During the half-time of Saturday with Preston, Bristol City boss Liam Manning prepared the largest team talk of his career with his side with his side 2-0 and their promotion house with tickets at the point of collapse.
At the time, he did not know that a score would be sufficient for the Robins to secure a play-off place, and if the results had turned against them elsewhere, the defeat would have indicated the ultimate anti-climax with a first top-six championship processing since 2008 on the line.
His players had looked nervous, especially for the goal. They had not had any shot at goal despite seeing 70 percent of the ball. He urged them to return to basics.
“I said they shouldn't lose sight of why we started playing football,” he revealed after the game. “You don't start playing football to have 500 steps and not go anywhere.
“Of course we want to drive the game with the ball, but it is about actually getting it in their box and to ask the question.”
City took the message on board, had drawn level for 20 minutes in the second period and had to win the game. Even a shock of nine minutes when Blackburn briefly pulled ahead at Sheffield United, would be a false alarm.
What Manning told his team in that dressing room has encapsulated a large part of their season. Bristol City is in possession of the entire season, sometimes up to the point of monotony.
The Robins have tried to grab the second most last third passes in the championship, but the speed with which they turn into shots is the worst in the division.
A lack of advanced advanced is a running theme during a season that started with losing top scorer Tommy Conway, and ends with one of his two replacements of several millions of pounds that are already on loan and almost 35-year-old Nahki Wells attack.
He has done an impressive and sometimes thankless job and 10 goals of 26 starts. The Bermudan no longer has a contract this summer and Manning has made no secret of the fact that he would like to keep him.
Whether that occurs is probably more to which division Bristol City is located, a cruel irony that he may play against his own future in the next two, maybe three games.
Creativity is an area that is missing almost as much as the forward line of the Robins.
This is a side of Bristol City who has still not replaced lost talent Alex Scott, almost two years since his departure. But then few clubs at this level can handle losing a talent that was higher than Amad Diallo for the EFL Young Player of the Year in 2023.
His Ashton Gate versions were sufficient to convince Bournemouth to pay £ 25 million in the summer of 2023, even though he knew he had sustained a considerable knee injury before he became a member. Less than one fifth of that figure, for what annoyance, has been spent on his successors.
Scott Twine was the answer last summer and completed a permanent reunion with Manning who had gained the best out of him at MK Dons. By the time his transfer from Burnley was finally sewn, Bristol City had already moved to their backup plan, George Earthy, who was just called Young Hammer of the Year in West Ham.
What had appeared an abundance of wealth at the time has been at its best stable. The best moments of Twine come from Beckham-like free kick goals, while Earthy has begun to look out in the last months of the season, but only made six starts before the beginning of April.
Max Bird has been performed to fill the void, which creates it at the one -year highest number of opportunities in the division – but he cannot do it alone and has gone off the boil in recent weeks. With that, the targeted death of the city was missing and they had to fall back on their resilience as their most important strength.
City reached the top six of the championship with 17 victories, a record low since the rebrand of the division 20 years ago. But they did this only one more game lost than the play-off winners of last season Southampton.
They are rarely spectacular, but rarely overlooked. A 4-0 drubing at Leeds in their penultimate match was an aberration and a bad time to do their worst performance of the season.
The comeback against Preston summarized things. City was still not world -protectors against a team that could have ended the day in the relegation places, but took Manning's words on board to save a point.
Sheffield United may not offer them the same chance tonight. But if they can return to their steady firmness that they brought here – and “ask the question” of the knives as they did in Bramall Lane in March, they may not have to do that.
Watch Bristol City vs Sheffield United on Sky Sports Football tonight, kick off at 8 p.m.