Bristol City boss Liam Manning is expecting another tough test this weekend against Blackburn Rovers.

Rovers have made an unbeaten start to the campaign whilst the Robins were thumped 3-0 at Derby County before the international break.

It had, otherwise, been a decent start for Bristol City, winning against Millwall and drawing with Hull and Coventry City.

Manning admits that the trip to Ewood Park will be another tough test and conceded the two-week pause was a double-edged sword of the back of a bad result.

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"Another tough game," Manning told Bristol Live. 

"It's so unpredictable when you look at it in terms of before the season starts, what people think will happen and then a run of games and even this weekend you're trying to call the fixtures. It's impossible.

"So for me, it's about going into the game knowing that we've done all the work that we can. It's going in knowing we've done the preparation, that we've trained right, that physically and psychologically we're in a good spot so that all the work's done. 

"Then the second the whistle starts it's making sure we grab the opportunity and we transfer all the work we've done and all the positivity from so far into the game and go and do everything in our power to go and get a win."

"I'd probably have to say a combination of the two," he added when asked if the break came at the right time.

 "I think if you look at the first four games, cup included five, I thought there was so many good aspects, so many positive aspects. 

"A lot of pleasing things to come from it so again I think if you finish with the result that we had and the second-half performance we want to get back at it.

"So frustrating from that perspective but at the same point really valuable in terms of opportunity to train, work hard. I pushed the guys really hard last week and we're back in this week, albeit with a weekend off. We're in a good spot and ready to go on Saturday."