Bristol City captain Jason Knight was not included in the Robins’ matchday squad for their win over Portsmouth at Fratton ParkJason Knight was named Bristol City captain last summer(Image: EFL)

Jason Knight was left out of Bristol City’s matchday squad against Portsmouth in order to manage his load, Gerhard Struber has confirmed, with the head coach clarifying the Robins captain’s situation after his side’s impressive win at Fratton Park.

The Reds bounced back from their disappointing midweek defeat at the hands of Wrexham to secure a first three points away from home in four matches with a 1-0 win over Pompey on Saturday lunchtime. In the end, Anis Mehmeti’s sixth goal of the campaign proved to be enough for City to come out on top.

After an electric first quarter of an hour from Struber’s side, the Albanian winger opened the scoring on 17 minutes. Having been picked out in the Portsmouth penalty area by a superb Neto Borges cross, Mehmeti rose well to steer his header beyond Nicolas Schmid and into the back of the net.

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In either half, the Reds had chances to further extend their advantage, but it was Portsmouth who piled on the pressure in the closing exchanges. Thanks to some brilliant defending and a handful of impressive saves from Radek Vitek, City were able to see the points home.

That result came in spite of the fact that Struber’s side were once again without their captain, Knight. The midfielder was left out of the squad after substitute appearances against Wrexham and Swansea City, but that was a decision taken in order to avoid a new injury, rather than as a result of a fresh problem.

“I think this is, at the moment, the topic with our capitano,” the Robins head coach explained in his post-match press conference. “He is on the way back, but we need him on the way back with a load that helps him in the end [to] be stable on the field and not that we have, in the end, setbacks like with other players.”

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For Struber and his players, the last week has represented the first truly busy spell in the run-up to the festive period. In the space of just eight days, the Robins have welcomed Swansea City to Ashton Gate, travelled to North Wales to face Wrexham and to the south coast to take on Portsmouth.

On the whole, it has been a successful week or so for the Reds, with the six points taken from the possible nine on offer proving to be enough to keep them in the play-off places, at the time of writing at least.

Now, City can enjoy a full week without Championship football before they take on Millwall in BS3 next weekend. With no midweek fixture, those who have featured in all three games since the November international break, and Knight, will likely have a little bit of extra time to recover before turning their attention to Alex Neil’s Lions.

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Although Struber is also keen to use the coming days to re-energise, he feels the break between matches can also represent an opportunity for both him and his players to take the next step in their development as a side.

“This is not such a week of recovery,” Struber explained to Bristol Live. “It’s a week where we come and find also, in our world of football, good training days and good training sessions.

“We will train and prepare; the next game is coming on Saturday, and this is Millwall.

“They are also really, really good at the moment.”

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