Former Lincoln City manager Michael Skubala has accepted the anger of Bristol City supporters after chants about his future accompanied a 5-0 home defeat against Norwich City.
Saturday’s defeat left Bristol City 16th in the Championship, with just one victory in their last seven league matches. Supporters chanted “You’re getting sacked in the morning” towards Skubala as a fourth successive home defeat turned into the most difficult afternoon of his managerial career.
Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol afterwards, Skubala acknowledged that explanations would carry little weight with supporters who had watched their side unravel. His immediate response was an apology, rather than an attempt to defend what they had witnessed.
“It doesn’t really matter what I say sometimes in these terms of situations,” he said, expectadly downbeat.
“Apologies to the fans, apologies to the supporters. It’s not good enough. The performance level the second half is not good enough.”
The result leaves Skubala approaching the international break with questions about both his team’s performances and their ability to cope when things go against them. He accepted that nerves were playing a part and said he needed to assess which players could get through the difficult moments.
There was no suggestion that he considered the scrutiny to be somebody else’s problem. Instead, he spoke about the responsibility shared by himself, his staff and the squad, and the need to identify leaders within the dressing room.
“It’s finding those leaders, those players within your group that can stand up to the pressure at the moment. Yeah, it’s pressure. It’s pressure for me. It’s pressure for everybody. But that’s the nature. That’s the job for me. That’s the job for the staff. And that’s players dealing with that.
“It’s easy to play this game, live in this game when it’s going well. It’s a very tough game when it’s going bad.”
The most pointed question concerned the chants from the stands, with Skubala asked how difficult they were to take personally. His response was to accept that absorbing the criticism came with the position, particularly if it offered some protection to his players.
“Yeah, but if I have to wear it for the players, I have to wear it for the players. That’s my job. Yeah, I can understand why they’re saying it.”
Skubala took over at Ashton Gate in May on a three-year contract, having led the Imps to the League One title last season. Fewer than six months later, he is having to defend his ability to build something at his new club while acknowledging the scale of the immediate problems.
He remains confident he can turn things around, but the next opportunity to ease the pressure comes away at high-flying Middlesbrough after the international break. With their last home victory coming against Watford on 18 September, restoring the confidence of the Ashton Gate crowd remains a pressing task.
Leave a Reply