‘Too many were under-par’ Bristol City boss delivers honest message after ‘falling short’ in QPR defeat

Nigel Pearson said too many Bristol City players delivered an ‘under-par’ performance in their 2-1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers.

The Robins suffered their third consecutive defeat after losses to Burnley and Norwich City before the international break.

Steffan Johansen and Tyler Roberts scored two goals inside a four-minute spell in the first period which made it an uphill battle to get back into the match.

Nahki Wells got a goal back for the hosts in the second half but fell short in a performance that lacked ‘character and desire’ admitted the boss.

“We caused ourselves a few problems today,” Pearson said in his post-match press conference. Too many unforced errors and I think too many of our team were under-par.

“I’m not gonna talk about reasons now but you can’t go into any game and give teams that sort of a start and expect to get back every week.

“We’ve had three narrow defeats on the spin but today feels very different because we contributed too heavily to that ourselves.

“Unforced errors, a bit of nervousness. The players at least got back into the game in the second half and we’ve had chances, but they’ve had many chances as well. I’ve got no complaints today, just disappointment.

“We had too many individuals that were below the levels they have been so far this season.”

The manner of defeats to promotion-chasing Burnley and Norwich drew praise from Pearson who was able to reflect positively to losses against sides that are deemed to be a class above them.

City were able to closely match the two relegated Premier League side and earned plaudits for their display at Carrow Road.

Against Burnley, they fell behind but were able to show the desire to get themselves back into the game with an equaliser from Wells, before being undone by Jay Rodriguez.

The performance against QPR however fell short of expectations which saw the 59-year-old pick apart what went wrong.

“I’ve not felt the need to be overly critical when results haven’t gone our way before but today is not a performance befitting we’re about.

“I didn’t see the same character traits in every other game. Whether we’ve won, lost or drawn we’ve shown character and desire. Today we fell short of that collectively. It’s the most important thing.

“When you work in the Championship and the margins of error are so small and you come up against sides like QPR. QPR are a good Championship side. Are we capable of beating them? Yes. We have to be as close to our best as we can and today too many mistakes.

There were but we were under-par. I’m not saying everybody played badly or under performed. I still think we showed willingness to try and get back which continued to make poor mistakes. It’s a disappointment because of the fashion we lost today.

“I can always reflect on defeats and say how we’ve done everything that we can. The other two games yes, today no it was a hard watch I’m sure for everybody.”