Bristol Live’s Bristol City fan columnist offers his verdict on the Robins’ 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic at Ashton GateEmi Riis on the ball for Bristol City against Charlton(Image: Bristol City FC)

There was a buzz around Ashton Gate before 3:00pm, from an expectant fanbase, the majority of whom, I think, were eagerly anticipating a win and three points following Bristol City’s fabulous opening day performance away at Sheffield United a week ago.

A beautiful summer’s day and Gerhard Struber’s first home league fixture against newly promoted Charlton Athletic, managed by the ever-popular Nathan Jones, what could be better? Sadly, it ended up being a somewhat frustrating afternoon with Struber’s side never hitting anywhere near the heights that they did last week.

There were some fans who felt this would be somewhat of a walk in the park, but any opposition supporter who has had the pleasure, or rather displeasure, of watching a Nathan Jones team knew to expect a well-drilled, physical side, playing a direct style of football, and that proved to be very much the case.

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I felt that we started the brighter, and were probably the better side in the first 45 minutes, but Charlton very much came into the game in the second half and were more than deserving of the point. In all honesty, with the saves that Radek Vitek had to make, they were probably the side most deserving of coming away with a victory.

I don’t mean to be critical of the Addicks or Jones; he does what he does well. His team gave everything for him, and in Tyreece Campbell, they probably had the best attacking player on show. Like I say, they were more than worthy of the point, and their fans did not stop chanting from the first to the last whistle.

It was great to see Curtis Fleming, former assistant boss to Nigel Pearson, back at the Gate. I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t introduce Struber to the home fans and make more of his first home league fixture. This will have been the first time that many in the crowd will have had the chance to see Gerhard.

It was no surprise that City’s head coach opted not to make any changes to his starting lineup following the victory at Bramall Lane, but it was the bench again and the inclusion of Fally Mayulu that was probably the main talking point. There is no doubt that on his day, Rob Dickie is our best defender, but I felt that it was the right call to reward the back three of George Tanner, Zak Vyner and Rob Atkinson for their performances against the Blades.

Rob Atkinson has impressed for Bristol City so far this season(Image: Photo by Ed Sykes/Getty Images)

Before the game, newly appointed CEO Tom Rawcliffe struck a confident tone when speaking to BBC Radio Bristol Sport. The CEO talked about the club’s summer recruitment, the departure of Liam Manning and the arrival of Struber. He talked about the structure that is in place and confirmed that they work with the parameters set when asked about budgets.

We once again started the game brightly, winning early corners and pressing Charlton Athletic high up the pitch. Despite our early dominance of possession and territory, the final ball lacked the precision needed. On several occasions, we got into some good positions playing from back to front with Anis Mehmeti and Yu Hirakawa showing some nice touches, but our final decision or final pass was poor, meaning those good positions came to nothing.

Aside from a couple of very good saves from Vitek, there was very little to write about in terms of our attacking play. Unfortunately, the impressive performances from Ross McCrorie, Anis Mehmeti, Scott Twine and Emil Riis a week ago could not be replicated today. McCrorie and Riis looked off the pace, Mehmeti was frustrating in possession and chose the wrong option on more than one occasion, and the Man of the Match from last week, Twine, was largely anonymous.

I was interested to see if, at halftime, Struber would make any tactical changes, as he was praised for doing so at Sheffield United, but nothing obvious materialised, and when changes did come just before the hour, I felt that he got them wrong. I thought Yu Hirakawa was looking like he could get at the Addicks’ back line, and I also felt that Adam Randell had knitted things together well in the middle of the pitch.

I would have brought Max Bird and Mark Sykes on, but they would have been at the expense of McCrorie and Twine. We huffed and puffed but only managed the one shot on Thomas Kaminski’s goal, and that was a tame effort from Riis. Kaminski won’t have many more comfortable Championship games than this one.

The head coach opted to bring Dickie on in place of Tanner, perhaps with the intention of combating the ever-expanding ‘Land of the Giants’ with every substitution that Jones made. There were brief cameos from Sinclair Armstrong and Mayulu. The latter got a great reception from the home fans, and I thought showed more desire than we had seen in some of his previous appearances. I personally would have liked to have seen Josh Stokes or Adam Murphy on the bench, players that could have perhaps unlocked a stubborn and resolute Charlton Athletic back line, rather than Harry Cornick.

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After the game, Gerhard Struber highlighted the fact that he felt the decision-making had not been at the level needed and that we reverted to playing long balls, with second-ball fights, and duels. We didn’t have the control, and then you have a 50/50 game; a game of “ping-pong.”

It wasn’t the result or performance that we had hoped for, but there were positives to take. It was a clean sheet, and Vitek and Atkinson were the standout performers. The reaction save from Vitek after a defensive clearance from Tanner was excellent, and Atkinson brought the ball out and opened play up on several occasions, which was great to see.

We maintained our unbeaten start to the season, and it’s off to Pride Park for a reunion with Andreas Weimann on Friday night in front of the Sky TV cameras.

Our 3 Peaps in A Podcast player ratings were: Radek Vitek 7.0, Rob Atkinson 7.0 *MotM, Zak Vyner 6.0, George Tanner 6.0, Ross McCrorie 5.5, Yu Hirakawa 5.5, Adam Randell 6.0, Jason Knight 5.5, Anis Mehmeti 5.5, Scott Twine 5.5 and Emil Riis 5.5.

For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time), we went: Rob Dickie 6.0, Max Bird 5.5, and Mark Sykes 5.5. A game average player rating of 5.86 and a season average of 6.74.

For new head coach Gerhard Struber, it was 6.0. From listening to his post-match comments, he couldn’t get his side to play to plan, and we went too direct

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