Lee Johnson hails Bristol City’s ‘unbelievable spirit’

Bristol City manager Lee Johnson was full of praise for his team’s “unbelievable spirit” after twice coming from behind to claim a 3-2 victory against Ipswich.

The visitors stopped their dismal Sky Bet Championship run after losing four games on the trot to leave the Suffolk side six points adrift of the safety zone.

All of the visitors’ goals came in a nine-minute spell midway through the second half.

A bizarre own goal by Ipswich goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski cancelled out Freddie Sears’ opener, with Jamie Paterson levelling another Sears effort before striker Famara Diedhiou headed in the winner.

Johnson said: “It’s a difficult place to come and you can see that Paul Lambert has got this Ipswich side working their socks off for each other. He’s got people working hard for each other and I’m very, very pleased to come out with three points.

“I thought the first 10 to 15 minutes we were excellent and then I think their shape got the better of us.

“(Cole) Skuse is a very good player, he’s evasive, he builds the attack, he slips your markers and their three v two in the middle got the better of us and then I thought we looked a little bit nervous.

“At half-time it wasn’t a biblical speech, just ‘come on boys I would rather be beat five and go for it’ and I thought Lloyd Kelly epitomised that with his attacking intent down the left.

“I thought we showed unbelievable spirit and they (Ipswich) will get out of trouble. They are a decent side.”

Opposite number Paul Lambert said his team has to do better defensively to pull themselves out of the relegation mire.

“I thought we were controlling the game and played really well. Freddie Sears is playing unbelievable football at the minute and I thought his first goal was exceptional,” Lambert said.

“The first goal is an honest mistake by Bart. He tried to stop it from going in; that happens, the next two goals were very poor, you’ve got to stop crosses.

“You can’t play the game of football if you can’t do the basics, stopping crosses into the box, and we never dealt with that.

“We’ve taken the lead in three games since I’ve been here and whether the lads are not used to taking the lead I don’t know, but I’m really happy with the way we’re playing football and we look a threat.

“But if you can’t stop crosses coming into the box you’re always going to have confusion in the box.”