Alex McLeish showed the flexibility that Blues' current squad affords them by switching from the usual 4-4-2 formation to one of those 4-5-1/4-3-3 formations, made popular by Jose Mourinho in his early days at Chelsea. The back five remained unchanged, whilst a midfield trio of Lee Carsley, Seb Larsson and the ever-improving Kemy Agustien were flanked by James McFadden on the right and Gary McSheffrey on the left, with Cameron Jerome up front.
Blues played the system with fluidity throughout the evening. Carsley sat deep in the midfield trio, whilst Larsson and in particular Agustien broke from deep to support the forwards. At times McSheffrey would play down the middle with Jerome covering on the flank, and all of the forward three swapped at times. This continued when Marcus Bent replaces McFadden in the second half, when Jerome did go wide, but switched with Bent on occasions.
Anyway, Blues controlled the first 35 minutes or so, and by that stage were 2-0 up in a game that most people had picked as the toughest test so far (and it probably was). They took an early lead thanks to a dangerous Larsson free-kick. Now, I was stood right at the back of a very dark, low-roofed stand at the opposite end toall three goals, so my descriptions of them may be sadly lacking. Larsson took a deep free-kick from the left, and as all coaches would tell right-footed players who are naturally curling the ball towards goal, "make sure it's coming in between the posts". If you do, if anyone gets any kind of glancing touch, it's a goal, and there's a chance that everyone will miss it, the 'keeper will get caught on his heels, and it'll go in anyway. Something like that happened. Martin Taylor and Louis Carey appeared to be closest to it, but to the distant eye, it looked like it might just have curled in itself.
Blues continued to keep the ball fairly well and play some decent football, whilst Bristol relied on what seemed to be their sole tactic (surprisingly, given that Gary Johnson is manager) of lumping the ball up at Dele Adebola's head.
About halfway through the half, Blues made it 2-0. McFadden cut inside from the right and just kept going, before knocking the ball to the left for David Murphy (Blues' full-backs attacked well throughout the evening). Murphy clipped the ball into the area for Jerome who took one touch before finishing well. It was a fine move and everything was going worryingly well for Blues.
As you'd expect, for the remainder of the half, Bristol came back fairly strong and had some pressure - though none of it was telling. Blues still looked dangerous on the break, and but for a little more composure in picking a man out from wide, could have extended their lead. Bristol's pressure mainly came from corners and the giving away of stupid free-kicks around the penalty area. Martin Taylor was chief culprit for this (as he was in the second half too), as he simply couldn't handle Adebola in the air (bit of a worry, that...) and continued to wrestle with him, put his arms over his shoulders, etc. I know that there's a bit of a debate about Martin Taylor, and I'm firmly in one camp and don't hide that. For me, I appreciate that some of his tackling and bringing the ball out of the defence can look nice and composed, and that he reads the game quite well, but there are too many issues in his game that lead him to make costly (or potentially costly errors). Every free-kick he gave away last night (and there were quite a few - he got booked for persistent fouling and then committed one or two more after that) led to a free-kick in a dangerous area. Liam Ridgewell (who I'm also no fan of) had a fine game, but for Taylor to struggle against Adebola is, to me, a worry.
Still, Blues saw it through to half-time, and the second half continued in much the same vein. Bristol came out looking fairly sharp, but at the same time didn't threaten Maik Taylor too many times. He was forced into one or two good saves, but for all Bristol's pressure, you'd have expected a bit more. At the other end, another mazy McFadden run saw him try and curl an effort in, only to be just off-target and hit the side netting. Blues brought on Bent for McFadden, as above, and Stephen Kelly had to come on for the injured Stuart Parnaby. Bent showed some good touches with his hold up play and worked hard, but he needs a goal. His one effort, after some fine work by himself, actually went out for a throw-in.
And so to the other Taylor who has given Blues fans so many "moments" over the past few years... Step up Maik. Now, Maik Taylor has had a fine start to the season, and was in fine form again here. Until late on, that is. Moments after horribly hooking a low kick straight into the middle of the park when out of position, Taylor managed to do it again. Kicking it to just about anyone, Taylor would have been safe. The one exception is Lee Trundle, who has the ability on the ball and the self-assuredness to try and score from wherever if presented with an empty net. Taylor showed the unerring accuracy with his kicking that he never, ever has done before, picked out Trundle a treat, and Trundle duly lobbed the ball back into Taylor's unguarded net from 45 yards. Again, fine season and all the rest of it, but a horror mistake.
So, Blues were due to be up against it for the last 10 minutes or so, but Bristol continued to lack ideas (for all their pressure, a mistake like Taylor's seemed to be the only way they'd score) and Blues, with Quincy on for Agustien, really should have scored on the break. Quincy forced Chris Weale (Bristol's substitute 'keeper, on for Adriano Basso whose precision kicking earlier had made Maik Taylor look like Jonny Wilkinson) into a good save with a looping effort, before with the last kick of the game McSheffrey somehow shot wide when put through on goal by Quincy. It didn't matter in the end, however.
I must mention Kemy Agustien, who certainly played his part. He doesn't necessarily look a "natural footballer", but he showed a good range of passing, plenty of energy and some excellent reading of the game/interventions. He made some good tackles and was more than willing to break from midfield. I doubt he'll get you many goals when he does break, but he does offer the support. He tired towards the end of the first half, but then came out and repeated his earlier all-action display in the second half before being replaced by Quincy, and he richly deserved his standing ovation from the decent away following.
A mention also to Gary McSheffrey who so desperately needs a goal to go in off his backside it's untrue. His confidence is blown to pieces. One thing about him is that he always gives 100%, which is a credit to him. However, some of his passing put Blues in trouble (he seemed to underhit the majority of his passes) and his miss at the end was pretty abysmal (as was his miss at Norwich). Two years ago, you'd pretty much bank on him scoring every time he got into a decent position. Now he cannot even hit the target. Perhaps it'll all coming flooding back to him if he can get that elusive goal.
Still, a good away win against a team that many consider to be a promotion rival. Personally, I don't think they'll have as good a season as they did last year, but Ashton Gate shall remain a tricky place to go for many teams, so for Blues to win there bodes well, as does a fair chunk of the Blues performance, which you have to say, after a number of 5 out 10s, was pushing on an 8 out of 10. Much, much better.