Nigel Pearson has again highlighted the inconsistencies in his side as he challenged the players to fight for their futures in the final eight games of the season.
It was a reoccurring theme as Bristol City were undone by two first-half corners as the wait for the first back-to-back victories of the season continued.
The opener came after 10 minutes when Carlton Morris took advantage of some sloppy defending to poke home from close range when City failed to clear their lines.
Just 11 minutes later, City had a mountain to climb when towering centre-back Michal Halik directed his header from the same side into the side of the net.
The Robins' could have restored the deficit when Andi Weimann missed from close range while Chris Martin had a header cleared off the line in the final stages of the game.
The manager lamented his side's start to the game and his frustrations at failing to turn in a performance on the back of a victory at Blackburn just four days prior.
He said: "It's the same players who played at the weekend who did it (defend set-pieces) very well so our inconsistencies come back to haunt us and that remains a problem for us this season.
"The way we started the game was sloppy and we were very. very wasteful with the ball. We just turned the ball over so many times without a lot of pressure on us and that comes down to concentration.
"The players don't ever go out to play badly, of course they don't. But what they haven't been able to do is get two performances off the back of each other that we can say are pretty similar in the terms of quality.
"If you want to talk about tactics and positional stuff, it's very difficult to do that but it's more to do with how we go about the game and we just make too many unforced errors."
When quizzed on whether the performance emphasised the need for new players, he responded: "We've now got eight games to go and I think I can answer that question with a bit more certainty in a few games times but players have the opportunity to show what they are made of and that's all I can say."
City's evening went from bad to worse when Alex Scott was forced off injured in the 39th minute. His replacement, Joe Williams, then appeared to pull a hamstring in the second half.
Antoine Semenyo also came off towards the end although it appeared to be cramp as he headed for the dugout when replaced by Tommy Conway.
"We'll see how the Williams injury is tomorrow," Pearson added. "Likewise with Alex who rolled his ankle so that caused him a bit of a problem. It is (heartbreaking) for Williams - it was his hamstring."
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