Mark Robins heaped praise on goalscorer Kasey Palmer after the midfielder’s second-half strike against his old club Bristol City earned Coventry a hard-earned point at Ashton Gate.

Bristol City took a deserved lead in first-half stoppage time when George Tanner netted with the sweetest of right-footed volleys from 15 yards following a left-wing corner.

But Coventry improved after the break and hit back on 76 minutes, substitute Palmer equalising with a strike from inside the box that found the top corner to silence the boo-boys in the home crowd, who gave him stick with every touch.

Robins said: “Kasey is Kasey and what you get is what you get. Sometimes what you get is unbelievable and sometimes less so, but he is a top player.

“If you try to work on the defensive side of his game, you are fighting a losing battle. It’s all about how you can get him into good areas to make the most of his attacking attributes.

“His profile is somebody who makes things happen in the final third, either creating or scoring. Today he was focused from the moment he went on and it was a great finish.

“The Bristol fans know he is a good player and tried to knock him off his stride. He made our winner here in the Carabao Cup recently and now he has scored to earn us a point, so I’m not complaining.

“We are much better than we showed today. There were too many errors and it was a scruffy game in many ways with not much in it. When you are not at your best, it is important not to lose, so we take the point and move on.

“Bristol City are a better team than last season, playing a different type of football with different players. Nigel Pearson began the process brilliantly and it has been carried on, so I think they will do well.”

Bristol head coach Liam Manning said: “It was a good but frustrating point for us. Frustrating because the performance for large periods was so good.

“The control we had in the first half was excellent. In the second there was more good stuff but at times we also gave up that control too easily.

“Ultimately, they have had one shot on target to our seven. But were up against such a strong squad in which Coventry have invested heavily, so the frustration apart, it was a good result for us.

“We have a structure to our play but also give players the freedom to get forward. The positions that Max Bird and Scott Twine take up, along with the likes of Cameron Pring, demonstrate that and George Tanner has come up with a great goal.

“If you turn the ball over too cheaply, the structure becomes irrelevant and that was the case in parts of the second half.

“But it excites me that we can still improve. We were playing against a really strong side and arguably dominated them.

“We want to be more clinical but we are consistently getting into the right areas and asking questions of the opposition.

“It’s a case of staying calm, taking the point, remaining unbeaten in the league and moving on.”