimmy Bullard in pre-season. Corrigan will work alongside Lee Kendall with Bristol City's goalkeepers at all levels. This means Alistair Hines contract as U18 GK coach has been mutually terminated with immediate effect.

Bristol City vs Shrewsbury - 8th February 2014
1-1
Propper
Baldock pen 11 mins
Keane 89 mins



Manager's review
Booy made three changes to the team that won against Swindon as Baldock returned from injury to replace Bryan, Keane came in for Osborne, and El-Abd returned from suspension to replace Cunningham. This match was an interesting League One encounter for City against a Shrewsbury team that are performing above expectations and are in the playoff places. Baldock scored an early penalty and then Shrewsbury midfielder David McAllister got sent off on 39 mins. It seemed that Booy and his City players would then see out the rest of the match until a crazy incident in the 89th minute!!! City were seeing out the game when Osborne passed back to Hansen poorly and the ball rolled into the City net denying Booy what should have been 3 points.....CRAZY stuff.

Stevenage vs Bristol City - 11th February 2014
1-1
Propper
El-Abd 14 mins
El-Abd 17 mins



Manager's review
The only change to the City starting 11 saw Strandberg come into central midfield for the suspended Trebel who misses the next two games after picking up his 10th yellow card against Shrewsbury. It was a day of highs and lows for captain Adam El-Abd who scored the opener from a good corner from MOTM Propper (his 2nd MOTM display in a row) and then 3 minutes later scored an own-goal from a Stevenage corner. Stevenage top scorer Agogo was injured and Booy thought that his City side would break their hoo-doo against a Stevenage side they have failed to beat this season on 3 separate occasions. This was again two points dropped for the Robins and they will hope for a better performance in the FA cup on Saturday when they will also hope that Preston and Wolves will drop points in their respective League matches.

Charlton vs Bristol City - 15th February 2014
2-3
Wilbraham 7 mins
Baldock 24 mins



Manager's review
Booy named the same starting 11 as Trebel served his last match of suspension. It was a frustrating match for City manager Booy to watch as his side went 2-0 up in the 1st half and looked as if they had put their name in the hat for the quarter final draw. However Championship side Charlton came out stronger in the 2nd half and turned the game around to win 3-2 with the 3rd goal coming in the 89th minute to stop a replay. Derrick Williams and Adam El-Abd were poor in central defence with match ratings of 6.2 each and both were at fault for the Charlton goals. On one positive note Propper played was City's best player again picking up another assist and a match rating of 7.4.