The Excitement of Dean Holden

Dean Holden 'excited' but in need of change in results as Bristol City head to Watford
Season sliding away in frustrating fashion for Robins supporters but result at Vicarage Road could spark upturn in form.

With the cup competitions done with for another year attention now focuses on Championship form and where Bristol City will finish in the league his season.

Following eight defeats in their last 11 matches in the English second tier, Dean Holden's side are in real need of a morale-boosting win.

And a trip to Vicarage Road to meet Watford - who have not win in their last three league games - presents a chance for the Robins to end their dismal away form (lost six of the last seven) and kickstart a push towards the right end of the table.

Holden spoke on the task ahead and reflected on the FA Cup defeat as he explained that his squad is likely to be the same for this coming game, though Joe Williams will be assessed on his tight hamstring from midweek.

Here's a transcript of his Q+A with reporters ahead of Saturday's 3pm kick-off.

You went toe-to-toe with a Premier League club on Wednesday and you more than held your own. The bread and butter is the league, this will just embolden you in the Championship to push for that promotion, won’t it?
I’m so excited about the next few games because in the next month or so we’ve got games against teams around us in the playoffs. So our season is alive and kicking in the next few weeks. We looked really good in that 3-5-2 tonight, really organised and looked like we carried a threat. It’s a big couple of weeks for us now and we’ve got renewed hope and renewed belief on the back of that performance. We don’t like losing games of football but certainly in terms of the performance level, we acquitted ourselves really well.

I think Sheffield United are a really good team. Forget where they are in the league, I think the way they play, the style, fantastic coaching staff, the way they go about things and we’ve acquitted ourselves really well tonight. We’ve been on the wrong end of a decision.

But we’ll keep doing what we’ve doing all season - a little bit of adversity but we’ll stick together and we’ll respond to it.

The actual red card itself against Sheffield United seemed quite harsh, considering it was very quick and didn’t seem a deliberate act, so to get the penalty and the red card, does that seem especially harsh?
In fairness to the referee, I think he’s just playing by the rules. He doesn’t set the rules. We’ve had a few rule changes this season and it’s a strange old game of football at the minute. The referee’s applied the rules. I don’t think any of their players really shouted for a penalty. It’s one of those things. We’ve lost to a decision which I think is difficult to take.

But what I want to keep the focus on is the performance from the players. We came here to win and we acquitted ourselves really well. We had an 18-year-old in Ryley Towler at left wing-back who I thought was outstanding. It’s just a difficult one to take but we’ve got a couple of days now to get over it and we’ll be ready when we go to Vicarage Road on Saturday.

What did you think of the Nahki Wells opportunity just after the break – he’s got to square that one, hasn’t he, to Jamie Paterson?
I think they’re big moments aren’t they? He’s clearly seen himself in a one v one and made the decision. To be fair, he twisted the defender up and got a decent strike off. But in hindsight, Pato was obviously in acres of space and Nahki just didn’t see him. I’m sure the next time, he’ll hopefully make the right decision and pick him out.

How’s Joe Williams doing? It looked like he might have gone down with something?
We told him to go down just to get the chance with the physio. He said he was having a little bit of tightness in his hamstring, that was all, and Joe, being Joe, wanted to carry on. He’s been out for six months with a few complications along the way so there is no way we’re going to take any risks. So we made the right call and got him off. We’ll assess him in the next day or so.

On the Watford game coming up, what do you make of them and how desperate are you to get a result there, given your league form of late?
The season’s alive and kicking now. We’re in a really handy position now in the league to mount this challenge. We go there with real confidence after the Sheffield United game – it was a really committed, strong display from the players. Watford have changed around so much recently. They’ve been playing 4-4-2 of late, a little bit more direct in the way that they play than they were previously.

They’ve still got Premier League players in the squad – you look through the squad and it’s a huge challenge. It’s one that we won’t underestimate but one that we’re ready for.

Will you get any players back for that one at all or is it likely to be the same squad?
Yes, it’ll be the same squad. Steven Sessegnon got through 70 minutes in the U23s this week, which is a bonus for us, but he’s still way short in terms of fitness so it’ll be the same squad.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dean-holden-excited-need-change-4997092

 

We have had 8 defeats in 11 games and he says, "But we’ll keep doing what we’ve doing all season - a little bit of adversity but we’ll stick together and we’ll respond to it."
He really is asking for trouble.

He said he was having a little bit of tightness in his hamstring, "We told him to go down just to get the chance with the physi0."
Taking a chance with our medical rehab.

 

Every word from Dean Holden on Watford thrashing and dire Bristol City form
Head coach under pressure after a ninth league defeat in the last 12 games with City suffering heaviest defeat in 11 years.

What an afternoon for you, Dean. Without looking for excuses, a massive injury list didn’t help?
I’ve never used it as an excuse, never, and I’m not going to start today on the back of a 6-0 defeat. The fact is it’s about 80% of our games, we’ve had seven or more of our players injured. I’m never going to use it as an excuse, it is what it is. That’s the squad that we’ve got and we’ve got to work with the squad. That’s my job.

How difficult do you think it will be to get a lift before Reading in midweek?
I won’t find it difficult to motivate myself tomorrow morning, when I wake up, to go again. I’ve done it all my life. I’ve asked the players the same question and we’ll see on Tuesday night, won’t we? It’s easy for me to sit here and say there’ll be a response. These press conferences, you’ve got to do them as a coach, but talk’s cheap. It’s about how wephysically respond when we go over that line.

