This is where we come back, yet again, to poor old Steve, and his dubious decisions and choices. As @samo II, a quick look at the L1 table makes you wonder what would've happened if Steve had bombed Ashton out before he got rid of LJ.
"Hindsight!" many will protest. But Steve is on the inside, with all the facts and the information at his disposal, the ability to speak directly to everyone involved, and it his task to make the right calls at the right time (like the owners at Brighton, Brentford etc) but when we look back, we can see that Steve makes decisions that are at best questionable.
We had Bristol City with LJ and Ashton here, and the outcome was good and bad; then we had Bristol City with Ashton but not LJ, and the result was poor; what we never had was Bristol City with LJ but not Ashton. We'll never know what that could've been like.
And that's down to Steve.