Bristol City boss hails Robins’ work ethic after friendly wins over Newport and Aldershot

Chris Hogg hailed the work ethic of his Bristol City side as preparations for the 2024/25 Championship season were stepped up with two friendlies on Tuesday against Newport County and Aldershot Town, both of which the Robins won 2-0.

Second-half goals from Nahki Wells and new addition Sinclair Armstrong earned City their first win at the HPC against League Two side Newport, while a stunning lob from Sam Bell and a powerful header from Cam Pring on each side of the half secured the victory at National. Aldershot League.

It may have raised some eyebrows that Liam Manning and co. have opted to resume their players for three weeks of training before playing any friendly matches as the season opener at Hull City on August 10 continues to build. However, the Robins’ assistant head coach believes progress is being made.

“They did a great job and it was great to get back to work with them,” Hogg said. “Obviously we’ve had a solid three weeks of training before the games start, which was intentional and what you’re seeing is that the pace of the game is starting to come back. I mentioned this quite a bit with the players.

“You can do all the training you like but to come back into the game and test some of the tactical concepts and see the players dealing with the emotions that football brings again is a challenge but I think they have done a job good today, staying level. and fix some issues we’ve had and come out on the right side of the games.

“It was a solid day’s work for the group. Obviously two mixed teams with two games today, so two different teams with different challenges. It’s never a bad thing to win football games and try to get into the habit of winning .

“There are still many things to work on. We’re trying to develop some understanding of the pace of play with the guys and that can sometimes take a while to kick in, but as we get closer to the season in two weeks, then obviously the team. it will look a bit sharper and guys will be fighting to get their name on the team sheet. Competition is always good for places.”

After a relatively stagnant start at the EBB Stadium, City benefited from their first real flex of muscle in the Championship when a long ball over the top by Rob Dickie was expertly brought down on the edge of the area by Bell, who then chipped the Aldershot keeper, beating the offside trap.

However, the Shots gave the second-tier visitors something to worry about, getting behind on both flanks at times, while Cameron Hargreaves missed his best chance early in the second half when he somehow deflected what what appeared to be a well wide tap-in.

The visitors capitalized on the miss by doubling their lead soon after when Jason Knight produced a superb delivery for Cameron Pring to head home with the game then largely uneventful to close it out.

On enduring a tough game despite three divisions between the two teams on Tuesday night, Hogg added: “That’s the beauty of football, isn’t it? Trying to work with the group as much as we can is the ability to solve problems and make decisions when we have the ball and also when we don’t and different ways to deal with opposition set-ups.

“Slowly but surely the guys are working towards it and they are a great group to work with. They’re really driven and excited and driven and willing to learn, so we’ve had a really solid couple of weeks at the start of pre-season.

“I think you could see tonight physically, even with the changes with the young guys who thought they did great, the guys stayed pretty consistent with the physical results.”