Cotterill Targeting City Double

22 March 2015 18:45

Victorious Bristol City boss Steve Cotterill challenged the Robins to clinch promotion in style after their Johnstone's Paint Trophy win.

They beat Walsall 2-0 at Wembley as goals from Aden Flint and Mark Little sealed a third Johnstone's Paint Trophy and first since 2003.

It was also City's first Wembley appearance since they lost the Sky Bet Championship play-off final 1-0 to Hull in 2008.

Cotterill's side are 10 points clear in Sky Bet League One with eight games left and he wants the title.

He said: "We have a fixation now that we want to win the league.

"There is plenty to play for and hopefully days like this can enhance us a bit more.

"It will be very pleasing if we can end up winning the league, that is the big one for me. Days like this will reinvigorate us again, it is an invaluable experience, there is nothing like lifting silverware.

"We've managed to manoeuvre ourselves around three competitions and days like this can only help us going forward.

"Do I see this as part of a League One double? It would be nice. We know we've got good games to play starting next week with an important game against Barnsley.

"Now we've ended up winning the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at Wembley hopefully that can push us on to finish the season off. We would like to use this as a springboard."

Flint headed in after just 15 minutes and Little ended the contest when he bundled in six minutes after the break after Richard O'Donnell saved his initial header.

Walsall's first trip to Wembley in their 127-year history ended in defeat and they struggled to match the Robins.

Jordan Cook hit the post with a looping cross in the second half and Andy Taylor volleyed over but the Saddlers never looked like recovering after falling behind.

They are four points above the relegation zone in Sky Bet League One and boss Dean Smith insisted must recover from the loss.

He said: "We won't dwell on it, we knew it was a special occasion, we wanted to come here and embrace it. We have played against the champions elect in our league and just come up short.

"We didn't perform to anywhere near our level. It's too early to say whether there are regrets but some will be disappointed.

"Maybe it was a bit of nerves. We're normally very good on the ball and today it wasn't quite good enough.

"They are young lads out there who wouldn't have been in front of 72,000 before and they handled it a lot better than we did.

"I'm proud of the achievement of getting here but disappointed with the result. It's a big learning curve."

Source: PA-WIRE