Jordan Spence was disappointed he and the rest of the Ipswich Town defence were unable to deal with the threat of towering striker Milan Djuric as they slipped to defeat at Ashton Gate.
The 6ft 5in Bosnian beat Adam Webster in the air midway through the second half to settle the contest within eight minutes of stepping off the bench, after the Blues had seen off the threat of Famara Diedhiou.
Spence, who started at right wing-back, sees dealing with physical strikers as one of the Blues’ strengths and was disappointed by the manner in which they ultimately lost the game.
“The first goal in any game is crucial and we’ve seen the effect of that when we go up in a game,” he said.
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“But we’re disappointed because we’ve dealt with their initial threat and they’ve put on the big man – and if there’s one thing we would expect ourselves to be able to do it is deal with the big man.
“It’s difficult but it’s always a compliment when they have to make changes because you know you have seen out the initial threat. You have to expect that because they have a good squad here, which they are going to use, but we saw out the first threat and for the most part we did enough, but it’s never enough when you concede a goal.
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“That changes the impetus of the game.
“We conceded the goal and looked to find an equaliser which we obviously failed to do.”
The Blues returned to the solid central defensive three and wing-backs formation which has served them well of late, with Spence feeling comfortable in the system.
He said: “We didn’t concede three goals and it’s always easier to look at it with rose-tinted glasses when you’re playing in it and you go ‘oh, I felt alright’.
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“But for the most part I think we’ve had more attempts on goals from close range and more goalmouth scrambles, but there’s no point thinking about that because the crucial statistic is that they scored and we didn’t.
“It’s disappointing going into this international break on the back of a defeat because they did it to us earlier in the season (a 3-1 home loss at the end of September).”
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