Malky Mackay admitted that his Cardiff City side were off key at Ashton Gate in Saturday's early kick-off, with goals conceded due to unnecessary defensive errors.
"Defensive mistakes, not defender, but defensive mistakes cost us - with absolutely no disrespect to the forward play of Bristol City today," Malky said after the game. "We gave away possession cheaply in dangerous areas, and too many of my usually dependable players were below par. You can carry one or two in that situation, but when it's three or four, making it a bad day at the office for the whole team, you'll always be up against it, especially in this league. From here my players have to stand up and be counted, to their own standards and performance levels.
"We gave bad balls away in poor areas, which certainly isn't like us. If you do that you're going to get punished by good teams. We have to stop making basic errors like that. It's not something that's been a regular occurrence with my team, but you can have days like that where you give away the ball around your eighteen yard line and the half way line in poor areas - and when you do you get punished.
"Individual errors have led to the goals being conceded, but we'll go through all of that next week and we'll learn from it. My players certainly aren't trying to do that on purpose and we've got to make sure we tighten up in situations like that."
Wolves are up next at Cardiff City Stadium next Sunday, with Malky glad to have extra options at his disposal after missing players at Ashton Gate.
Talking of the absentees, he said, "Craig had a tightness in his calf which meant we couldn't risk him today, while Ben had a kick in his foot in training, the both of them failing fitness tests yesterday. It'll be good to get both back next Sunday against Wolves, along with Bo-Kyung Kim who joins up with us next week and Craig Conway who had a thigh strain."