Mark Robins believes Nigel Pearson has "sorted Bristol City out" claiming the Robins side were a "different animal" from the one his Coventry City team so meekly turned over in November.
City suffered their first league defeat at Ashton Gate this year as Viktor Gyokeres claimed a 89th-minute winner for the Sky Blues to secure a 2-1 win. But for the majority of the crowd inside the stadium, and Pearson himself, it was a performance that delivered enough positives to override the underlying negativity of the result.
The Robins staged a second-half revival to get back into the contest through Chris Martin's equaliser and looked the most likely team to win the game only for Gyokores to profit from Han-Noah Massengo's loss of possession.
Robins says it's a considerable turnaround from the game at the Coventry Building Society Arena in November in which City twice took the lead but lost 3-2, conceding all their goals after the Sky Blues had been reduced to 10 men just before half-time.
Pearson referenced that performance in the build-up to Tuesday night, claiming his squad wanted to give a better account of the disorganised and nervy version of the team which turned up in the Midlands last year.
"They’re a different animal to when from when we played them last time," Robins said. "Nigel’s sorted them out; he’s got young players in, they’ve got energy, they’ve got desire, strength, power and pace, and a style of play that is really difficult to play against.
"That was a good away performance, there’s no doubt about it, and it had to be because they put us under enormous amounts of pressure. We stayed firm until the equalising goal but you can tell they’ve worked on it, they were good, they were unfortunate not to have had something before that, we were a bit fortunate at times.
"They’ve got people rotating into space and pockets of space, they’ve got the two centre halves that are splitting; if you win the ball back then they’re a bit open and you can hurt them which is what we’ve done at the end, we’ve nicked it. They’ve tried to come for the winner in fairness to them.
"It was one of those games that was open and it was a really good watch. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It shortened my life by quite a few hours."
The defeat coincided with Pearson's first year anniversary in charge of City and also his 50th game at the helm, in which his critics will point to a largely poor record - 13 wins - and a lack of visible improvement in terms of league position.
City were 15th when he took over from Dean Holden and are now 16th, something chairman Jon Lansdown was no doubt aware of when he claimed that week that they should be higher in the table.
But such was how City matched a strong footballing side like Coventry, it delivered proof of progression beyond just betting points on the board with Alex Scott particularly influential in midfield, at just 18.
Robins admitted he was mindful of the midfield trio of Scott, Massengo and Ayman Benarous given how quickly they can turn a defensive position into an attacking one and his side worked hard at trying to "lock up" that area of the field.
The Coventry boss also highlighted the work of City's front three - Martin, Andi Weimann and Antoine Semenyo - with the first two combining to draw the hosts level.
"The front three are a real handful," he added. "They’re trying to run in-behind you, we couldn’t give them that which was good but it means we’re in a different starting position.
"Normally they move it that well that whilst you’re trying to negate one side of the game you’re giving them another part of the game and then we’ve got to try and move with it.
"We did that reasonably well, they didn’t cause us too many problems but what they do is when they get down the sides they put really good quality into the box, and they’ve got runners.
"Semenyo is in a really good form, Weimann is too and Chris Martin is an old head, a wise head who’s got a lot of qualities and strengths. The power from even the young lads and the big lads with (Cam) Pring coming on – powerful, pace – that was the same."
Robins has twice been under consideration for the manager's job at Ashton Gate but has enjoyed huge success at Coventry, guiding them through the divisions and into a position where they can now be considered an established Championship team.
Pearson was very complimentary of his opposite number branding him, "one of the most underrated managers that there is".
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