Bristol City boss Derek McInnes insists they can beat the drop - by taking small steps

NICE place, Bristol. Really nice. Handy for London. Good airport. Highest quality of life in England, apparently.


All true... and Derek McInnes is sick of hearing it.

Because he wants players to want to be in his dressing room. He wants them there because they're Bristol City, not because of Bristol, the city.

And the former St Johnstone boss is not convinced all of them are. Yet.

The 40-year-old has worked miracles since he took over the reins at the Robins 15 weeks ago, hauling them from six points adrift at the foot of the Championship to six points clear of the relegation zone.

But for him, the job's not even started, far less done.

Surviving the next 17 games will only get him to base camp on the mountain he wants to climb with his club all the way up into the Premiership.

And with 17 players out of contract in the summer, it'll let him make his mark by bringing in 'the right type'.

As he sits in his cluttered Ashton Gate office with assistant Tony Docherty mulling over the set piece analysis for their next game, he believes he's already made a dent in that.

Although disappointed to lose star striker Nicky Maynard to West Ham in the window, McInnes managed to bring in Richard Foster, Stephen Pearson and Chris Wood. He said: "There's nothing we're doing differently here.

"If you find a way of working you think is right, you try to stick to it as much as you can, even if there are hurdles and complications along the way.

"It's maybe different, in that we never had to crack the whip with the boys at St Johnstone - it ran the way it ran because the boys were used to it.

"We always felt we had players up there who had a real willingness to come into the dressing room every day and work with an honesty.

"All we've done is try to bring the basics of that to this team.

"Obviously we've had an upturn in fortunes in relation to results, but we're not kidded. The position we're in is better than when we arrived but it's still precarious.

"The feedback has been good around the city though. They just want their club to show a bit of fight and make sure we can galvanise things.

"Bristol is the sixth biggest city in the country, but it has never really made a dent in the top flight.

"And being a two-club city brings its own challenges - especially with Mark McGhee being in at Rovers now!

"But there's this feeling that Bristol is a 'nice' place to live and we're a 'nice' club to be at.

"For me it's about changing that niceness and finding a bit more nastiness, a bit more edge.

"You want people to be here because of the club and the reputation we have rather than it being a convenient place to live and all the rest of it.

"I think there's an element of that here. It's a nice part of the country, it's convenient for a lot of people, but we want to get away from that.

"We want Bristol City to be talked about as a team who are a good club for Premiership sides to loan players to, a club who are only going one way.

"We have a lot of work to do to get there though.

"It's small steps at the minute but if we can get the first part of the job done, in terms of keeping us up, then we'll see where we go."

McInnes ushered more bodies out in the window than he did in - but he's confident the business he did was worth doing.

He said: "We've tried to get a system of play that suits and the window gave us the opportunity to bring in a couple of types who fit into that.

"It's all about types - that was the bedrock of our signing policy in January. We've managed to get a few out on loan and we're trying to identify the group of lads who'll be good for us going forward.

"Look at a guy like Foster - he ticks every box. He can play a few positions, he's dependable, and he has a chance to get his career going on an upward spiral.

"We've got a player with over 300 games at the age of 25, he's experienced and mature but has all the athletic attributes to play at this level.

"Pearson is our player on a short term deal as well. He's loving it here and has plenty to offer.

"And big Chris Wood is a lad we tried to get at St Johnstone a few times. We were always outmuscled by bigger clubs.

"He's scored 10 goals in the Championship for Birmingham already this season and we've managed to get someone on loan who's a proven scorer at this level.

"Listen, we recognise we must balance the books and there are far too many players at the club.

"But we're used to working with a limited squad and are happy to focus on getting the best out of players."

That's why they got the gig in the first place. A reputation hard-earned at St Johnstone over four years, a presentable face, an erudite manner - he has all the tools an owner like Stephen Lansdown wants in a manager.

And despite his relative lack of experience, McInnes insists he's not intimidated by the task.

He shrugged: "You come down with a confidence simply gained from doing the job. The desire for us to do that same job down here and get our teeth into it was the biggest thing.

"Are you intimidated on the first day? Isn't anyone on their first day in a new job? "I've only ever managed a team I knew. I inherited a team who were my team-mates and every player at the club was either that or someone I had signed. They were my boys.

"But it's like any new opportunity, it's the feeling of the unknown.

"But I know dressing rooms and I know football, and nothing much changes. Players are the same, teams are the same.

"And the fans see a difference in the team - where there was despair, they see a bit of hope and optimism.

"That's all you want to generate at the start. Now we need to follow that up and not let anyone down.

"I think the players had to get that feeling of winning games again.

"Sometimes it's easy just to say that players don't care, they're lazy, they're this and that. From the outside looking in at a team at the bottom of the league the impression was that we were loaded with players like that, we had a dressing room full of bad pros.

"But it's not like that, they just had to try to get used to winning again.

"I've been in teams who'll win game after game and it becomes a habit, the same as losing does - it's just a harder one to kick.

"We've done that to a point but there's loads still to do."