Unlike the last two visitors to St Mary’s, Bristol City are not top of the table but they have made a decent start to the season in the Championship and there’s no doubt that this is gonna be a tough game. It always seems to be a tough game against Bristol City. They left with a point here last season which kind of killed our automatic promotion chances. They also routinely beat us at Ashton Gate and I would be severely worried about our chances if we were away from home today given our current away form.

No worries though, as this is at St Mary’s and putting all that bogey team and superstition shite aside, we should be able to roll these over and pick up another three points. City have a new manager this season in Michael Skubala, who joined after leading Lincoln to over 100 points in League 1 last season. The expectations will be a lot higher for him at Bristol City and he must be hoping that they don’t saw the legs out from under him by selling players in January, like they did last season. One player they have signed this season is of course Dom Ballard, who left us when Will Still decided he should be sold permanently and since then has smashed in a load of goals for Leyton Orient in League 1 and earned himself a £5 million move to Bristol City. Make no mistake that whilst the folly of letting him go has been proven by hindsight, there is no way that he would’ve done any worse than Damion Downs, Ben Brereton and Diaz and Cameron Archer. It is one of those sort of inevitable things that Ballard will score today.

Also inevitable of course, is Cyle Larin and the big man has won the Championship Player of the Month award. Apparently Middlesbrough are appealing and there is going to be an investigation.

With no midweek game next week there should be no reason for Tonda to bugger around with the team too much. I think Matsuki may start on the right but other than that, I’m expecting the same side that started against Swansea. Team news and spot-on with just the one change, as predicted.

City put us under pressure straight away and win a throw and in comes the foul throw with the foot up into the box which is flicked on and the ponytail porn star wannabe Tolaj nearly gets a touch in front of Peretz but no drama.

The direction of traffic is set though. We are struggling to get out and City win a corner off of Big Kev and Larin heads clear as far as a City player on the edge of the box who sends a shot arcing towards the top corner, but Peretz takes off to tip it over the bar to prove to any doubters once again that he is the best goalkeeper in the Championship. Superb save.

City seem quicker to every ball and another loose ball of the edge of our box is not dealt with and it’s Ballard who reacts and we’re all waiting for the inevitable goal but he scuffs his left foot and rolls an effort through to the keeper.

Whilst our press is not working in midfield, it gives the opportunity for City players to get their head up and ping the ball wherever they want, and a Long ball over the top finds Ballard on the edge of the box and he brings it down and lobs the bouncing ball over Peretz but Schlotterbeck reads it all well and gets back to head the ball up in the air and when it comes down again, Wood tries to head it, impeded by Peretz punching him in the face. We get away with it, however

Saints haven’t shown much as an attacking force so far but JWP picks out the run of Bree in the right hand channel and his low cross is just in front of Larin. Hopefully we’ve woken up. Scienza has been quiet so far, but Larin sends him away on the left and the Brazilian heads straight towards the middle of the edge of the penalty area before finding Matsuki on the right who with just one defender in front of him, drops the shoulder to make the space and drills it with his less favoured right foot but the keeper parries it away.

Play is stopped and the ref drops the ball back to Peretz and he decides to launch it. Downes competes and it drops down to Azaz in midfield and though surrounded by four defenders, he manages to slide the ball through to Cyle Larin who takes it on and from 20 yards with his trusty left foot, whips it across the keeper and into the far top corner. Brilliant finish. It’s ironic that for all our careful, deliberate play, we have basically scored with a route one long ball.

There’s an incident in the middle of the park where Larin gets laid out by Eissat and the referee Sam Allison decides to not get involved and cross comes in from the left which Ballard meets and his flicked header goes wide. Larin and the ref have words because basically, it was a clear foul.

Half time and though we are ahead, there is lots to sort out here. We have been the beneficiaries of shite finishing and they really shouldn’t be getting that many chances and they are not going to keep on missing. The press in midfield hasn’t been right at all. Downes looks hampered by an injury he’s picked up and JWP has been caught between two stools, never quite close enough to win the ball. Just the one sub with Downes not coming back out and being replaced with Cam Bragg.

Away we go and the first incident of note sees the referee finally get his book out for a deliberate foul by Eissat through the back of Matsuki. A few minutes later and Larin is away down the right hand side and Eissat again flattens him with no thought of the ball, but the referee decides that he’s not gonna give a free kick because if he does, he’s gonna have to dish out a second yellow card. Complete bottle job and also not given because it was Cyle..

Saints keep playing. Larin has to go off the pitch because he’s gone down injured and the referee hasn’t given a foul because the referee is shit. We keep the ball and the ref eventually waves him back on and a Bristol City player comes on as well, as a sub and has to be told to get off because it wasn’t him, it was being called on. It’s all a bit bizarre and the referee has completely lost the plot. The game goes on though and Matsuki finds Azaz, who plays Scienza away on the right wing and he goes straight towards the goal before crossing to meet the run of JWP whose effort gets blocked on the 6 yard line but it bounces up for the big man Cyle Larin to run into the net. 2-0 and a lovely celebration in the face of Eissat.

