Bristol City chairman Jon Lansdown believes the club are underachieving having expected the side to be performing higher in the table even though he accepts it's been a transitional campaign under Nigel Pearson.
The Robins lie 17th in the Championship on 37 points, having won 10 of their 32 matches this season but will be barely glancing over their shoulders as they currently sit 17 points above the drop zone.
City haven't won back-to-back matches all season but also haven't gone more than three matches without a victory highlighting the inconsistencies in the campaign so far.
Three home wins on the spin have helped bring back a feel-good factor around Ashton Gate, especially after October's victory over Barnsley ended a run of 277 days with a win on home territory.
But the away form and defensive record leaves a lot to be desired having not won on the road in their last 10 while the 58 goals conceded throughout the campaign is the third worse in the Championship behind Reading and Peterborough.
Speaking at the official announcement of the partnership with local sponsor Huboo, Lansdown said: "We should be competitively better than we are doing at the moment in the league.
"We've shown good signs, we've had some good performances from younger players as well and we'll look to finish at strongly as we can. But we'd certainly like to be in a better position than we are now and definitely going forward."
Today marks 12 months to the day since Pearson's predecessor Dean Holden was sacked, following a run of six straight defeats with the Robins 13th in the table on 39 points after 30 matches.
There have been considerable changes to the club since Pearson's arrival with 10 first-team players released last summer in order to reduce the wage bill with the expectation that improvements could then still be made by the integration of more academy players.
City can justifiably be considered as being in a state of rebuild, with the manager one year into a three-year agreement, but there is still a desire internally to witness quantifiable progression in the Championship standings, even if Pearson has been required to work within severe financial restrictions due to the £38.4m losses published for the financial year ending 2021.
Pearson, who has taken three leaves of absence this season related to health issues and/or medical procedures, is also approaching a year in charge at the club. Saturday's home game with Middlesbrough will be his 49th in the dugout, having won 12, drawn 11 and lost 25.
"It's not like you can change from A to B straight away, you've got contracts, you've got to work your way to it but there's no reason why you can't improve while you're doing that," Lansdown added. "It's been a tough time over that period (a year) considering everything going on in the whole football environment.
"Nigel's had a few of his own health issues as well through that so we're still growing that relationship, but it's the same as anything we want to win football games. He'll be wanting that as much as we do."
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