Every word Roy Hodgson said on Bristol City set-pieces, Tomi Horvat, future in football and more

Bristol Live brings you a full transcript of interim Bristol City head coach Roy Hodgson’s post-Birmingham City press conference

Bristol City’s interim head coach Roy Hodgson speaks to the media at St Andrew’s(Image: Andy Fitzsimons)

For Bristol City, the Championship campaign away from Ashton Gate is now over. The Robins’ final away day of the term saw Roy Hodgson’s side head up the M5 to St Andrew’s on Saturday afternoon, where they were beaten by Birmingham City.

While it was the Reds who started on the front foot in the Midlands sun, momentum quickly swung the way of Chris Davies’ side when Phil Neumann volleyed Blues into the lead on eight minutes. Having peeled into space, the defender expertly steered Demarai Gray’s free-kick into the top right corner.

By the half-hour mark, Birmingham’s advantage had doubled. Jhon Solis, who had pressed Sam Morsy as he received a Radek Vitek pass on the edge of the penalty area, latched onto the midfielder’s skewed ball before rolling a shot just over the line, despite the best efforts of the City stopper.

For much of the second half, the hosts were comfortable. That changed when, from the penalty spot, Tomi Horvat scored his first goal in red and white, having been fouled by Jay Stansfield. Before any turnaround could be completed, however, the full-time whistle was blown, and the result was confirmed.

Defeat at St Andrew’s means the Robins are without a win in any of their last four matches. They will host Stoke City at Ashton Gate this weekend, looking to change that record and enter the off-season on a high.

With just one more game to go this season, here is a full transcript of everything Hodgson said to the print media after the full-time whistle against Birmingham.

Roy, can you sum up your feelings after that one?

I can’t summarise it in one sentence, if that’s what you want me to do. I thought we started the game very well. Of course, [we] found ourselves 2-0 down at half-time, rather harshly, I thought, but nothing to complain about. A wonderful free kick we didn’t mark well enough in the box, and the guy took his chance well, and then, of course, rather unfortunately, we made a mistake close to our own goal, and for some reason, the referee’s watch buzzed.

I’d have liked to have been there alongside him when it buzzed, because it didn’t look like it was anywhere near over the line from where I was standing, but there you go. So, of course, that, if you like, casts a very different picture, different thoughts with regard to what we were doing in the first half and how we were trying to play.

In the second half, I thought Birmingham utilised the fact that they were two goals to nil up. They played strongly; they are a strong team, they were very good at pressing, so they made it much harder for us in the second half to establish the sort of control we had for periods of the first half without passing through the midfield. We got it back again, just towards the end a little bit, and we got ourselves a penalty, which brought us back in the game and made the last, I don’t know how many minutes it was, a bit more exciting. [We] had a very, very good chance in the last kick of the game to equalise, but we didn’t take it.

All I can say is that I’ve got no criticism of the team whatsoever. I thought they did their best in difficult circumstances [in] a difficult game for both teams. The one thing I will say, I think that it’s a game that the Championship can be can be fairly proud of because there are two teams, a point or so from each other, neither team can go down, neither team can go into the play-offs. You can say this was the ultimate end of season, nothing to play for game, but here they’ve played out, I thought, quite a strong and fierce contest in front of a full house. It looked like a full house to me. A damn site more than 20,000 people in here, I should think. I think that’s a great credit to both clubs.

I think it’s a great credit to Birmingham City and its supporters in particular, and I would like to think that they would go home, of course, very happy, because their team won the game. But even if we’d have stolen a draw with that chance at the end, I think they could still have gone home and thought, ‘Our team’s done as proud, we’ve seen a good game of football.’

Bristol City looking to build on last season’s play-off finish under Gerhard Struber and you won’t miss a beat with our free newsletter.

All the latest news, views, interviews, gossip and analysis concerning the Robins, delivered straight to your inbox.

It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE

The set-piece side of the game is that always a risk you run when you’re down to the centre-backs, that you are? You’re probably lacking a bit of height.

