At half-time of Saturday’s game with Preston, Bristol City boss Liam Manning prepared the biggest team-talk of his career with his side trailing 2-0 and their promotion house of cards on the verge of collapse.

He wasn’t to know at the time that any score would be enough for the Robins to secure a play-off spot, and if results elsewhere had turned against them defeat would have signalled the ultimate anti-climax with a first top-six Championship finish since 2008 on the line.

His players had looked nervous, especially in front of goal. They hadn’t managed a single shot on target despite seeing 70 per cent of the ball. He urged them to get back to basics.

“I told them to not lose sight of why we started playing football,” he revealed after the game. “You don’t start playing football to have 500 passes and not go anywhere.

Thursday 8th May 7:00pm


Kick off 8:00pm

“Of course, we want to control the game with the ball, but it’s about actually progressing to get it in their box and asking the question.”

City took the message on board, had drawn level 20 minutes into the second period and should have gone on to win the game. Even a nine-minute scare as Blackburn briefly pulled ahead at Sheffield United would prove a false alarm.

What Manning told his team in that dressing room encapsulated much of their season. Bristol City have been assured in possession all season, sometimes to the point of monotony.

The Robins have attempted the third-most final-third passes in the Championship, but the rate at which those turn into shots is, conversely, the worst in the division.

A lack of cutting edge has been a running theme throughout a season which started with losing top scorer Tommy Conway, and ends with one of his two multi-million-pound replacements already out on loan and almost-35-year-old Nahki Wells the unexpected saviour in attack.

He has done an impressive and sometimes thankless job and notched 10 goals from 26 starts. The Bermudan is out of contract this summer, and Manning has made no secret of the fact he would like to keep him.

Whether that materialises is probably more down to which division Bristol City are in, a cruel irony that he may well be playing against his own future over the next two, perhaps three games.

Creativity is an area lacking nearly as much as the Robins’ forward line.

This is a Bristol City side which has still not replaced prodigal talent Alex Scott almost two years since his departure. But then few clubs at this level could deal with losing a talent ranked higher than Amad Diallo for the EFL Young Player of the Year in 2023.

His Ashton Gate performances were enough to convince Bournemouth to pay £25m in the summer of 2023 despite knowing he had sustained a significant knee injury before joining. Less than a fifth of that figure, to some chagrin, has been spent on his successors.

Scott Twine was meant to be the answer last summer, completing a permanent reunion with Manning who had got the best out of him at MK Dons. By the time his transfer from Burnley was finally sewn up, Bristol City had already moved onto their back-up plan, George Earthy, who had just been named Young Hammer of the Year at West Ham.

What had appeared an abundance of riches at the time has been steady at best. Twine’s best moments have come from Beckham-esque free kick goals, while Earthy has begun to look a real prospect in the final months of the season but made only six starts before the beginning of April.

Max Bird has stepped up to fill the void, creating the fifth-highest number of chances in the division – but he cannot do it alone, and has gone off the boil in recent weeks. With that, City’s purposeful passing has been lacking and they have had to fall back on their resilience as their main strength.

City reached the Championship top six with 17 wins, a record low since the division’s rebrand 20 years ago. But they did so having lost only one game more than last season’s play-off winners Southampton.

They’re rarely spectacular, but rarely overrun. A 4-0 drubbing at Leeds in their penultimate game was an aberration, and a bad time to put in their worst performance of the season.

The comeback against Preston summed things up. City were still not world-beaters against a team who could’ve ended the day in the relegation spots, but took Manning’s words on board to rescue a point.

Sheffield United may not afford them that same opportunity tonight. But if they can get back to their steady solidity which has got them here – and “ask the question” of the Blades as they did at Bramall Lane in March, they might not have to.

Watch Bristol City vs Sheffield United on Sky Sports Football from 7pm tonight, kick-off at 8pm.