Sheffield United vs Bristol City: Liam Manning rallies Robins for Blades fightback

Liam Manning has called on his Bristol City players to show belief and fight to the final whistle as they look to overturn a 3-0 deficit against Sheffield United in the Championship play-off semi-final.

The Robins travel to Bramall Lane for the second leg 3-0 down after Rob Dickie’s red card swung the first leg, allowing Harrison Burrows to put the visitors ahead from the spot.

Second-half goals from Substitutes Andre Brooks and Callum O’Hare sealed the deal and handed Chris Wilder’s side a significant advantage.

The former Oxford United boss was heavily critical of Oliver Langford’s decision to send Dickie off for a foul on Kieffer Moore in the penalty area.

Anis Mehmeti of Bristol City battling Sheffield United defender Anel Ahmedhodzic for the ball in the first leg action
PICTURE: Alamy

Comeback

Manning argued that his defender had attempted to play the ball; therefore, it did not warrant a straight red card.

However, his focus in the pre-match press conference at the High Performance Centre turned to the second leg as he eyes a comeback for the ages against the Blades.

“We’re definitely not down and out; that has to be the mindset of everybody,” Manning said.

“It’s funny, naturally you tend to look at comebacks and the history of comebacks, and I’ve gone back through loads and spoke the other night about the League One play-off a few years ago.

“You go back to the Champions League final, which we were laughing about this morning, 2005, the Milan-Liverpool one.

“We were chatting to a few of the lads about that, which was quite funny because there were quite a few of the lads who were born after 2000, so there were a few who were either not born or still in nappies when that game happened.

“That’s the beauty of it; if you throw the towel in now, that speaks volumes about you as a person and a professional.

Bristol City boss Liam Manning hopes to inspire his squad to a miraculous turnaround

Belief

“I’ve said it from day one coming in here,” Manning continued. “I’ve had to fight to get into the position that I’m in, having had numerous setbacks, not making it as a player, etc.

“So for me, I’ll be fighting until the final whistle tomorrow night and I’ll be expecting the same of the lads, and that has to be underpinned by a huge amount of belief.”

Ahead of tonight’s fixture, he also revealed that experienced midfielder Joe Williams will be absent from the play-off tie after injury forced him off in the first half of the first leg.

“The rest all came through it ok, so from that perspective, it’s just Joe and Rob that are unavailable,” he told the Bristol Post.

“Joe is a bad one; he snapped a couple of ankle ligaments.”

In the Blades camp, defender Jack Robinson says the Yorkshire side cannot afford to “drop off”.

He told BBC Radio Sheffield: “It’s more than we could have asked for, 3-0 is an unbelievable result.

“You don’t get many games in the play-offs where you can take a comfortable lead into the second leg.

“A 3-0 lead, it’s more comfortable but we still have to perform.

“We cannot drop off now but we will try to keep a clean sheet and go on to win it.

“Anything can happen in the play-offs, we have seen that over the years so it is on us now.

“A play-off game is totally different to a league game and we knew that.

“The atmosphere was rocking but we produced our best, which was more than good enough.”

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