Gerhard Struber: It was like two different Bristol City teams out there tonight

Gerhard Struber felt he had watched two different Bristol City teams in action after an extraordinary second-half improvement earned a 2-2 draw against Leicester in the Championship.

The Foxes looked in firm control when Jordan Ayew’s 17th-minute penalty after a foul on Stephy Mavididi by Scott Twine and Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s low shot from 12 yards against his old club just before the break gave them a convincing two-goal lead.

But the hosts stormed back after the interval, halving the deficit through Mark Sykes’ fierce drive from a narrow angle and levelling seven minutes from time through a powerful downward header from Emil Riis.

Struber’s men were transformed after he sent on Sinclair Armstrong and Neto Borges for Zak Vyner and Twine at the start of the second half, playing at a far higher tempo and pinning their opponents back.

He said: “It was like two different Bristol City teams out there tonight. In the first half it was not the branding of the team we want to show and in the second it was completely that branding.

“I was very clear with my message at half-time and the response from the players was great. But if we are to go up the table we have to show greater consistency of performance.

“Zak Vyner was feeling a small injury, which contributed to why he was taken off. We will have that checked and hopefully it is nothing too bad.

“Sinclair Armstrong gave another strong performance as a substitute, but when he headed against the bar I think the ball was already going in, so that was unfortunate.

“In the end, we could easily have won and proved that at our best we can cause many problems for teams as good as Leicester. We need to learn lessons from both halves.”

Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes admitted his side had surrendered the initiative after the interval.

He said: “At half-time we spoke about going for a third goal because that would have killed the game. Instead, we conceded after a minute and after that we lacked the calmness to control things.

“In the first half we played really well, but it was very different in the second half.

“From a team playing with a lot of confidence, we could not get on the front foot and we have to learn why that happened.

“Bristol are a good side and we expected a reaction from them. They were brave, but we have to be better when that happens because you cannot control Championship games from start to finish.

“Bobby De Cordova-Reid is an important player for us going forward and deserved his goal. Fair play to the Bristol fans for joining ours in applauding him when he came off. It was a nice moment for him.”