Well, we had that problem all season. You know that when I came, there were no centre-backs because the three centre-backs who played, McNally, Atkinson, and Dickie were all injured. Two of those are out for the season, and Dickie they told me, would be out for the season, but he’s managed to get back just in time for the last couple of games. So we were obliged to really punt and put all our confidence in the young centre-half, Eile, who came from America, a Swedish boy. We had to say, ‘You’re the centre-half,’ and then we had to find someone to play alongside him.

We chose the left back, Neto Borges, and the two of them were fantastic together. But, of course, there’s going to be matches where Neto’s a left back, he’s not that tall, we don’t have any tall midfielders; we are going to get caught out, I’m afraid, against strong physical sides, with big centre backs, and big centre forwards, because we do find them hard to mark. But we didn’t give many free kicks away today, which was good. We didn’t put them in that situation that often, and corner kicks, well, they’re often just hazard corner kicks. Someone has a shot from 40 yards speculatively, it bounces off someone, then you get a corner kick. Corner kicks don’t mean much. The wide free-kicks mean more because you’ve got to work for them.

The second goal is that the risk you take when you try to play out from the back? That can happen.

Yeah, it does happen to be fair. We’re not very happy about it. I didn’t think one of my teams would conceive that sort of goal, but now they have, so they are. Something else to add to my little CV; I’ve even got a game where we try to play out from the back and presented the opponents with a goal.

A special moment for Tomi, his first goal for the club. He did well to win the penalty and took it well.

Yeah, he did do well. Yeah.

Were you impressed with his general performance today?

He did well. In terms of the shape of our team and the way we were playing, we were better when we had one centre forward and him playing in behind, and Twine coming in off the line to support. That probably suits our shape a little bit more in the way we’re trying to play, but we were, you know, two goals to nil down, the clock’s ticking.

Every time the ball went out of play, all they had to do was slow the game down, take their time, and the game was in their hands. I thought I had to do something to try and just shake that up, so I put the two big centre forwards on and hoped they would cause some havoc.

The change at half-time with Cam Pring was that tactical? Is he okay?

Not really. He’s got a very bad ankle. He’s been playing for quite a while, almost since I came… well, since I came to the club, they’ve been telling me about his ankle, and it needs an operation. He’s very brave, and he played through all of that, and we’ve now come to the conclusion that he might as well have the operation sooner rather than later.

We were planning that he’d have the operation next week, so with that in mind and [with us] 2-0 down, it was the moment to give Rob Dickie some time and [Neto] Borges some time at left-back, where he’s likely to play in the next match.

Bristol City defender Cam Pring in action against Birmingham City(Image: Andy Fitzsimons)

One more game left for you now, how do you feel about that?

It’s a very difficult question for me to answer, really. I don’t know what I should say. I have enjoyed this challenge that was presented to me, and I’m really glad that I took it on because working with this team has rejuvenated me a little bit and given me a lot of enjoyment. I’m pretty sure that I will miss it, but on the other hand, I’ve been conditioned from the start that this is what it’s going to be. This is my role, this is what I’ve got to try and do; when I leave the club, this is what I’m going to try and leave them with, as it were, so I don’t think it will be difficult for me in that respect.

But, every time I’ve taken myself away from football with the various resignations that I’ve had over the years, I’ve missed the day-to-day football, as I’ve really enjoyed it now. I’d be foolish to say I won’t miss it this time; perhaps I shall. But the years creep on, and it would have been very hard for me to do it when I was younger, but now at the age I am, I think it will be a bit easier.

Is it definitely your last game next week?

Yeah.

We say things in football can often change, but you can say that categorically?

My remit and my contract with Bristol City takes me through to next Saturday and a week beyond because the people at the club would like to speak to me with regard to my thoughts and maybe something they want to discuss. So I’ve got two weeks, if you like, in that respect. But if your saying is there a chance that all of a sudden I’m going to beg Bristol City to give me the job and carry, that’s not going to happen.

