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Joe Williams picked up an injury in Bristol City’s defeat to Sheffield United(Image: EFL)<\/p>\nJoe Williams was forced off just 40 minutes into Bristol City’s Championship play-off defeat to Sheffield United at Ashton Gate on Thursday eveningJoe Williams picked up an injury in Bristol City’s defeat to Sheffield United(Image: EFL)<\/p>\n
Liam Manning has shed some early light on Joe Williams’ injury after the midfielder was forced off in the first half of Bristol City’s defeat to Sheffield United in the first leg of their play-off semi-final, confirming the 28-year-old suffered an ankle issue.<\/p>\n
The Robins kicked off their first play-off campaign in 17 years in disappointing fashion as they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by the Blades at Ashton Gate<\/a> on Thursday evening. Goals from Harrison Burrows, Andre Brooks and Callum O’Hare, following the first-half sending off of Rob Dickie, were enough to put Chris Wilder’s side<\/a> in the driving seat ahead of Monday’s second leg at Bramall Lane.<\/p>\n Having more than held their own in the opening 45 minutes of the contest, City were thrust well and truly onto the back foot in first-half stoppage time when referee Oliver Langford awarded the Blades a penalty and showed Rob Dickie a straight red card<\/a> for what he adjudged to be a foul on Kieffer Moore. Burrows confidently converted from the spot to hand United the advantage, which was then doubled by Brooks and extended further by O’Hare in the second half.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol City 0-3 Sheffield United recap: Reaction as 10-man Robins dealt heavy first leg defeat<\/a>READ MORE: Liam Manning offers verdict on controversial decision as Bristol City suffer play-off defeat<\/a><\/p>\n Williams had started alongside Jason Knight in midfield, but the former Wigan midfielder had left the pitch a matter of moments before the deadlock was broken. The 28-year-old was replaced by George Earthy<\/a> with around five minutes still to play of the first half, having repeatedly gone to ground with what Manning later confirmed to be an ankle injury.<\/p>\n “He’s on crutches,” City the head coach told Bristol Live<\/a> in his post-match press conference on Thursday evening. “So [he’s] not looking good either.<\/p>\n “Ankle,” Manning simply continued when asked about what sort of injury Williams had sustained.<\/p>\n Bristol City are fighting to secure their place in the play-off places and you won’t miss a beat with our free newsletter.<\/p>\n All the latest news, views, interviews, gossip and analysis concerning the Robins, delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE<\/a><\/p>\n After being forced to contend with the double blow of losing Williams and the sending off of Dickie, City were always likely to find themselves under pressure in the second half. At the break, Manning opted to withdraw both Yu Hirakawa and Nahki Wells<\/a>, instead introducing Haydon Roberts and Sinclair Armstrong into the fold in an attempt to sure things up defensively and offer an outlet at the top end of the pitch.<\/p>\n While the Robins were unable to get the best out of the Irishman, who struggled to hold the ball up at times, for the first period of the second half, the tactical tweaks made by Manning had the desired effect. Though Sheffield United came close<\/a>, with Sydie Peck in particular threatening with one or two testing efforts, the Reds did well to dig in and keep the deficit to just a single goal with around 20 minutes of normal time to play in BS3.<\/p>\n Of course, the mentality on show to fight and battle for every loose ball, even when down to 10 men, was a source of encouragement for Manning. However, the fact that hard work was undone in the closing exchanges at Ashton Gate to leave the Robins with a mountain to climb at Bramall Lane<\/a> made the evening even more frustrating for the City boss.<\/p>\n Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n “We actually started the first 20 minutes of the second half, I thought, with quite good control,” the head coach explained. “We kind of kept them outside and in front of us.<\/p>\n “If you give them spaces, like you saw first half, the quality and the speed they move at, they’re so dangerous on transition that you can cause your problems. So it becomes, when you’re a man down, how do you control space? How do you keep them outside and in front of us and frustrate them, probably more than anything?<\/p>\n “We did it for a period, but not long enough. Ultimately, the goals were a little bit soft, for me.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol City player ratings vs Sheffield United: BS3 loss leaves Reds with mountain to climb<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol-born boss Ian Holloway makes ‘proud’ Bristol City admission ahead of play-off campaign<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Williams was forced off just 40 minutes into Bristol City’s Championship play-off defeat to Sheffield United at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-86636","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-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114476423862475755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86636","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=86636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744487785_996_2_Liam-Manning.jpg\")
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