Nigel Pearson points out one positive and one negative to the exciting young players in his Bristol City side

Bristol City won their first game of the season on Wednesday evening with a 1-4 win at Burton over Coventry City, as the Robins again showed their goal-scoring prowess.

Despte two defeats in the league, the West Country side keep hitting the back of the net, with Tommy Conway’s brace added to by the evergreen Andi Weimann and Kal Naismith bagging his first goal for his new club.

And with Conway’s strong showing, it was yet another good performance from a Bristol City academy graduate, with fellow Failand product Antoine Semenyo absent with injury, but with Alex Scott coming on from the bench late in the game.

Following the victory, Pearson spoke to the media and was asked about the young stars coming through at Ashton Gate.

The 58-year-old pointed to the opportunities given with the Robins, but also the need to take into account the ‘youthful nature’ of this current team and how that might affect results.

“Players here get opportunities because of our circumstances,” said Pearson, speaking to TalkSport.

“If players are good enough, I’m not bothered about how young they are. Likewise, I feel like that about older players too.

“Sometimes people’s thought processes are quite rigid on older and younger players. For me, if they can do a job for the team, I’m really happy.

“One of the good things for the youngsters in our academy is they see plenty of players getting opportunity. That’s a very positive side to what we’re about as a club.

“On the flip side of that if you’re relying on youngsters to get results then there’s got to be a tolerance of inconsistencies,” he said, adding that the current youthful squad has some very good experienced players in there too.

Dylan Kadji, 18, “was very close to getting on”, while Sam Bell replaced Nahki Wells in the later stages.

Conway took the headlines and England youth player Scott needs no introduction.

Pearson explained that his five changes to his starting XI on the evening, from the home defeat by Sunderland, were necessary for looking after the team’s long-term prospects.

“People might look at the team and think it’s a weakened squad but they are all first-team players,” said Pearson.

“There’s a lot of youngsters in there, we don’t have a big squad.

“The Championship is such a difficult division to be successful in so it’s only natural that you protect the loading [fitness] of some of your key players.

“It’s not being disrespectful it’s about managing your squad,” he explained.