GARY Johnson will warn his Bristol City players to beware the potential threat posed by their former team-mate Darren Byfield.

City's leading goalscorer in the Coca-Cola Championship last season, Byfield helped the Robins reach the play-off final in Wembley back in May, only to be released following defeat at the hands of Hull.

Back in Bristol with Doncaster Rovers tomorrow, the veteran striker, who turns 32 later this month, will be determined to prove a point if selected.

Rovers striker Gareth Taylor is injured, so Byfield is expected to start and Johnson knows what to expect.

"Darren will be lively, for sure," warned the Londoner.

"He's an opposition centre-forward in the Championship and, as such, he's someone we need to be aware of.

"Players have a habit of coming back to bite you when they play against their former club, and we must make sure that doesn't happen with Darren."

Of his decision to show Byfield the door, Johnson revealed: "I couldn't offer him regular first-team football.

"At the age of 32, that's something he needs to be getting every week, so we decided it was for the best if he moved on.

"He's gone to a good club in Doncaster, and I'm sure he'll want to come back here and show what he can do."

Johnson is demanding a response from his players following Tuesday's 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham, a setback which saw City fall seven points behind the leaders.

Johnson highlighted his team's lack of punch in the final third and devoted much of yesterday's training session to addressing shortcomings in the opposition penalty area.

He said: "We don't have a great deal of time to work on things, so there was a lot of talking.

"Then we managed to put it together on the training ground and show them what we were after.

"It's about desire, commitment and technique and the best sides will score goals because of that. Those sides that are not so good won't score goals.

"It was a problem to us this week, but we'd scored seven in five games previously and we're certainly not letting many in, so it's not disastrous at the moment.