What a day for newly anointed Bristol City captain Tomas Kalas. In fact, what a past seven days.
The 27-year-old central defender was told late this week that he was to be the new Robins skipper, replacing Korey Smith and Bailey Wright, and helped by Ed Lewis of the Bristol City media team with some advice from team performance guru Kevin Mincher, he produced a motivational video was shown to the squad before kick-off.
That all came after a strange international break that saw two Czech Republic teams called up with Kalas and co disbanded after two members of the national coaching team gave positive test results.
City's club record signing has been tested almost daily since then but thankfully is fine. Fine enough to head the winner against Coventry City in the 82nd minute at Ashton Gate to seal the win on Saturday.
"Ed made it and I gave him the ideas - a few quotes that I wanted the boys to remember," said Kalas of the montage created.
"We are a team and not individuals. And it was ended with a motivational speech. We're one big family and we're going to fight for each other. I don't know if we're going to get a video before every game he said."
Dean Holden explained following the match that the goosebumps were raised on the arms of the players at the video Kalas showed in the dressing room just before the Robins went out to play. It featured goal clips and some NFL action.
Kalas, who has never been a captain before, also explained that it was about time he got on the scoresheet after he netted his first Bristol City goal.
"It's about time that I started scoring some goals," the new skipper explained following the match.
"I can't remember the last one - or even remember me scoring a header. I win quite a lot of headers in a game so that's something I should be working on. If I can score four or five goals a season that would be great."
The former Chelsea defender also explained that the target is the top six for the season and an opening day win against the plucky Sky Blues helps to that end. Especially in a league Kalas dubs 'the toughest in the world'.
"We're living in strange times. You have to wear a face mask on the way to the stadium but then you can hug people in the penalty box and stuff," he added of his COVID-19 affected international break.
"It's a bit weird, all of it. I got tested on Tuesday, twice on Wednesday, once on Thursday and once on Friday, then Monday and Thursday again. That's my testing over the last ten days.
"I thought nothing can surprise me and every day I always find something," he added.
