Swansea squandered the chance to move top of the Championship after being held to a draw in a scrappy game. They were reduced to 10 men late on when Jake Bidwell was sent off for a cynical challenge on the substitute Niclas Eliasson but neither team truly stamped their authority on a match that was short of clear-cut chances.
Among those in the stands to witness it unfold was Jack Leach, the Somerset spin bowler, whose heroics for England at Headingley will live long in the memory. This game might not have such a lasting effect.
Leach, whose famous spectacles were fitted at an optician in Cotham Hill, three miles from this stadium, was presented with a home shirt that read “1 Not Out” and said his Somerset teammate Marcus Trescothick, the honorary Bristol City vice-president, gave him the bug.
“He is [a fan] now, Trescothick’s converted him,” said Lee Johnson, smiling. “My father-in-law, who’s chairman of Nantwich Cricket Club, managed to get to Lord’s with their village team and play in a final [on Monday]. He [Leach] did a nice little video message, so it’s one in the bank; one of those to get in credit with the father-in-law. He will be buzzing.”
The hosts failed to get anything buzzing until Johnson introduced the striker Famara Diédhiou in place of the defender Nathan Baker, who was withdrawn with a suspected calf injury, approaching the half-hour.
Matt Grimes’s sweet free-kick forced Dan Bentley into a smart stop on the stroke of the interval, while Diédhiou flashed past the post after latching on to an electric cross by Callum O’Dowda, who turned on the afterburners to speed to the byline.
Bristol City lacked a focal point, the kind of presence that Benik Afobe, who is expected to miss the rest of the season after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear, had provided before a freak injury in training added him to the growing number of faces in the treatment room.
“I might have to create some new formations, I’ve thought about the Christmas tree, the diamond, I’m sure there’s a few uninvented ones,” said Johnson. “We’re quite adaptable, that’s the positive and I thought Han-Noah Massengo was class again.”
At times the ball was stuck to Massengo’s feet like a magnet, with the 18-year-old midfielder, signed from Monaco this summer, shimmering in one breath and shielding his marker in another.
Ashley Williams, the former Swansea captain, was at the heart of the hosts’ defence and few players know this rivalry better, with Williams on the winning side the last time Swansea yielded victory here in February 2011, when Johnson and his assistant coach, Jamie McAllister, were on the opposing team.
Johnson said he expects Ryan Giggs to recall the 35-year-old, a calming influence on his home debut, to the Wales squad for Euro 2020 qualifiers next month.
Swansea found joy from corners, with Grimes’s wicked delivery wreaking havoc, but André Ayew, Joe Rodon and, late on, Mike van der Hoorn all headed over.
Up the other end, Freddie Woodman repelled a late Diédhiou effort before the referee, Tony Harrington, gave Bidwell a seemingly harsh red card for scything down Eliasson with stoppage-time looming.
“It was as yellow as they come but to send him off was a weak decision, a weak mentality,” said Steve Cooper. “It was the linesman that made the decision.
“Where it was on the pitch, right in front of the opposition dugout had a big effect on it, which I can understand. It is a big moment for referees, they need to be strong, but it was a poor decision.”