Interim Bristol City boss Roy Hodgson, ahead of kick-off at Ashton Gate(Image: Photo by Simon Galloway/Getty Images)

Is it your last game in management, or will you be back?

Who knows? I’m going to be very careful what I say now. I’ve made a bit of a fool of myself two or three times already. There’s only so many gold watches you can get you.

But it’s not definitely the end?

Who knows? I’ve never been putting my CV out to clubs anyway. I’ve not had an agent ringing around, trying to find me a job. I’ve just been fortunate, I suppose, that one or two jobs have found me, that I’ve felt I’m able to do and have broken a retirement promise to my wife, to come back and take them. So, who knows, but it depends on how you’re phrasing the question.

I refuse, really now, anymore to say, ‘Right, this was great. I should never even contemplate being in football in another role again.’ That would be a mistake, because I might. I didn’t expect this one. [It was] a real surprise when this came along. But it was a pleasant surprise, it happens, and one that I’m glad that I took the opportunity because it would have been very easy for me to say, ‘No, I’ve had two years out of it and don’t think about me,’ but they wanted to think about me and asked me to think about them, and I’m glad I did.

Has this experiment with Bristol City changed your thinking on either side?

I’m not sure, because I’m not sure that I ever really had the thought that I must never contemplate doing the informal ever more. I don’t think I’ve ever had that. It’s just been the realism of it, really. It was a very long spell, you know, nearly 50 years of day-to-day working in professional football. That’s a pretty good stint. You see the years ticking by, so it’s just a reality that I’m not going to go searching for jobs.

I don’t really want people to necessarily come searching for me, but if they did, like, I didn’t expect Watford to come searching for me when they did. I certainly didn’t expect Palace after resigning in 21′ to come back a couple of years or 18 months later and say, ‘We like you to come back.’ I didn’t expect that, and those things have come out of the blue from people to me, and I’ve just had to react. So I’m better off keeping my powder dry on that, and who knows, I might react to something else one day, but I might not. There might be nothing coming.

Bristol City Live on Whatsapp

Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone

Bristol City Live is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.

Through the app, we’ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.

To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select ‘Join Community’.

No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live team.

We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.

To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’.

If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

Click here to join our WhatsApp community.

You’re not going to give us ‘I’m definitely coming back,’ are you, Roy?

No, no, no, no, but I’m not going to give you either that I refuse point-blank to consider any job in football from now on, because who knows? Some nice little national team might come and say, ‘Come and join us for a little bit. Work every now and again.’ I might enjoy that.

Do you feel like you’ve learned lessons that you hadn’t in previous jobs that you have here?

The answer is no. I haven’t learned anything about myself, I haven’t learned anything about the players, I haven’t learned anything about football or football clubs. I’ve learned that it would be harder for me to be on the touchline all the time with the new rule or tolerance for people being pushed and fouled from behind, as I see all the time now.

I don’t know what a foul is now when balls are played up to front players, and they’re bundled out of the way or pushed off the ball. I don’t know when it’s a free kick and when it’s not anymore. I used to; it was very simple for me. So I’ve learned that if I were to come back in football, I’d have to be very, very geared up to accept it, the number of times I see people fouled, but the referee passes that off as part and parcel of the game. I was brought up in an era where defenders weren’t allowed to smash into the back of people. You had to keep your distance; you didn’t let them turn, but you didn’t get too tight to them. [If] you got too tight, they turned you. Now, it seems to me, just get as tight as you possibly can, get in there, have a fight, we don’t give a free kick anyway, so get on with it. So, I’ve learned that.

Not a very nice lesson, not one that I’m very happy to have learned, but it won’t affect me because when I’m sitting in the armchair watching matches, I won’t be as engaged with the result of that game on the TV as I am engaged when it’s a team I’ve been coaching.

Every word Roy Hodgson said on Bristol City set-pieces, Tomi Horvat, future in football and more

Tags: