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Mark Sykes started Bristol City’s draw with Derby County(Image: EFL)<\/p>\nMark Sykes started his first Championship game of the season as Bristol City drew with Derby County at Pride ParkMark Sykes started Bristol City’s draw with Derby County(Image: EFL)<\/p>\n
Mark Sykes has admitted his summer was \u201cfrustrating\u201d after he made his first Championship start for Bristol City<\/a> in four months against Derby County, but the winger and his teammates are now relishing the challenge of facing Premier League opposition in the Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old started and played the full 90 minutes as the Robins conceded late to draw 1-1 with Derby County<\/a> at Pride Park on Friday evening. City had taken the lead in the first half when Scott Twine curled into the bottom corner, having been picked out by Sykes, but a Carlton Morris strike in the 86th minute ensured that the points would be shared.<\/p>\n Friday night\u2019s game saw Sykes start a league fixture for the first time since he suffered a quad injury in April. The winger had been named in the starting line-up for the Reds\u2019 clash with QPR at Loftus Road last term, but withdrew during the warm-up and missed the remainder of the season, including the play-off campaign.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol City miss opportunity as Derby sucker punch sees Struber’s Reds leave two points behind<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City see Emil Riis worry realised as Adam Randell stands tall in frustrating Derby draw<\/a><\/p>\n Having worked hard to get back up to speed over the course of off-season, the former Oxford United man was delighted to feature against the Rams, even if the result wasn\u2019t quite what he had hoped for.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s my first league start since maybe April time, so about four months, so it\u2019s been a long time coming,\u201d the Ireland international told City\u2019s media team<\/a> after the full-time whistle. \u201c[It was] a frustrating summer.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in working hard to trying to get myself back fit and tonight, I thought I did quite well. The hard work throughout the summer paid off.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Twiney scores there, it gets spoken about a little bit more,\u201d Sykes continued when asked about the Reds\u2019 opener. \u201cIf the keeper saves it, nobody really talks about the build-up or the pass.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a difficult night for us, but nothing to get too down about.<\/p>\n \u201cThe season lasts 46 games, so we\u2019re not going to get too down about tonight. If we can see them out and try to take three points away from home most weeks, we\u2019ll be in a good spot.<\/p>\n While City still have one more Championship test to face before the September international break, when Hull City travel to Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon, attention now turns back to the Carabao Cup with Struber\u2019s Robins travelling to Craven Cottage to face Fulham on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n Join Bristol City Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol City stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol City Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol City news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n The Reds booked their place in the second round with a professional win over MK Dons<\/a> at Ashton Gate almost two weeks ago. Although the League Two promotion hopefuls didn\u2019t make things easy for City, Jason Knight\u2019s first-half header and Yu Hirakawa\u2019s first Ashton Gate goal after the break were enough to ensure Struber\u2019s side progressed.<\/p>\n Fulham are expected to provide a much tougher challenge than the Dons, however. Marco Silva\u2019s side finished 11th in the Premier League last term and have started the new campaign in a reasonable fashion, drawing 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion on the opening day of the season before coming from behind to draw with Manchester United<\/a> last time out.<\/p>\n Since he arrived in the West Country, Struber has made no secret of his desire to progress in both the Carabao and FA Cup<\/a> this term. With that in mind, he has been backed to name a strong side for Wednesday night\u2019s trip to South East London.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a super difficult game,” Sykes admitted. “But the manager probably goes strong, as strong as possible. He wants to go as far as he can in the competition.<\/p>\n “It\u2019ll be a completely different game from the first round, no doubt, but one we\u2019ll relish and one we\u2019ll try to win.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: Derby County 1-1 Bristol City recap: Robins concede late leveller after Scott Twine opener<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City player ratings vs Derby: Twine shines again but late goal denies Robins away win<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Sykes started his first Championship game of the season as Bristol City drew with Derby County at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-372538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115089931365053391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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