“Bashed to pieces”- Simon Jordan Rips Into Bristol City After Historic Sheffield United Play-Off Thrashing
Former Crystal Palace owner and talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan believes Bristol City should have performed better in their play-off semi-final against Sheffield United after suffering a humiliating 6-0 aggregate defeat.
Bristol City secured a Championship play-off finish for the first time since 2008 with a 2-2 draw against Preston North End on the final day of the season, sparking jubilant scenes of celebration at Ashton Gate.
However, the mood quickly turned sour in the semi-final first leg on Thursday night when Rob Dickie was controversially sent off just before the break for bringing down Kieffer Moore in the box, and Sheffield United went on to establish a three-goal lead thanks to Harrison Burrows’ penalty and strikes from Andre Brooks and Callum O’Hare.
That gave the Robins a mountain to climb ahead of the second leg at Bramall Lane on Monday night, and while Liam Manning’s side did make a bright start, the Blades soon took full control of the game, with goals from Moore, Gustavo Hamer and O’Hare sealing another comprehensive victory for the hosts and booking their place at Wembley.
To add insult to injury for Bristol City, their 6-0 aggregate loss was the biggest ever defeat in Championship play-off history, but they did at least manage to avoid the EFL record, which was set by MK Dons after they were thrashed 8-1 on aggregate by Crawley Town last season.
Simon Jordan reacts to Bristol City’s brutal play-off exit at hands of Sheffield United
While Jordan admitted that there was always likely to be a gulf in quality between the two teams, he insisted that Bristol City should have put up more of a fight against Sheffield United, and he drew comparisons with a play-off defeat suffered by his Crystal Palace side during his time as owner.
“There is a school of thought which says how you go into the play-offs is often what fist you make of it,” Jordan said on talkSPORT.
“If you look at the form guide for the four sides that have been in the play-offs, and I know Bristol City are now out, but I always look at the last quarter of a season, which gives some indication of where you are.
“If you look at Sheffield United over the last 10 matches, they would have finished seventh in the league, Coventry would have finished 13th, Bristol City 17th and Sunderland 19th.
“So it’s no surprise that, going into this game, Bristol City weren’t tipped by the bookies and subsequently their form.
“I think they should have made a better fist of it for their fans.
“I remember us at Palace, and I hate to make everything about what I may have done, but we went into the play-offs against Watford in 2006, we got relegated the previous season and were tipped to go back up.
“We had done Watford twice in the league, but we went in there and we got smashed 3-0 at home, and we played out a tepid 0-0 game that was just nothing away at Vicarage Road.
“I would imagine if you’re a Bristol City fan and you’ve gotten bashed to pieces 3-0, which was what we did, we went into the second game anticipating a better outcome.
“We didn’t land a glove on them, but they’ve been done 3-0 and 3-0.”