Nigel Pearson was left bemoaning a familiar story as Bristol City conceded two soft goals to throw away their lead and leave Ashton Gate empty-handed.
After an uneventful opening 20 minutes, the Robins started to assert their dominance on the game and Andi Weimann went close to opening the scoring when his effort came off the inside of the post following Nahki Wells' delicate flick over the defence.
City's spell of dominance was rewarded on 33 minutes when Cam Pring's pace and power on the flank allowed him to beat Jacob Brown to the byline and flash a delivery across goal. Wells was in the right place at the right time to bundle it in from close range to grab his eighth of the season.
Stoke barely threatened Max O'Leary's goal but as we entered the final of the three minutes added on at the end of the first half, the visitors equalised out of nothing. A hopeful punt into the area wasn't dealt with by Andy King and the loose ball was fired in by Liam Delap.
The beginning of the second half was similar to the first with both sides cancelling each other out. It was a contest low on quality but another piece of poor defending allowed Stoke to take the lead.
Josh Tymon's cross-field pass found Tyrese Campbell out on the right. He beat Kal Naismith to get his cross away which King and Matty James failed to deal with. A poor clearance fell to Brown who drilled it into the far corner.
City rallied in the final 20 minutes but without really threatening to grab an equaliser meaning the Robins couldn't build on their win over Rotherham in their last outing. Speaking after the game, he said: "It was poor goals that we conceded.
"We were on top though in the first half and really worked hard to be in the ascendency. Got the goal to go ahead but conceded a really poor goal.
"It was a poor couple of mistakes and we go in level instead of going ahead. It's indicative of what we've done this season. It's happened too often this season. The second goal was a poor goal too.
"I think going into the game, they played with a back four in the last couple of games and they showed us some respect by matching us up and did a really good job as an away team.
"I think both teams cancelled each other out in the early part of the game. What you have to look at is what was happening tactically.
"Because we were matched up with the three against three in midfield. There were occasions when we couldn't press all the time."
Pearson was also keen to point out that it was another game where City have dropped points from winning positions. Before the World Cup break, only one Championship side had a worse record when going ahead in matches.
The manager added: "We've continued to lose too many points from winning positions - I think that's 17 season. We've dropped 17 points from winning positions and that's something we need to improve on."
Earlier in the season, Pearson said that his side will continue to concede soft goals until they manage to reinforce the defence. When asked whether today was further evidence of the necessity to bring in a new defender, he responded: "That's for you to talk about. I'm not going to talk about that in a press conference. That's for you to discuss, not me. You should read into what happened today and who played. Simple as that."
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