Concentrating on the leagues...

Bristol City 1 West Ham 0 (FA Cup)

It's a night in front of the BBC coverage for this one. With Paqueta, Bowen, Kudus and Aguerd all out this was always going to be difficult, while Alvarez and Fornals are also absent, plus long-term casualty Antonio.

It's the worst possible start after three minutes when after the City keeper clears from Cornet's pass to Ings, Mavropanos plays a no-look backpass and Conway nips in to round Fabianski and score. That's the second goal Dinos has given away from a poor back pass and for all his promise he needs to work on his concentration.

West Ham come back into it and force a few corners, even though the front three of Cornet, Ings and Benrahma haven't scored a goal between them all season. Cornet under pressure sends a volley past the post. Ings has a decent turn and snapshot just wide, but then fluffs another chance when he tries to square it rather than shoot. That's the sign of a striker completely lacking in confidence.

The game is effectively over just after the break when Benrahma is sent off for kicking out after being fouled. It was a bad challenge by Williams but a stupid piece of indiscipline from Beni, and sums up the way his season has gone. Though City are also lucky to still have 11 men after a raised arm from Gardner-Hickman on Cresswell goes unpunished.

Emerson moves into midfield and tries his best to get some progressive play going, but Bristol are really fired up and want it more on a cold Tuesday night in the west country. West Ham's best chance comes when Cornet gets in a good cross from the left and Soucek's effort is brilliantly tipped over by O'Leary. 

Mubama comes on late and it's pleasing to see young Callum Marshall get ten minutes, but that's about the only positive. Wells goes close with a couple of late efforts and the outcome is never really in doubt. So the Cup Final breakfast at Nigel's gaff in Kew Gardens is off once more, as we concentrate in on the Premier and Europa Leagues and getting some bodies back in action.

Diafra Sakho… He scores when he wants!

Bristol City 0 West Ham 1 (FA Cup)

Able to watch this one at home as my front room becomes an imaginary pub. The first half is as might have been predicted. City really come at West Ham and to make it worse they have a Time Lord up front in Matt Smith. When not waving psychic paper at our defence Smith has a header cleared off the line by first Mark Noble and then another header brilliantly headed off the line by Andy Carroll. Overlapping left back Joe Bryan also shoots across our goal. West Ham come into it a bit more for the last 15 minutes but the only half chance is when Jenkinson gets in a cross but Andy Carroll, under pressure from Flint, prods straight at the keeper. Tomkins is the pick of our defenders and Bristol are lucky to escape bookings for a couple of agricultural challenges on Reid and Jenkinson.

We show a bit more energy in the second half, though Smith heads over when he should have done better. Downing gets across the box to fire over. Sakho and Amalfitano replace Valencia and Song. The subs improve things. Amalfitano has a curling shot easily gathered byFielding. Sakho goes very close after a brilliant lob over Ayling's head and then a dipping shot on to the top of the bar. It looks like we might have to settle for a replay until the 81st minute when Andy Carroll bulldozes his way down the right and does really well to lob in a cross. Sakho has a lot to do at the far post but heads in off the underside of the bar before running to our 1,100 fans.

There's one late Smith herder wide, but we see out time as our fans sing "Diafra Sakho…He scores when he wants!" and "Que sera sera…" Plus "Is there a fire drill?" as there City fans sneak off early.  Not a great performance, but a professional one. We could easily have been embarrassed on a cold January afternoon at a three-sided stadium in the West Country. All that hard work against Everton hasn't been wasted; what matters is that we're in the draw for the next round.

We are third in the league...

Bristol City 1 West Ham 1
Oh well. Knew it was all over once Carew came on... and according to the radio at least he missed a couple of passable chances. It was dropping points at home against Reading and Birmingham on top of five successive draws at home that did for us, not this result. Southampton will get at least one point from Middlesbrough away and Coventry at home so play-offs here we come.