BRISTOL City's injury crisis deepened as Kalifa Cisse limped off with just eight minutes gone in this pre-season match at Huish Park.

Signed from Reading earlier this month, the French-born Malian represents a central plank in manager Steve Coppell's planning for the new season.

But his availability for the opening game of the Championship campaign at home to Millwall on Saturday week could be in doubt after he limped off with a thigh injury.

Last year's top goal-scorers, Danny Haynes and Nicky Maynard, have missed all of pre-season and have no chance of being fit for the first game, while skipper Louis Carey and exciting prospect Christian Ribeiro have been similarly inconvenienced.

The departure of Bradley Orr, Paul Hartley and Jamie McCombe have further hampered the manager's plans and his attempts to find like-for-like replacements in the transfer market have, for the most part, brought frustration and disappointment.

Given these circumstances, it is fair to say places are up for grabs ahead of the opening game and several players pressed their claims as City ended a three-match losing sequence against lower-league opposition.

If Monday's 3-1 defeat at Exeter yielded an improved performance without the desired result, City's penultimate warm-up game provided Coppell with welcome encouragement.

Although the Robins remain defensively fragile at times, they at least managed to pose a threat in the final third and, at long last, produced the goals their approach play warranted.

Coppell once again juggled his limited resources to give most players half a game and they appeared at home in a 3-5-2 formation, which enabled them to keep possession for long periods and dictate the tempo of the game.

Once again, they started poorly, and fell behind after five minutes, Cisse upending Dean Bowditch and conceding a penalty after showing the rampaging striker inside. Sam Williams beat Dean Gerken from the spot and it looked as though City were going to be in for another disappointing night.

But they responded in positive fashion, equalised through Ivan Sproule after 16 minutes and went on to dominate proceedings.

Bolstered by the introduction of six substitutes, City found further improvement after the break and David Clarkson put them ahead, picking himself up following a rash challenge from Adam Virgo to beat John Sullivan from the penalty spot on the hour.

And City added a third when Marlon Jackson converted a shot which took a deflection off Sullivan en-route to the top corner.

Yeovil (4-4-2): Sullivan; Alcock, Virgo, Huntington, Jones; A Williams, Kalala (Upson 35), Ayling, Freeman; S Williams, Bowditch.

City (3-5-2): Gerken; Cisse (Skuse 8), Fontaine, Ball; Edwards, Elliott, Johnson, Adomah, T Williams; Sproule, Akinde.