Bentley always striving for more.

Dan Bentley called it a “very good start” with City in touching distance of the play-offs, despite the implications of Covid-19 and long-term injuries hitting the players this term.

He is a goalkeeper who admits he always wants to see improvements, but Bentley - with seven clean sheets in 23 appearances across all competitions - has been pleased by the group’s response and is keeping positive heading into the second half of the campaign.

 

“I’m someone who strives for better all the time,” Bentley told Robins TV. “I will pick holes in my performances, be that good, bad or indifferent, I’m always looking to improve to find the small percentages to help me and the team.

“I’m pleased but there are things I work on with Pat (Mountain – Goalkeeper Coach). We go through the clips from each game in detail, we talk in training and over Whatsapp messages and go over videos for changes that need to be made in training and games. Overall, I’ve been fairly happy.

“We made a very good start to the season which was very well documented. I think if you’d have said we’d have 10 or so players injured in long spells across the season wed have taken our position.

“It’s frustrating because we want to be at the top looking down on people and making sure we’re in those places for good but with the situations and scenarios faced I think we’ve reacted well in the face of adversity. With the players slowly coming back that can only give us a boost for the rest of the season.

“It’s a positive place to be in but we’re striving for better day-to-day and on a weekly basis.”

City sit 10th in the Championship table, four points off sixth spot heading into the weekend which presents matchday 23 of the campaign. Preston head to Ashton Gate two places below but just one point off the Robins.

For City, this will be their first league game since December 29th due to their involvement in the Emirates FA Cup sandwiched between two postponed matches with Brentford.

But Bentley is glad to return to Championship action after advancing in the FA Cup in last weekend’s 2-1 sin over Portsmouth.

Bentley said: “I’m really looking forward to it. The league is our bread and butter so after a couple of frustrating postponements we are fully appreciative of the situation in the world, so we’re looking forward to getting back to the bread and butter which is the league.

“We used the Portsmouth win to build momentum going forward so we applied ourselves and ensured we came off the pitch with a good result.

“We go into the game with the knowledge of Preston fresh in the memory with regards to the pre-match prep we do. Everyone will remember how they play, how we can exploit them and stop them from hurting so. If we apply ourselves and do our due diligence again then I’m sure we can look to take three points.”

The fixture will be live streamed with commentary, replays and analysis via a £10 Robins TV pass, with the matchday show starting at 2.30pm.

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