Gritty City defy the odds to take a point against Watford

Talking points from Bristol City's draw against Watford at Vicarage Road, by Dan Carter

- Dan Carter

A CERTAIN former Bristol City boss, one who isn’t particularly popular in this parish now, used to always suggest to me that there were three types of draw. There’s the draw where you feel you should have won, the draw where you think it was a fair result, and the draw where you're delighted to have come away with anything.

Normally, the latter one occurs when you've been up against it or by far the second-best team in the contest. That wasn’t the case in the Robins’ stalemate with Watford at Vicarage Road on Friday night, but factors outside of what happened over the course of the 90 minutes ensured this was a draw that felt much more like a win than a defeat.

That feeling was demonstrated by the reaction of the away end come the full-time whistle, where the majority of fans remained in their seats to applaud the effort of those in black and white.

Such an image felt unlikely to occur when, after just six minutes, Gerhard Struber’s side fell behind. All it took was one long pass and a relatively straightforward run from Marc Bola and, for the third time in as many games, the Robins found themselves on the back foot. What followed, however, couldn’t have been much different from the events of last weekend's trip to Stoke or Tuesday's defeat to Blackburn.

Having been on the receiving end of the first real punch of the evening, the Robins steadied their feet and landed their responding blow. Moments before the half-hour mark, Scott Twine curled a trademark free-kick up and over the Hornets’ wall to breathe new life into the travelling support and, in turn, City’s cause.