City are raging because their bloke is off the pitch. I mean, he undoubtedly shouldn’t have been on the pitch at that point, but the referee should’ve stopped the game and sorted it out and not let play go on. Must be gutting for the ref for us to score because he’s been shit and especially as it was Cyle.

Anyway, as we settle down again and before long, City win a corner on the right and it’s headed clear crossed back and headed out and then the shot comes in and it’s going wide, but Tolaj the porn star sticks his foot out and divert it into the net. Bollocks. Told you they weren’t going to keep on missing.

Tonda gets his subs on – Scienza is off to be replaced with Fellows and ten minutes later, Larin is off to be replaced with Mubama as Saints try and close the game out. There are 12 minutes of normal time to go. A nice touch by Fellows finds Azaz in the left channel and he drives forward before picking out the forward run of Matsuki who’s coming off the right and onto his left foot to sweep it across the keeper and into the far corner of the net. Brilliant goal. It’s made all the better by the fact that it’s Eissat who has totally failed to get the block in and I don’t think the keeper Tickle covered himself in glory there either.

That goal has killed the game and Bristol City aren’t interested now. A big boom forward by Peretz sees Mubama against Eissat and the Saints man bundles past, leaving him on the ground before getting his head up and finding Azaz in the penalty area and Finn makes absolutely no mistake, drawing the keeper before slotting it under him. 4-1. It’s turning into another very good day. City fans with their hilarious binoculars can be seen streaming for the exits. See ya.

And another three points. The first half was slightly odd in the Bristol City had all the chances and missed them all with Dom Ballard being the most guilty. I wish him nothing but the best for his future career and still wish we’d kept him – he’ll be rueing the missed chances today but he’ll be back and he’ll have another crack at us later on in the season. Their lack of clinical edge was basically the difference between the two sides and the reason that Bristol City lost. Also, it’s about the other penalty area as well and Bristol‘s defending just wasn’t up to it. Having worked incredibly hard to block the passing lanes in the first half, they were undone by basically a big boot up the middle which they didn’t deal with that led to Cyle opening the scoring. The second goal saw both JWP and Larin busting a gut to get into the box to meet Matsuki’s cross and the game could’ve got a bit shaky after City pulled one back but City ran out of gas in the last 20 or so minutes and Saints honestly could’ve scored more than the two they did get through Matsuki and Azaz. City fans can complain all they like that they were a better side for parts of the game, but at the end of the day it’s about the full 95 minutes and both penalty areas. They weren’t clinical when attacking and they didn’t defend well when we got near their goal. The end. Zero points. Have a nice trip home.

Part of the problem in the first half was the injury picked up by Flynn Downes. We didn’t seem to get our press right in the first half as Bristol dominated the ball and created all the chances that they missed. It seemed to be written in the stars that Dom Ballard would score and he must be absolutely kicking himself that he didn’t at least put away one of the three decent chances that he had.

No such problems for Cyle Larin though who basically had two efforts and scored twice and that’s what the best striker in the Championship does. He also seem to have a running battle with the referee who was not interested in giving him anything. It’s funny when the ref is an officious twat and makes a major mistake that is highlighted by everyone. Apparently, the sub wasn’t allowed on straight away because the outgoing player (Ballard) had taken too long to get off the pitch. Shambles.

There were impressive performances all over the pitch again today for us with Matsuki showing his quality and getting a deserved goal, Azaz proving that he is the lynchpin that makes the team play (though he did some ropey stuff before ending up with a goal and two assists) and though Scienza was a little bit quieter than he has been recently, he was majorly involved in the crucial second goal.

A word too for Cameron Bragg who came on at half-time for Flynn Downes and kept things ticking over well in conjunction with JWP in the centre of midfield. Defensively, Nathan Wood and Kevin Schlotterbeck again showed what a good partnership they could be and what a good partnership they are developing into. The commitment to defending and keeping the ball out of the net is massive from the pair of them and the goalkeeper. Ryan Manning managed to block a few more crosses than he usually does as well and both he and James Bree were decent going forward.

I was impressed with the cameo from Divin Mubama, who seemed to understand the assignment of coming on as a late substitute a lot better than he has done previously. He added energy and was a pain in the arse for the defenders and did really well to tee up Azaz for the fourth goal. As a striker on as sub, it must be very tempting to have a shot rather than play the pass.

As a fan, I’m not gonna complain aboutanything in a 4-1 win, but Tonda Eckert will be looking at the pressing in the first half and some of the things that weren’t quite right. It’s another three points though, and we go up into the playoff positions. I’m going to get very bored of doing this as the season goes on but if we didn’t have the four point deduction, then we would only be one goal behind West Ham and the reason that this is useful to remember is that it shows that we are one of the in-form teams in the division.

Next up is an away trip to Wrexham who have just been absolutely buried by six goals at West Ham. Phil Parkinson will therefore be hoping to avoid a drubbing like he got against us last year and will certainly have breathed an “oh fuck” when he was 6-0 down at the London Stadium and thinking about who they were playing next.

Let’s be Phil’s worst nightmare

Up the Fucking Saints