Gerhard Struber 'super disappointed' as Bristol City slip to 'difficult to accept' Preston loss

Gerhard Struber’s Bristol City missed a chance to climb back into the play-off places as they were beaten by Preston at Ashton Gate

18:30, 04 Jan 2026Updated 18:33, 04 Jan 2026

Bristol City and Gerhard Struber were beaten by Preston North End at Ashton Gate(Image: Photo by Jasper Wax/Getty Images)

Gerhard Struber admitted that Bristol City’s defeat to Preston North End was “really, really difficult to accept,” with the Robins boss left “super disappointed” by the manner in which his side gave up all three points at Ashton Gate.

The Reds missed the chance to build on their New Year’s Day thrashing of Portsmouth and climb back into the play-off places as they were beaten 2-0 by the Lilywhites on Sunday afternoon. Goals from Lewis Dobbin and Alfie Devine proved to be the difference between the two sides.

City found themselves behind after just eight minutes as a result of their own combination of errors. Zak Vyner’s under-hit back pass was poorly cleared by Max O’Leary, whose effort was miscontrolled by Adam Randell. Before the Robins could rediscover their shape, Dobbin had found the bottom right corner.

Struber’s side improved slightly after falling behind, but gifted North End their second midway through the second half. Like Dobbin, Devine profited on an error before firing into the back of the net to ensure all three points would be heading back to Lancashire, much to the frustration of the City boss.

“Against a team like Preston, when you give them the lead so easily like we did – this was a gift – then of course, you play really big on the cards for them,” Struber explained in his post-match press conference. “This is a really well organised team, good structure, good box defending and they’re 1-0 in the lead and they don’t know why.

“This is special. I would say we played between the boxes on a good level; I could not cry or moan about that. In the end, and this today was the little bit [of] the difference to the other games, we were not clinical enough, and the determination in the opponent’s box was not on the highest level.

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“I think especially against them, with this box defending behaviour – this is on a really good level from Preston – it’s one of the best teams, how they’re organised – we don’t crash the wall in the end from them.

“In this direction, I would say this is the difference to the one or other game that we had before.”

Such a lack of clinical edge in the final third has been an issue cited by the Robins boss after a handful of games already this term. Just earlier this week, after City’s defeat away to Millwall at The Den, Struber mentioned a missing determination in both boxes as a reason for the poor result.

Of course, between the two defeats, the Reds were able to put five goals past – and keep a clean sheet against – Portsmouth on New Year’s Day.

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Although that display has ensured that the City head coach isn’t too concerned about, even if he has been left disappointed by, the issues raised against North End, he is keen for the bad day at the office to be used as a learning experience.

“The Championship, it’s special,” Struber told Bristol Live. “Sometimes it’s good when you realise it; this game gives us a learning point.

“But at the same time, [it’s a] bad day in the office in all directions, I would say. I am super disappointed [with] how we give this away today. I can live with it when we have an opponent in our house, and he plays very well and gives us in the end nothing.

“Then, you have to accept that, but today is really, really difficult to accept this loss and how cheaply we bring them into the driver’s seat.”

Gerhard Struber ‘super disappointed’ as Bristol City slip to ‘difficult to accept’ Preston loss

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