"It's certainly something you want to rectify, because that's not the way it should be. It should be a fortress for us here"

Bristol City have "a lot of work to do" to put right their defeat to Sheffield United, according to captain Jason Knight, who insists the Robins' recent woes at Ashton Gate are not on his mind, despite his belief that BS3 "should be a fortress."

The Reds stretched their winless run since the extended international break to three matches as they were beaten 1-0 by the Blades on Saturday afternoon. In a game of limited quality, Ollie Arblaster's first goal of the season secured all three points for the visitors.

With just five minutes on the clock, and mere moments after Yu Hirakawa had failed to beat Michael Cooper with a right-footed shot, the United midfielder scored what proved to be the game's only goal. From the edge of the area, Arblaster powered home on the volley.

Though Chris Wilder's side created very little as they attempted to stretch their lead, they were able to keep the Reds at arm's length for the remainder of the contest to claim only their second away win of the term fairly comfortably, much to the disappointment of Knight and the home crowd.

Asked about the defeat by City's media team, the Reds skipper said, "Really disappointing, obviously. It's certainly not the way we wanted the game to go. I think it was a scrappy game.

"I don't think there was too much quality in the game, but it's certainly not nice to come out the other side of them.

"I think we have a big chance early on and then maybe second-half, we have a few half-chances, but nothing clear-cut," Knight added. "So it's definitely something we've got to work on. It's obviously fresh now; it's frustrating, but we've got a lot of work to do to put this right.

Saturday's defeat at the hands of the Blades was the Robins' fifth at home, in all competitions, this term. Only four Championship sides have claimed fewer points from home games at this stage of the season than City, and two of those teams - Preston North End and Lincoln - have played a game fewer on their own patch.

The Reds' struggles in BS3 pre-date Michael Skubala. Last term, under Gerhard Struber and Roy Hodgson, City won just nine of the 23 league games they played in south Bristol.

"It's not on my mind," Knight replied when asked about the Reds' recent results in front of the Robins' faithful. "But it's certainly something you want to rectify, because that's not the way it should be. It should be a fortress for us here.

"It's obviously a good ground, and we like to play here, so we've got to make sure we're winning games at home.

"I think we've come back from going behind in games and stuff, so I don't think it's that," he added when a potential lack of confidence was mentioned. "I think it's maybe a bit of quality in certain moments.

"I think it's just a bit of quality, ruthlessness in front of goal and making sure we don't concede silly goals, as well."

In terms of the bigger picture, after 11 games, Skubala's side find themselves 16th in the Championship. The Robins are a relatively comfortable six places and points clear of the relegation zone, and only three points adrift of Wolves and the top eight.

City's next chance to close that gap will come this weekend, when they travel to the bet365 Stadium to face Stoke City on Saturday afternoon. Mark Robins' side sit sixth in the table at the time of writing, having won six of their last eight matches in all competitions.

With the boost of a clear midweek ahead, the Reds intend to try and fight their way out of their recent rut, even if things are unlikely to be straightforward again, against the Potters.

"That's what we've got to make sure it is: just one of those days that we've got to review, put it to bed and move onto next week," Knight said. "Because it's important we bounce back from this, because that was disappointing today.

"We've got a full week now. We've just got to galvanise ourselves, get into the training ground, work hard and just try to scrap ourselves out. It's a little tough moment we're in; there's no doubt about that, so we've got to make sure we bounce back, and that's only going to be through hard work and stuff like that.

"I'm looking forward to next week already."

OPINION