Mark Robins and Stoke City ended Bristol City’s unbeaten run away from Ashton Gate this season, as they thrashed the Reds 5-1Stoke City and Mark Robins ended Bristol City’s three-match winning run(Image: Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Mark Robins has labelled Bristol City “a good team” despite Stoke City’s comfortable win over the Reds, with the Potters boss feeling his team’s showing against Gerhard Struber’s side was one of their best home performances under his management.

City suffered their first away defeat of the Championship campaign and, in turn, saw their three-match winning run come to an end on Saturday afternoon, as they were beaten 5-1 by Stoke at the bet365 Stadium. A Divin Mubama hat-trick as well as a goal apiece for Million Manhoef and Junior Tchamadeu ensured Mark Sykes’ late header was just a consolation.

Mubama handed the Potters the lead when he turned a cross home after just four minutes, and the Manchester City loanee capitalised on a Radek Vitek error later in the first half to double the home side’s advantage. Mere moments after Stoke’s second, Manhoef curled home a third, before Tchamadeu and Mubama put the result beyond doubt in the second half.

OPINION

OPINION

With just eight minutes of regular time remaining, Sykes gave the travelling fans who remained in the away end something to cheer about when he looped Yu Hirakawa’s corner past Viktor Johannson and into the top right corner. While Stoke didn’t quite manage to keep their clean sheet intact, Robins was – rightly – delighted with his side’s performance.

“The odds suggest that’s going to happen at some point,” the Potters boss told BBC Radio Stoke post-match. “I just think the way that we set about things, the intent was there, but the quality was there.

“The understanding from the players that interplay, the sort of exchange of passes and movement, the intent and the intensity to go and do their jobs in and out of possession, and I thought there was no little quality. I thought we were really good value for certainly the first goal; after four minutes, [it] settles everything down.

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“They’re unbeaten away from home this season before today. They’re a good team, [they’ve] got some injured players, we’ve got some injured players, it’s all relative, and I think that we’ve had probably one of the best performances at home since we came in. We talk about the incremental improvements, and you could see today, there was a vast improvement.

“It wasn’t just incremental; it was a vast improvement on this performance, and the thing for us is not to worry about having to repeat that because we’ve seen lots and lots of really good repetitive things in games where we’ve been really good and smart. Today, we were smarter than before, and hopefully, we can understand that.

“We’ll talk about it, I’m sure, when we’re going into the next game against Oxford, but Oxford’s a different game. We will really enjoy tonight.”

Although Mubama’s first and third goals were both impressive finishes, the Manchester City loanee’s second strike was more of City’s making, rather than Stoke’s. The Reds’ defence had already turned their backs on a Manhoef pass that appeared to be rolling through to Vitek, only for the ball to be in the back of the net by the time they had turned back around.

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Vitek had left his line to come and collect possession, but in the process, was unable to gather the ball before ultimately spilling it out into the path of Mubama.

Naturally, supporters were quick to point the finger at the 21-year-old for his mistake, but Stoke’s boss was equally keen to credit his centre-forward for remaining alert in such a bizarre situation.

“The next one comes along, a mistake from the goalkeeper,” Robins explained. “I don’t know what’s happened, but I think there were a couple of those.

“The surface was wet, and he just spilled it out to Divin, who was on hand to put it in, which was a good finish in itself. If you’re presented with that, you can be on the back foot thinking, ‘What’s happened there?’ But you ask questions later, and that’s the right way to do it.”

READ MORE: Stoke City 5-1 Bristol City recap: Robins stunned as Potters run riot to end winning runREAD MORE: Gerhard Struber shares Rob Atkinson update as Bristol City boss ‘sad’ for fans after Stoke loss