Bristol Live’s Bristol City fan columnist shares his verdict on the Reds’ win over Hull City and the final days of the transfer windowZak Vyner has been an ever-present for Bristol City so far this season(Image: Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

29 shots, four goals, three points, and an unbeaten start to the league campaign for Bristol City as we head into the first international break of the season. What a cracking afternoon it was at Ashton Gate on Saturday. Even the heavy downpours on the last Saturday in August couldn’t put a damper on the spirits.

Hull City played their part in an entertaining game, but we were always on top after conceding the opening goal early on, and all the fans flooding out of the ground at full time, had faces full of smiles.

Unsurprisingly, Gerhard Struber opted for the same starting line-up as last time out in the league against Derby County. It wasn’t a grrrrrreat start as the Tigers opened the scoring after just three minutes. Rob Atkinson’s miscontrol gifted David Akintola the ball, and he slipped a perfectly timed pass through to Joe Gelhardt, who coolly chipped Radek Vitek with his shot. If you’re going to concede, it’s better to concede early and whilst disappointed, Atkinson in particular, the team were quick to race to their starting positions. If anything, the goal fired Struber’s side up.

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The way in which this Bristol City side pressed was a joy to watch, forcing Hull City into surrendering possession in their own half 25 times in the first 45 minutes. The equaliser came in the 16th minute, and it was a beauty. Zak Vyner (more on Zak later) was in an advanced position on the right-hand side, and with Mark Sykes coming inside, Zak had made space, was found by Jason Knight, and whipped over a brilliant cross. Ross McCrorie, who was immense all afternoon, could have gone for goal but intelligently cushioned his volley into Emil Riis, who instantly side-footed the ball home for his first goal for the club.

The delight for the popular forward was clear to see, and whilst Riis has been impressive in his first games for the side, strikers are inevitably judged on goals, and it was good to see him finally get off the mark.

Strubers’ side were then well on top and playing some lovely football. Just after the half-hour mark, we scored again, and it was that man McCrorie with the assist once more. Scott Twine sent over a driven cross, and there was only going to be one winner at the back post. The Scotsman headed back across goal for Anis Mehmeti to fire home. Anis did well to control his finish.

We weren’t done there, and once again, it was the City press that was Hull City’s undoing. Riis anticipated a pass out from Tigers defender Charlie Hughes and raced through on goal, giving the eyes to the keeper and slotting home with a low right-footed finish. Riis has shown his physical attributes this season, but is, as I have said before, a much better player technically than I figured him to be. The Dane’s awareness of what is around him, his touch, and his cleverness have brought a much-needed dimension to the side.

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Playing this type of football is always going to leave you somewhat open, and Oli McBurnie was causing Rob Dickie and Rob Atkinson problems, but when they were caught out, we had the superb Vitek behind them. Vitek made one save from McBurnie, which was simply brilliant. McBurnie had to score with a header on the six-yard line, but City’s new (current) number one got down well to his right and, with a strong right hand, kept the ball out, much to McBurnie’s disbelief. Vitek himself knew just how good a save it was, double fist pumping the air and celebrating with his team mates, with a huge smile on his face. It was also alive defending from impressive substitute, Yu Hirakawa, to make the clearance from Vitek’s save.

The Czech loanee from Manchester United made a string of saves all afternoon, and with Ruben Amorim’s current goal-keeping woes in the hapless Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir, you do worry that they may recall Radek in January. One of the best bits of transfer business for us this summer could be Manchester United signing a new goalie.

The game was put to bed by another good goal, this time from substitute Max Bird, who found the net with a fine left-foot finish, smashing Anis Mehmeti’s cross – after a good one-two between Mehmeti and McCrorie – off the underside of the bar and into the net. A fraction of the gloss was taken off the performance with a late second goal from Hull City. It was a poor goal to concede, but thankfully, it had no impact on the result.

There were so many big performances from this Bristol City side. Vitek was brilliant, McCrorie was like a war horse, and Riis scored two goals and could easily have scored more. Mehmeti was very good, scoring and assisting, and the energy from the midfield duo of Adam Randell and Jason Knight set the tone. Randell was excellent and showed just what a good signing he is and huge credit goes to the recruitment team for getting him in over the summer. He is a player who doesn’t always catch the eye with moments of skill, but he goes about his job, knitting everything together. I have been so impressed with his early season form.

