Plymouth Argyle vs Bristol City. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Plymouth Argyle and Bristol City at Home Park on Easter Monday | Nahki Wells' winner sees relegation-threatened Plymouth sack boss Ian Foster after just three months in charge
Monday 1 April 2024 23:25, UK
Plymouth have sacked head coach Ian Foster after just three months in charge following Easter Monday's 1-0 home defeat to Bristol City.
Foster, who had been in charge of the Championship club since early January, departs with Plymouth just one place and one point off the relegation zone.
Nahki Wells' winner for Bristol City condemned Plymouth to a fifth home Championship defeat without scoring, while they have won just one of their last 11 league games.
Foster's exit sees director of Football Neil Dewsnip and first-team coach Kevin Nancekivell take charge of the team for the remainder of the season.
Plymouth chairman Simon Hallett said in a club statement: "Ian was hired through a thorough and extensive recruitment process and his coaching credentials really stood out when making the appointment.
"But we have to balance long-term stability against short-term decisions, and we have given Ian as long as possible to see if results could improve.
"Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, and we feel now is the right time to make a change to give us the best chance of securing survival."
Bristol City grabbed a 57th-minute winner when Jason Knight drove at goal and teed up Anis Mehmeti whose shot was acrobatically saved by Michael Cooper at full stretch.
The Argyle keeper then managed to save substitute Mark Sykes' close-range follow-up but the ball looped up and substitute Wells nodded in on the line.
Plymouth were reduced to 10 men when midfielder Alfie Devine was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 78th minute.
Bali Mumba came closest to scoring from one of Argyle's three early corners, volleying just over from the edge of the box.
Devine made a superb break from his own half to set up Ryan Hardie on a 12th-minute counter-attack but the Scottish striker was wide with his 20-yard angled shot on the run.
City goalkeeper Max O'Leary was called into action from Argyle's next attack, picking Morgan Whittaker's shot out of the air after a fine Adam Forshaw pass down the right wing.
Despite their pressure Argyle could not find a breakthrough, with a handful of players failing to connect with another Forshaw corner as it flew across the face of the visitors' goal in the 20th minute.
Argyle's best chance came on the half-hour when top-scorer Whittaker let fly with a thundering volley from the left after latching on to Matt Sorinola's cross from the right. The ball flew just over O'Leary's crossbar.
Cooper had to make a brilliant one-handed save to deny Bristol City forward Scott Twine as he raced onto a through ball from skipper Matty James. Twine tried to lift the ball over Cooper, who just managed to get enough on the ball to turn it over.
George Tanner made a chested clearance at the far post to deny Argyle as Sorinola again sent over a superb cross from the right.
Knight forced a near-post save from Cooper at the start of the second half as Bristol City continued from where they had left off, in the ascendancy.
O'Leary made a good save with his feet in the 70th minute as Whittaker cut in from the right and shot from close range.
Cooper made another full-stretch stop to deny Wells a second goal after 76 minutes as the striker broke into the box and let fly with a low angled drive.
Devine received a second yellow card following a foul on Tanner and Plymouth never really looked like threatening a late equaliser.
Plymouth's Ian Foster:
"For a good while throughout the game we were the better side.
"They switched to a back four and made three changes at half-time. That tells you something about the way we were playing.
"The performance was outstanding for most of the game. We got more frustrated as the game wore on.
"We all want to be together. You can't fault the players' application. We just have to be more ruthless when we get our chances. We've got to do better.
"We had enough possession and created enough opportunities and, in those moments, we have to score.
"We are all disappointed. We are doing everything we can to arrest this spell we are going through.
"Our attention turns to the next game (Rotherham away), which is massive for us. But all games are massive now."
Bristol City's Liam Manning:
"Nahki is a terrific character; I'm delighted for him that he came on and got the winner for us.
"In the first half we obviously expected them to come at us, with the home fans creating an atmosphere and getting behind them.
"And obviously their set-up was a bit more aggressive and front-footed. For the first 20-25 minutes we weathered the storm a little bit, which sometimes you have to.
"We changed it from a five to a four 20 minutes in which allowed us to get a bit more pressure. For the last 15 minutes of the first half we came back into it and were more in their half than ours.
"I thought we did a good job of seeing that through then shifting the control back to us."