We win together and we lose together, we’ve done that all season. Look, today, it’s horrible. We started poorly, we conceded in the first couple of minutes against a top team who were at their top level today – a fantastic squad of players.

To concede goals as quickly as did, through lapses of concentration, it’s difficult to pick up. It’s a horrible feeling and it’s a day that will stay with the players for their whole career, and for all of us.

Is that one of the worst days in your footballing career?
I’ve had some dark moments in my career, I must say. It’s a horrible day, of course it is. You have to stand there – that’s the job of the head coach is to try to influence as much as you can and we can’t get away from the fact that it’s been a bad day.

There’s two things that can happen now. You can either become a victim – and this is what I’ve said to the players, I’ve been really honest – you can start to blame others, you can go within yourselves, you can start to look for excuses. Or you can look yourself in the mirror and think “where am I going in my career? What do I really want? How high do I really want to go?”

This sort of feeling, and we’ve had a couple of bad moments recently with Cardiff and you think you’ve hit a place, and then you get that today. This is one of those that you can look back and think this is a time that we found something within ourselves to respond. That’s up to us as a group of players and staff to do that.

Are you concerned that you might get dragged into the bottom end of the table now?
I’m not interested in the table, to be honest. I’m not interested in the playoffs or the bottom. I’m interested in getting a response tomorrow from a group of men.

What time have you got them in tomorrow?
What’s that got to do with anything?

I was just wondering if you were going to change the routine in response to today?
Of course we will, we have to do something different.

Can you take anything positive from today?
No. No positives today, no. It’s been a bad day. We’ve got to be honest and accept that and not look for excuses.

You lost some key players in the run-up to today. What’s the latest on Alfie Mawson and Joe Williams?
Alfie will be out for the season, pretty much. He’s got a knee injury that he suffered at Sheffield United. He didn’t feel it when he got sent off, he sat in the dressing room for 15 minutes or so and maybe when the adrenaline started to wear off, he started to feel something in his knee and didn’t feel quite right. That’s why we got him scanned and unfortunately he’s got a nasty knee injury.

Joe Williams was just feeling signs of fatigue from the games that he’s played in in quick succession so I’m hoping Joe will be okay.

through moments like this and to sustain a career for as long as you want to, you’ve got to find solutions to problems. Today’s been a horrible day for us.
I have to find a solution .I won’t be feeling sorry for myself. I won’t be blaming him or blaming her or blaming this or that. I’ll look in my own mirror when I go to bed tonight and I’ll find an answer.

Were you surprised by the performance that Watford put in and how they set up, considering how they’ve been playing in recent weeks? Looking at it from a Watford perspective, that was a particularly different type of performance from Watford. Did they surprise you in any way?
They changed the system. They’ve been playing 4-4-2 under the new manager. It didn’t particularly surprise me. I saw some comments that he made on the radio last week about tweaking one or two things and clearly they’ve got top class players in those wide areas – Sema, Sarr who on the day can destroy any team in this division. They were at their best today. Pedro in midfield and Cleverley – top player, top, top player. We had too many lapses of concentration and when you concede goals as quickly as you do, you’ve got a mountain to climb.

Going back to you personally, when your head goes down in bed tonight, will you sleep well or does it keep you awake at night?
This’ll sit all weekend, this has been a bad day. I’ve had many more dark moments than this, as people well know, and how did I get out of those, how did I respond to those? I found a way of moving forward, of accepting where you’re at. It’s about trying to move forward. It’s about reflecting, it’s not about trying to find an excuse. It’s unacceptable?

Does it lose you sleep?
I’m sure there’ll be a couple of sleepless nights over the weekend, if I’m being honest, yes. I’m sure they will be.

Just on the younger players – the likes of Towler who’s only played his second game and Moore – they’ve had a real game today against Sarr who’s a quality act. How do you pick them up after that?
You know that? I felt particularly for Ryley as he made his debut on Wednesday night as an 18 year old. To take him off at half time, I wanted to protect him because he wasn’t being protected out there. It’s tough for a young player against a top, top performer and that was the reason that I took him off. I wanted to protect him. He’s going to have a big career and this will be an experience that, in his long term development as a young player, will really help but it’s hard to see right now. With some perspective on it, he will benefit from that and I wanted to protect him.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/every-word-dean-holden-watford-5002440

 

No excuses, no buck passing, no expression of love and passion for the club, no broken promises just proves DH is a nice, honest guy but we all knew that, a ninth league defeat in the last 12 games and suffering our heaviest defeat in 11 years just proves that we have replaced the crap we have suffered from with more crap of the same odour, we continue to spiral down, relegation threatens.

 

More pre-season boardroom waffle~
Bristol City verdict: The football club excelling at everything except football
'Ambitious West Country side are losing week on week and need to cauterise the wound to avoid being sucked into battle at the wrong end of the table.

Mark Ashton explained ahead of the season that "challenging for promotion is definitely the aim". "It's definitely more than achievable," he added.

Jon Lansdown expected a promotion challenge too. "I believe we had a squad last year that should have been challenging for the top six and I think going into next year, there's no reason to think that we can't be in that bracket again. We want to be at the right end of the table challenging for promotion," he said.'

What do you say now, chaps?
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-verdict-football-club-5002587