Gary Johnson put City's 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace down to the "differences" in the two penalty areas and two mistakes.

Goals at each end of the match; Clinton Morrison five minutes in and Mark Hudson five minutes from time, condemned City to their sixth defeat of the season.

And afterwards Gary told Bristol City World: "I don't think it was an all-round poor performance. We had to come here and compete, and I felt we did that.

"It was a real up-and-at-them type game but the difference was in each penalty area. They took their two chances and we didn't take any of ours.

"I would put their goals down to mistakes. Certain individuals didn't perform today but as a team we didn't really get to the heights that we need to."

Morrison's fifth minute opener had City on the back foot from the off, fortuitous as it was with the striker inadvertently deflecting in Jamie McAllister's clearance.

But Gary declared: "It was a terrible goal to give away. We had enough bodies around the ball.

"We defended poorly in as much that we made mistakes and they created a couple of other chances because of those (mistakes) too.

"They score one early goal because of a mistake and one late goal because of a mistake. At this level you get punished, which is what happened today."

Nick Carle was handed his debut in midfield and Gary said of his performance: "He did okay. It took him a while to realise that he had to get into the game.

"He probably hasn't shown as much as he would have liked as far as first impressions are concerned. He showed little cameos, he had a few good attempts and he's a decent player for our squad.

"He just needs to get that English pace of the game, but it won't take him long because he's a bright kid."