45 minutes wasted - Steve Cotterill

Cotterill had seen his side fly out of the blocks in festive league victories over Yeovil Town and Gillingham, but the same level of intensity was not evident until after Luke McCullough put the hosts in front five minutes into the second half at the Keepmoat Stadium.

The improvement in City's performance was rewarded by Matt Smith’s expertly dispatched 75th minute header, but neither team could force a winner and the Sky Bet League One rivals will meet again at Ashton Gate.

“We wasted 45 minutes; we didn’t turn up until the second half,” the boss told Bristol City Player.

“If we turned up in the first half like we did in the second half we probably would’ve won the game – only by a narrow scoreline, but we probably would’ve won the game.

“We didn’t turn up in the first half. Don’t ask me why because we haven’t done anything different (in terms of preparation).

“There was no tempo to our play, there were no forward runs and therefore no forward passing, so as an attacking threat we were having to counter-attack, which has not been us.

“We’ve always been on the front foot and we didn’t have that there in the first half. In the second half we were ten times better, but that wasn’t difficult.

“The keeper has pulled off a great save one on one, Matt Smith has scored another great goal and I think we had enough chances with our quality in the end to win the game.”