City missed the chance to register back-to-back Championship wins as they were left frustrated in their 1-0 defeat at Ashton Gate<\/a> on Saturday afternoon. Ultimately, Mihailo Ivanovic\u2019s second-half strike proved to be the difference between the two sides.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old broke the deadlock with just under an hour played as he smashed a right-footed effort beyond Radek Vitek in the Robins\u2019 net<\/a> from close range, after the Manchester United loanee had twice saved from Femi Azeez in quick succession.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol City 0-1 Millwall live: Robins fall behind in second-half as Ivanovic scores for Lions<\/a> OPINION<\/p>\n In the moments after the full-time whistle, an altercation broke out between members of both benches and players, with Alex Neil suggesting he was pushed by Jason Knight after Struber took his hand away<\/a> from an offered handshake. However, the Austrian refuted the Lions boss’ claim.<\/p>\n “It’s a big joke, it’s a really big joke,\u201d the head coach laughed in his post-match press conference. \u201cTwo times I tried to give my hand, and he goes away from me.<\/p>\n “This is, of course, two football styles come together today with a lot of pressure, first duels, second ball fights and in the end, the kick-off was a wrong decision. Of course, this starts with them a little bit more and more, and then the coach gives me no, in this moment, the hand. I don’t know why? I ask him now: ‘Why you give me not your hand?’ And he goes, ‘Why you give me not the hand?’<\/p>\n “This is crazy, I look in his eyes, and I give him my hand, but he goes two times away. I hope we find pictures, I hope that. It’s so crystal clear, and this is an understanding of that. I cannot say why the emotion goes over, but I would say – and this, I think, is important- that we speak about the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Bristol City looking to build on last season’s play-off finish under Gerhard Struber and you won’t miss a beat with our free newsletter.<\/p>\n All the latest news, views, interviews, gossip and analysis concerning the Robins, delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE<\/a><\/p>\n For much of the contest, the Robins were the team in the ascendancy. Having been unable to make their dominance count in the first half, City saw three separate penalty shouts turned down by referee Ed Duckworth after the restart.<\/p>\n Even with luck seemingly against them, the Reds came remarkably close to a leveller when Ross McCrorie was denied by a brilliant Max Crocombe save<\/a> deep in stoppage time. It had looked as though that stop would cost Struber\u2019s side, but moments later, they had the ball in the back of the net.<\/p>\n With seconds to play, Vyner smashed into the bottom right corner from inside the penalty area, having been picked out by a smart McCrorie nod down. Before celebrations could truly begin, the defender\u2019s goal was ruled out with McCrorie adjudged to have drifted offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n Replays suggested that the Scotsman had been played onside<\/a>, a feeling Struber echoed after the full-time whistle. The Robins boss felt a game that was played with such emotion could have benefited from a more experienced official.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, we score a goal and this, of course, is a trigger point for the boys,\u201d Struber explained. \u201cI would say the whole league would deserve – and we have many, many experienced referees in the league – but we have also young referees. I would say in a game like that [it] would be top when we have experienced referees.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, they have to learn, they have to grow: this is with players, with coaches, it’s always the same, but I would say in a game like that, where with much pressure in the bottle [it] would be perfect when we have a little bit more experience. That we have, in the end, a wrong situation like that, this is not what the Championship deserves.<\/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 “This has a little bit of an influence,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe whole game was emotion in a bottle. We invest everything, and we have a little bit to understand that the emotion goes over – that we don’t want to see pictures like that, this is also crystal clear. Today, I have a little bit of an understanding [of] where the kick-off starts, and it’s not always that we can only say in the end, the players should not do that.<\/p>\n “Of course, they shouldn’t do it, but we cannot control always the emotion; we want to see emotion in the game, we want to see a really good atmosphere, we want to play attractive football, but we need, at the same time, a referee team on a really good level in a game like that.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say I missed this [in] the one or other moment today, especially at the end. This means not – and please understand me correctly – we have the most responsibility in our game style and our investment [so] that we play attractive football. That I give, in the end, the referee is guilty in the end – from my side – I can’t do it, but he has an influence in the game, and how he decides in the end, this was, of course, a really big mistake.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: Mark Sykes: ‘The Bristol City I joined is not the club we are anymore, I want to be part of that’<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City players ‘not happy’ with early success but Reds’ hunger leaves ‘very good feeling’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Players and staff from both the Bristol City and Millwall benches came together in a melee after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,14590,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-617659","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-football-league-championship","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115677640392805154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617659","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=617659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_JS389993735.jpg\")
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