'Mixed emotions' - Liam Manning stands by his Bristol City strikers after defeat at Southampton

Bristol City created some fine chances at St Mary's but couldn't find a way past Southampton goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu

Liam Manning had mixed emotions after Bristol City’s narrow 1-0 defeat at Southampton, as the Robins delivered a fine first-half performance at St Mary’s but were unable to take their chances as they were undone by a moment of brilliance by Kyle Walker-Peters.

City frustrated the hosts for much of the opening 45 minutes and created some excellent opportunities for Tommy Conway, who planted a far post header over the crossbar and spurned a 1vs1 with Gavin Bazunu, while Mark Sykes was also denied by his Republic of Ireland teammate.

Having held Saints, the crowd inside the stadium was threatening to turn in frustration at their lack of penetration but Walker-Peters cut inside onto his left foot two minutes into the second half to fire a brilliant winner.

City weren’t as organised out of possession or dynamic on the ball after the break, although still created further openings as Harry Cornick broke forward only to lose possession, while Anis Mehmeti teased his way inside only to unleash a weak shot. Cornick also had a decent penalty shout rejected by referee Keith Stroud as his low cross struck Taylor Harwood-Bellis on the arm as he dived across to block.

Manning was visibly deflated after the game, with a feeling of what could have been against one of the Championship promotion favourites. “Half by half, I think the first half the game plan worked, I thought we got success, I thought we frustrated them and restricted them to few chances while carrying a real threat the other way and still playing, it wasn’t just like a counter-attack, we had passage where we passed the ball quite well.

“We obviously created some terrific opportunities which, when you come to a place like this, with how they play, you’re not going to create eight, nine, 10 chances, so it’s a case of when you do create them make sure you take them. That was obviously frustrating.

“Second half, a poor start to the half where we actually spoke about being on the front foot, taking it to them a little bit more, playing in their half as much as we can, but within two, three minutes it’s in the back of our net.

“But the biggest bit, when I look at it, the lads left everything out there; you see they ran at the end, with Harry’s counter-attack, with Anis 1vs1 in the box, we’ll lose games but we want to do is give everything and we can’t question the players tonight.

“Momentum is big in football, first 5-10 minutes, you know they’re going to come out with the noise and have a right go and it’s about making sure you see through those phases, being resilient and sticking together and making sure you give nothing away.

“If you look at it, we’ve lost to a moment of real high quality but some mixed emotions at the minute. Ultimately the biggest thing is attitude, application and trying to transfer the game plan was there.

“We had the header off the corner, the keeper made a great save back post and did well on the 1vs1 and a couple at the end - we had some really good opportunities we have to get better at taking.”

Manning mentioned at Monday’s Fans Forum that City will look to target attacking players in the January window with the need for more goals in the side and it’s hard to get away from night’s like this emphasising such a need.

Against elite Championship sides like Southampton, no team is likely to create a huge volume of chances akin to the ones City produced, so when that does happen there needs to be greater assurance and reliability in the final third.

But Manning is fully behind his striking department, and believes he and his staff can find the suitable improvements that need to be made to ensure the Robins can edge games such as this.

“Elements, I’d say yes," when asked if the missed chances reinforce a need for additions in January. "But I also think, I’m really excited and I’m confident when I look at the attacking players that we’ve got, that we can make them better. I’m confident in Tommy, I’m confident in Belly, Anis, Andi, I think we’ve got some people that can score goals and you see that with the chances we created tonight.

"I think it’s now a case of doing the video work, analysing it, doing extra work on the grass when we’re able to and then, of course, in January it may be a case of seeing what we can do to compliment what we’ve already got. Don’t forget Nahki is on his way back as well, so hopefully we’ll see him in a few weeks.”

As Wells is moving closer to a return, there is fresh injury doubt over Kal Naismith who left the field in the second half after feeling his hamstring. The Scot missed a month from October to November due to a calf issue and will now be assessed ahead of Norwich City on Sunday.

That game will almost certainly force Manning’s hand in making changes with Mark Sykes also replaced on the south coast due to fatigue and Jason Knight once again getting through a huge amount of work, with both involved for the Republic of Ireland across the international break.

“Kal felt his hamstring unfortunately, so we need to see how that is, which is disappointing but Sykesy is more fatigue,” Manning said.

“I’ve started doing the opposition work (for Norwich) but in terms of team selection and the plan we’re still a few days out so we’ll have a look at it but we’ll need freshness, we’ll need energy, we’ll need people that are ready to go.”

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