Gavin Williams gave many Bristol City fans, myself included, food for thought with his fine second-half display in the 2-0 home win over Barnsley.

Williams came on in the 54th minute and his performance, along with a world-class save and audacious back-heel from our Brazilian shot-stopper Adriano Basso, were the main talking points.

With Marvin Elliott out for six weeks and Nicky Maynard out with a dead leg there were recalls to the side for Stern John and Michael McIndoe, whose confidence was high following a goal in the 2-0 win against Plymouth four days earlier.

The first half was a disappointing affair, with City struggling to make much headroom against a physical and organised Barnsley side. The Tykes had more of the ball and City couldn't find any rhythm in their passing or forward play. There was an unsavoury incident early on with an off-the-ball flare-up involving Jamie McAllister and former City trainee Kayode Odejayi. For me, McAllister gets involved in these sorts of incidents too often.

City created very little but a great piece of control from John from an Ivan Sproule pass almost saw City take the lead. Unfortunately, John's finish couldn't match his control and Barnsley keeper Heinz Muller was able to save.

The game only really sparked into life for City when Williams came on for the injured Sproule.

Williams has not been able to show City fans the best of his game, largely due to injury and being played put of position.

But Sproule's injury and a change in formation allowed Williams to play in the middle and put in the sort of performance that, if reproduced, would see the clamour for City signing a ball-playing midfielder die down.

He showed composure and moved the ball forward with pace to cause Barnsley a number of problems.

City's first good chance of the second half was started by an audacious piece of skill from Basso. After miscontrolling a back-pass, Basso was put under pressure by Jonathan Macken and used a cheeky back-heel to get out of trouble.

City then broke upfield and, after neat interplay between Williams and McIndoe, Bradley Orr crashed a shot against the bar. Shortly afterwards, Cole Skuse's defence-splitting pass allowed Williams to open the scoring with a great half-volley. Skuse is growing up game by game and stamps his authority on matches far more than in the past.

There were also impressive performances from Louis Carey and Liam Fontaine and a lively cameo from Peter Styvar. After a good win against Plymouth and the three points against Barnsley, City go into Tuesday night's game against Charlton full of confidence.

I am hoping Nicky Maynard will be fit to return and would expect John to make way. I am still to be convinced by John and do not believe he is doing enough to warrant a starting place in the side.By the time I read this column on Monday evening the transfer window will be closed and it will be interesting to see if there are any comings or goings at Ashton Gate.

If I was a betting man I wouldn't expect any further additions to the side, although I have to say I would be disappointed if we didn't look to improve the squad further. I was interested to see some video clips of Peruvian Roberto Merino, who played 90 minutes in the reserves against Plymouth. Merino looked quality although admittedly this was on video that could have been taken a while back. Gary has said that they won't be pursuing Roberto due to his lack of fitness. Don't be surprised to see him sign now or in the future.