Not Good Enough - Cotterill

The manager is a staunch protector of his players but pulled no punches after Tom Ince’s hat-trick paved the way for promotion-chasing Derby County to run out 4-0 winners.

City’s new-look 4-3-3 formation contained a talented home team until Ince’s 42nd minute opener, and the winger struck twice in quick succession midway through the second half before Johnny Russell’s well-placed header completed the scoring 14 minutes from time.

“It’s a difficult night for my players. They’re not good enough to deal with that,” Cotterill told Bristol City Player HD.

“We didn’t play with any belief to think we could win the game in the first half.

“In the second half we played for 20 minutes, but then they score against the run of play and it’s game over.

“We couldn’t beat them, no matter what we did. The change of formation just showed up other inadequacies in the team.

“We tried to keep them at arm’s length a little bit and we needed to know whether we could do something else; whether we had an alternative system away from home.

“It didn’t work as we would’ve wanted it to, because I don’t think we were enough of an attacking force in the first half.

“We wanted our wide men to press a lot higher, which we did for 20 minutes in the second half. But we didn’t play with enough courage in the first half.”