Steve Coppell admitted "a little bit of everything went wrong" as his first competitive game in charge of City ended with a crushing 3-0 opening day defeat to Millwall at Ashton Gate.
The game attracted City's largest opening day crowd for 31 years, with much of the attention on the club's debutant goalkeeper David James.
However, he was given little chance with any of the three goals, scored Darren Ward, Danny Schofield and Paul Robinson.
To make matters worse City lost new loan signing Sam Vokes to a hamstring injury and had Damion Stewart red-carded at the death.
Steve told Player after the game: "Everyone wants to start well, which makes this so disappointing. To be honest it wasn't just the result, the performance was disappointing. A little bit of everything went wrong.
"I'm not making excuses; we had eleven players out there wanting to win for this football club. However, our preparation throughout pre-season has been disjointed.
"We've had injury problems, even this week, but we still had a strong XI out there.
"I thought the first half was even but as the away team Millwall were going to be the more satisfied.
"We didn't create a lot against them and our shape was fairly ineffective. They scored just before the half-time interval which put us on the back foot.
"To be honest they were just too sharp and better on the day. We were found wanting at set-pieces (for two goals) and for the other goal we were poor defensively.
"We've got a lot to do, that's for sure."
Striker Vokes felt his hamstring "pop", confirmed the manager, who has endured wretched luck with injuries since taking over.
"I'd imagine he will be out for some time," added the manager. "It's massively disappointing for him and us."
Louis Carey is due to return to training following a heel problem, whilst Wales pair James Wilson and Christian Ribeiro are "making progress".
"We've got a lot to do, that's for sure."
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However, the manager says he still doesn't know how many more players will be available for the next match, an away trip to League Two Southend United in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.
He will be without former QPR defender Stewart, who was dismissed for a second booking in stoppage time.
"I don't believe referees should use common sense but that was just a crossing over of players," said Steve. "Damion was falling before the opposition player (Kevin Lisbie) was falling.
"Was it intentional? No. Referees aren't given that leniancy to make that kind of call."
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