Paul Hartley has issued a timely reminder to his Bristol City team-mates on the eve of tomorrow's Coca-Cola Championsho fixture at Reading, writes Andy Stockhausen.

City may be in buoyant mood following Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, but midfielder Hartley insisted now is not the time to rest on their laurels.

In fact, the Scotland international said City must maintain the standards they set in south London or risk coming back down to earth with a resounding bump against in-form opponents, who have won all four Championship games played at the Madejski Stadium in 2010.

If Hartley and Co believed the pressure was off, following an unbeaten three-match sequence in which they held Leicester and Ipswich and beat automatic promotion contenders West Brom, they were made to think again when Doncaster Rovers inflicted a 5-2 defeat upon them at Ashton Gate last weekend.

That setback saw City nosedive to 15th in the table and, given a fixture list which required them to negotiate consecutive away games at Palace, Reading and Plymouth, raised the prospect of Gary Johnson's team being dragged into the scramble to avoid relegation.

The fact they responded to that pressure in such positive fashion in midweek suggests City possess the resolve and ability to at least keep themselves out of trouble.

But inconsistency remains their biggest enemy, and Hartley warned: "You can never relax in football, and we have to maintain the standards we set the other night.

"We have another tough game against Reading, who are playing pretty well at the moment.

"Just because we won our last game, does not mean we can afford to drop our guard. That's when you can come unstuck and it's probably what happened when we played Doncaster after a few good results.

"We have to produce the same level of performance at Reading and against Plymouth next Tuesday. We have to make sure we are ready and up for the challenge."

It can be argued that, after decent results in the previous three games, City approached Doncaster's visit in the wrong frame of mind and came unstuck because of it.

There is a school of thought which believes these Robins prefer underdog status and struggle to carry the mantle of favouritism.

Whatever the truth of the matter, their ability to recover from adversity is not in question.

Trounced 6-0 at home by Cardiff in January, City responded by carving out a goalless draw at Middlesbrough in their next outing.

And it was the same at Palace, a rock-solid defence and combative midfield combining to shut out the opposition and eradicate the shortcomings which cost them dear in the previous match.

"After such a big loss on the Saturday, it was a very important game for the team," said Hartley. "It was a big- pressure game and we didn't hide away from the fact that we had to take something from it.

"You have to stand up and be counted in games like this, especially when you are on a bad run and flitting about at the wrong end of the table.

"We have suffered a few lows this season, and losing to Doncaster was definitely one of them. But we've usually managed to bounce back from those disappointments.

"It's good to have another game so quickly, so you don't dwell on what has gone wrong.

"As a senior player, I enjoy games like the one at Palace. The older you get, the more experience you have of these situations, and that helps you relax a bit more.

"It's important to help those around you relax and make sure they can perform.

"I thought we managed to do that at Palace, and we need to do the same at Reading."

Hartley hailed City's performance at Selhurst Park – more pragmatic than pleasing on the eye - as a blueprint for remaining away games between now and the end of the season.

He explained: "We had to keep things tighter than we did against Doncaster and I thought we were nice and solid across the middle of the park and the defence were outstanding.

"Because of the situation we found ourselves in, we had to take the game to Palace, pressure them and pressure the ball. We made things work for ourselves at the same time as keeping them quiet.

"I thought we played pretty well at times, hit them on the break and could have scored a few more goals. But we'll take a 1-0 any day, especially at this stage of the season when every point counts."