It looks like a mid-week late shift is the way to go for Gary Johnson, as it certainly appears to get the best out of his Bristol City players.

After Wednesday's terrible performance in the Carling Cup against Carlisle, Gary Johnson had the players back out on the pitch for a late night training session. Wednesday's performance was as bad as I can remember in recent years and followed on the back of a bit of a lesson, shown on TV at the hands of our welsh neighbours.

The players didn't turn up against Carlisle and while I do not agree with booing your side off the pitch, I see no problem in letting the players know that they didn't perform. Gary Johnson also has to shoulder responsibility for what happened. We got it wrong tactically and I was disappointed that with 20 minutes to go, the manager's response to being behind was to throw Jamie McCombe on up front. This shows the lack of striking options that we have at the club and if we are to challenge this season, this is something that needs addressing.

The talk leaving the ground on Wednesday was all about how Middlesbrough would have a field day on Saturday and that a rugby score could be on the cards. As well as a late night training session and a dressing down from Gary and his coaching staff, the players held their own meeting and were determined to put things right in the next game.

Gary urged his players to develop a "nasty" streak, drop their "nice" tag and adopt a more aggressive approach against Middlesborough and from the first whistle this is exactly what they did. Danny Haynes took it a step too far and was rightly booked for an early sliding challenge but the tone had been set.

Gareth Southgate's side, albeit some what weakened following the sales of attacker Tuncay and defender Huth on Friday, had not conceded a goal in the Championship before Saturday's game and were unbeaten in four league games. All that changed with two top-drawer strikes from our in form hit man, Nicky Maynard. Nicky scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season to seal a famous victory against a good Boro side.

Nicky Maynard is right at the top of his game and is full of confidence and is clearly enjoying playing with Paul Hartley who is pulling the strings in mid-field. The balance of the side appeared much better with Hartley, Cole Skuse and Marvin Elliott in the middle but all three know that Lee Johnson will provide stiff competition and will be looking to getting back in the starting line up.

There is an adage that you should never change a winning team but I would be tempted to bring Lewin Nyatanga back in for Jamie McCombe and would also recall Bradley Orr. I'm not Bradley's biggest fan but I think he offers more in attack.