{"id":656458,"date":"2025-12-26T19:40:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/656458\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T19:40:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:40:37","slug":"gerhard-struber-details-bristol-city-difference-maker-as-robins-boss-proud-of-west-brom-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/656458\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerhard Struber details Bristol City difference-maker as Robins boss ‘proud’ of West Brom win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gerhard Struber was left feeling “really proud” of his Bristol City squad after their Boxing Day win over West Brom at The Hawthorns<\/p>\n

18:28, 26 Dec 2025Updated 18:34, 26 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Knight of Bristol City celebrates.(Image: James Marsh\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Bristol City’s confidence was the difference-maker during their Boxing Day win over West Brom, according to Gerhard Struber, with the Robins boss “really proud” of his squad after they climbed back into the play-off places.<\/p>\n

The Reds survived a late scare to secure back-to-back league wins for the first time since October as they beat the Baggies 2-1 at The Hawthorns<\/a> on Friday afternoon. Ultimately, first-half goals from Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie were enough to claim all three points.<\/p>\n

Mehmeti fired City into the lead after just four minutes when the Albanian’s low, right-footed effort beat Joe Wildsmith, and after some inspired work from Max O’Leary<\/a> between the posts, McCrorie doubled the advantage when he cannoned in from the right side of the area quarter of an hour later.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bristol City climb back into Championship play-off places with Boxing Day win over West Brom<\/a>READ MORE: West Brom 1-2 Bristol City reaction : Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie fire Reds to Boxing Day win<\/a><\/p>\n

While Ousmane Diakite’s header five minutes from full-time ensured that the closing exchanges were far from comfortable for Struber and the travelling fans packed into the away end, the Robins boss was left delighted with the majority of his side’s showing.<\/p>\n

(Image: James Marsh\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

“I would say a really efficient performance in the first half,” the head coach told Bristol Live<\/a> after the full-time whistle. “How we step into the game, Anis Mehmeti [was] super clean.<\/p>\n

“I would also say the second goal, how we score, how we come out [with] the typical face, how we show our principles, how we come with the ball on the far side, super clean. On the same time, we know to win here, it’s really difficult, and we expect a very difficult game.<\/p>\n

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“We changed our shape again, we went in a little bit of a lower block to create a little bit more space for transition, but in this moment we were not always so clean and didn’t always have a good exit programme for us to have a little bit more control in possession. I think this is something that we can improve; it sounds crazy when you win here that you have in the end not magic things that you have to improve but small things.<\/p>\n

“This [would] help us in the end to have more control, but how we defend our own box, how we create a dynamic in this game to bring the points home, was, one more time, really impressive. It makes me really proud how my boys work and be committed to celebrate a victory.”<\/p>\n

Anis Mehmeti of Bristol City celebrates scoring a goal after making the score 0-1.(Image: James Marsh\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

As the second half wore on, City were pushed deeper and deeper<\/a> as the full-time whistle grew closer. In the moments after what proved to be Diakite’s consolation, the Baggies had a couple of chances to secure a late leveller.<\/p>\n

The best of those openings came with the final kick of the game. After the Robins had cleared a corner to the edge of their penalty area, Karlan Grant’s volleyed follow-up<\/a> hit the ground and bounced up to rattle the crossbar and away from danger as the referee blew his whistle.<\/p>\n

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Fortunately, that slice of good fortune ensured that City moved up to sixth in the Championship, ahead of seventh-placed Millwall<\/a> – their next opponents – on goal difference. Though the Reds are keen not to become too big for their boots, their head coach feels they have found a winner’s mentality.<\/p>\n

“From the mindset, for us, we stay very humble,” Struber said. “Don’t understand me wrong, so [we have] the mindset like a winner.<\/p>\n

“It’s not only at home, but it’s also in away games that we have a mindset like a winner. Not that we go here and realise, of course, the last six games they never lose, but we go with a really good mindset in this game, and I think this was the kick-off to win this game: that we have so much confidence in our actions.<\/p>\n

“This makes, in the end, today the difference.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Cam Pring: ‘I want to be in the team when Bristol City make history, hopefully we get there’<\/a>READ MORE: Harry Cornick handed suspension ahead of Bristol City’s Boxing Day clash after Millwall melee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gerhard Struber was left feeling “really proud” of his Bristol City squad after their Boxing Day win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,14590,4884,16,15,12462],"class_list":{"0":"post-656458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football-league-championship","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-west-bromwich-albion-fc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115787572453225293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}