‘I’m proud to lead this club’ – Kalas

The centre-back led City to a 2-1 win over Coventry City at Ashton Gate on the opening day of the Sky Bet Championship season, scoring the winner with an 82^nd-minute header.

Kalas was unveiled as the new Robins skipper one hour before kick-off and Holden has also spoken of how pleased he has been with Kalas' attitude towards the role.

“I was very proud when the gaffer asked me,” Kalas revealed. “I couldn’t say no, it’s something new for me so give me time to settle down and get used to it. I will be the same player and I’ll try to help everyone around me and they’ll help me build a team that can achieve promotion.”

Reflecting on the opening day win against the Sky Blues, Kalas said there was much to learn. City had raced into a 20-second lead when Jamie Paterson scored, but Coventry grew into the game. Encouraged by their promotion confidence, they looked settled in the second tier and forced an equaliser through Matt Godden before threatening to take the lead when on top in BS3.

But Holden’s men improved in the second half and finally found the winning goal when Kalas headed home from a Paterson corner.

“Yes, I’m very proud but I think whoever was watching knows there is loads and loads of space for improvement, especially in the first half,” captain Kalas said.

“In the second half we took over the game and dominated but, with all due respect to Coventry, we should dominate the game from the first to the last minute, if we are playing what we’re expected to be playing for.

“I’m satisfied with three points and a goal but we shouldn’t think about it too much and just get to the second game…we’ll analyse what went wrong and hopefully learn from it.”

Watch in full: Tomas Kalas post-Coventry City

Kalas and his team-mates turn their focus to the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with Northampton Town visiting BS3 in Round Two - exclusively available to watch on Robins TV with coverage from 7.15pm.

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