Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill has claimed that the "awful" pitch at the Weston Homes Community Stadium contributed to his side's shock defeat to Colchester United.

The Robins started the day four points clear of the chasing pack in League One, but their lead was cut to two points after first-half goals from Tom Lapslie, Macauley Bonne and Chris Porter fired the U's into a 3-0 lead, which City were unable to overhaul despite the efforts of James Tavernier and Aden Flint.

However, Cotterill believes that his team made a mistake in trying to play a passing game in unhelpful conditions underfoot.

He is quoted by the club's official Twitter page as saying: "The pitch was awful and we got caught out by that early on. It was one of those games today. We started sloppy. I think we tried to pass the ball a bit and it's not the kind of pitch to do that on.

"We got caught out when playing the ball and before we knew where we were, we were 2-0 down. We've got caught and burnt badly.

"We sorted out a different system and wrote down a few things on the board that I wanted us to do to make it better in the second half. It wasn't pretty but it was more effective football. I knew if we scored there would be a game as they would get nervous."

City have the chance to return to winning ways on Tuesday evening when they face playoff-chasing Doncaster Rovers.