Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber has won three of his first five Championship games as Robins head coachBristol City are unbeaten in the Championship under Gerhard Struber(Image: EFL)

Bristol City are “ready for more” after their win over Sheffield Wednesday, Gerhard Struber has insisted, but the Robins boss claims he and his players are “not dreaming” amid suggestions they could challenge for automatic promotion this term.

The Reds climbed to third in the table as they stretched their unbeaten start to the Championship campaign to five matches with a 3-0 win over Henrik Pedersen’s Owls at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon. An early own-goal from Harry Amass, as well as first-half strikes from Emil Riis and Anis Mehmeti, proved to be enough for Struber’s side to secure all three points.

Although they took their foot off the gas after the break, the Robins flexed their attacking muscles in the first half of the game in particular. Mehmeti, Riis, and Scott Twine combined to cause the home side plenty of problems, and had City been more clinical, they could have won by an even more comfortable margin.

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Over the course of the first five games of the season, only Coventry City have scored more goals than the Reds’ 12, and only two other teams – the Sky Blues and Stoke – also remain unbeaten. After last term’s top six finish, Struber has been encouraged by the early signs but is by no means getting ahead of himself.

“I think we should be not dreaming,” the head coach replied when asked if he had a realistic ambition for the season, for instance, a top two finish. “We have goals, of course, and we have a big togetherness to realise something.

“We are ready for more, but we know also how difficult is the league. Now the league is super young, and I think we can give our results and performances in a good frame at the moment, but we’re not dreaming.

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“We stay humble, we know what we have to do. But I can tell you, our belief, our energy together is on a really high level, and with how we take the tool from the toolbox tactical-wise and how is our togetherness, it’s not easy against us. This is crystal clear.”

While it has been City’s attacking quality that has caught the eye under Struber so far, the Robins have impressed out of possession in the early stages of the Austrian’s tenure.

The clean sheet kept at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon was the Reds’ third in their first seven matches in all competitions and over the course of their first five Championship games, they have only conceded four goals – a figure only bettered by three teams at this stage.

Naturally, credit has to be given to the likes of Manchester United loanee Radek Vitek, Rob Dickie, Rob Atkinson and Zak Vyner, who have all started the campaign in good form, but every single player has been called upon at some stage off the ball as a result of Striber’s high-pressing style.

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The likes of Twine, Mehmeti and Riis have proven just as influential without possession as they are with it, often winning possession and forcing mistakes deep in opposition territory, much to the head coach’s satisfaction.

“I think it’s super important in our foundation that we have the principles good on our hands, and this makes us so, so great,” Struber told Bristol Live. “I think we have so much more good moments in two versus one, how we create overloads, how we win balls back, the gegenpressing was again on a really high level, and this is always stressful for the opponent.

“I think when we act in this way, with the right consistency, then it’s super hard against us, so I think it’s a big key for three points.

“The attitude is great from the boys and how they did it, how they found control in the game; I think they had only one shot on target, I think this is a really good performance.”

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