Gary Johnson spelt out his and team's disappointment after the 5-2 home defeat to Doncaster Rovers.

First-half braces from Billy Sharp and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas piled more Ashton Gate misery on City, and Bradley Orr - who had netted twice in the first half - compounded matters with an unfortunate own goal on the hour.

Speaking on Player, Gary said: "Too much went wrong today right from the first couple of minutes.

"We're disappointed with how the game has gone. We managed to fight back from 1-0 and 2-1 down and Nicky Maynard even hit the crossbar at 2-2.

"However, the game was too open as far as we were concerned. Every time they got the ball they looked dangerous. They had a few players who were on their game and we weren't able to handle them.

"The defensive display as a team was very, very poor. Of course you don't want to let in five goals at home.

"It's like a dagger into your heart with every goal that goes in.

"People don't want to hear talking, they want some action. The action I can do in a short space of time up to the Crystal Palace game (on Tuesday) is get a solid defensive unit together.

"We didn't compete with them man-for-man and whatever they did ended with a goal.

"We're as disappointed as everybody else but we have to do something about it very quickly.

"The analysis started in the dressing room and it's a soul-destroying result. Everyone is down but we have get back on the training ground tomorrow and work hard.

"We've got three away games to prove to people there's still a spirit in the camp. A lot of work, soul searching and agressive coaching has got to happen."

City were beaten 6-0 by Cardiff in January using a 4-4-2 formation and lost heavily with the same shape today.

Gary reasoned: "A 4-4-2 doesn't have to be open.

"You have to be more compact in a 4-4-2 and it's easy to when the defenders squeeze up, the wide men squeeze in and the forwards have to work hard to get back in.

"You can make it compact but we didn't do it. We gave them too big an area to move into."

Nicky Maynard was withdrawn with 20 minutes left due to cramp and Jamal Campbell-Ryce was only due to play for an hour on his return from injury.

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