Nigel Pearson was proud that his Bristol City team turned in a committed display to honour the ‘Ashton Gate Eight’.
City marked the 40th anniversary of eight players tearing up their contracts to save the club from going out of business in February 1982 with an impressive win over Middlesbrough.
Six of the them – Geoff Merrick, Trevor Tainton, Gerry Sweeney, David Rodgers, Julian Marshall and Peter Aitken were introduced onto the pitch before kick-off. Jimmy Mann and Chris Garland were unable to attend.
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City supporters rose to the occasion and so did their team. Andreas Weimann fired his 16th goal of the season from Antoine Semenyo’s seventh minute cross and Semenyo doubled the advantage on 68 minutes with a brilliant long-range strike.
Matt Crooks headed an injury-time consolation for Boro from a Marcus Tavernier corner, but it was too little too late for Chris Wilder’s promotion-chasers.
A delighted Pearson said: “It was an emotional occasion, particularly for those with a long association with our club, and the players have produced a fitting tribute.
“I met six of the Ashton Gate Eight yesterday and I was playing when they were. What they did will never be forgotten.
“We weren’t at our best, but in terms of effort and application I couldn’t have asked for more.
“I question our decision-making at times and we are still making errors when defending a lead, but there is no doubting the commitment of the players.
“Our home fans are now seeing what they want to see, good honest performances, with their team giving everything.
“We are making progress as a squad, but we have a long way to go. Today we have beaten a very good team, which is encouraging.
“Last season home games were hard to watch at times. But we have put that behind us.
“There were some good individual performances. Dan Bentley has had to be patient awaiting his chance to get back into the team and did well.
“Sam Bell was given a right wing-back role and it was good to see another young player take his chance well.”
Boro produced plenty of promising attacking football, but were left frustrated.
Manager Chris Wilder admitted preparation had not been ideal, with a Friday flight to Bristol cancelled and a coach trip instead that ended at 10.30pm.
But he insisted: “There are no excuses. We weren’t unlucky and got what we deserved.
“Games are decided in both boxes. We couldn’t keep the ball out of our net and didn’t do enough to punish them going forward.
“The match summed up our weekend after what happened yesterday, but that’s football sometimes.
“It was a difficult team performance to summarise, not great at times, but at others good enough to create a lot of chances.
“We had enough possession of the ball in key areas to score more goals.
“Perhaps it was a result that was coming. On current form before today it was between us and Sheffield United who were on the best run.
“We fell a bit short today, but the players have been giving everything and we will improve further through hard work and recruitment.
“It’s not a time to be critical of the players. We all want to get into the play-offs now, but my appointment was based on having a medium to long-term effect on the club.
“We have made great strides and this was a backward step.”