Adam Randell has started well in Bristol City colours(Image: Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

I thought that Vyner was the standout defender, and the substitutes made an impact, particularly Hirakawa and Bird. We should have scored more goals and hit the frame of the goal three times with efforts from Riis, Mehmeti, and Bird.

Struber said after the game that this performance was exactly the sort of football that he wants to see from his team. Struber felt that every single player showed a togetherness and willingness to change the result after conceding so early.

We now head into an international break, and the talk between now and 7pm on Monday evening will be the closure of the summer transfer window and what business in and out of the club we will be able to do. Struber has made his views very clear, saying that he would like up to three players to come in and ideally keep his current squad together. The head coach very much views this window as a chance to add quality, but as CEO Tom Rawcliffe explained recently, the club has a set budget, and the truth is that we are likely to need to sell to fund any incomings.

On Saturday afternoon, it was reported that the club had turned down a bid for Vyner from Wrexham. When asked specifically about Zak and the rumours, Struber said: “He is a Bristol City player, he grew here, so he is the face of the club, and we know what we have with him, but for Zak Vyner, I think he is very happy here.

“He is very, very happy here, and he enjoyed the time here, but I’m absolutely not surprised that other clubs have a lot of interest in him and maybe also in the one or other player. He’s super important for the here and now, and if we were to lose him, I think this would do big damage for us.

“I think to lose a player on this level, so close before the transfer window closes, I think this would be damaging, but this is not a big discussion between us and the management. I hope that nothing happens in this direction in the next few days. I have a very good connection with Zak, and I hope he also realises what he has on us, on the club.

“I am not a dreamer. We know the contract situation, we know this and everything, but I hope he will stay and nothing will happen.”

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It’s a difficult one with Zak holding the cards. If he is keen on the move, and to be fair, with the Hollywood project that is Wrexham, why wouldn’t he be, we would need to get the maximum value that we can for a player going to a Championship rival and in the final year of his contract. I would love Zak to stay and sign a new deal. You cannot understate the value that he brings both on and off the pitch. He has grown into a consistently reliable top-end Championship defender, but what absolutely cannot happen is that we end up selling Zak and don’t have time to get in a quality replacement.

The same can be said for Mehmeti and Mark Sykes, both of whom are also out of contract in the summer and both of whom are key cogs in Struber’s machine.

I don’t know where we are in terms of the profitability and sustainability rules, and just hope that we have enough leeway so that we can keep Zak, Mark, and Anis whilst still making a couple of quality additions. To do this, though, we will once again be reliant and indebted to the Lansdown family. I just hope that Steve can see what Gerhard is building and show that ambition. Struber talked about doing his homework and providing options and it’s up to the management team to get any deals done.

Ideally, we will sign another striker, a left wing-back, keep Zak, Anis, and Mark, as well as Knight and McCrorie, get players that are unlikely to feature off the books as well as getting good league action for some of the youngsters. Just how realistic that remains to be seen. What is sure, though, is that if we sell any of our first team, they need replacing and with additional quality coming in on top.

Struber’s philosophy is beginning to take root. We are unbeaten in the league and playing with intensity and confidence, with a fierce competitive edge, and the players are clearly buying in to it.

Our 3 Peaps in A Podcast player ratings were: Radek Vitek 7.5, Rob Atkinson 6.0, Zak Vyner 7.0, Rob Dickie 6.0, Ross McCrorie 7.0, Mark Sykes 7.0, Adam Randell 8.0 *MotM, Jason Knight 7.0, Anis Mehmeti 7.5, Scott Twine 6.0 *MotM and Emil Riis 8.0.

For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time), we went: Max Bird 7.5, and Yu Hirakawa 7.5. A game average player rating of 7.08 and a season average of 6.67.

For Gerhard Struber, it was 8.5. What’s not to like about Struberball? 29 shots, four goals, and an unbeaten start to the League season. I loved the game; it was such an entertaining watch, and I gave the game a rating of 9.

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