MUCH has been made of the injuries which have left Bristol City short of firepower at the start of the season.

Certainly, last season's top scorer Nicky Maynard and regular strike partner Danny Haynes have been sorely missed, while the torn hamstring suffered by Sam Vokes 13 minutes into his debut was as cruel as it was unexpected.

Yet veteran defender Jamie McAllister believes the chief reasons for City's disappointing start are to be found at the other end.

The defensive frailties which surfaced in games against Millwall and Southend United contributed heavily to defeats in the npower Championship and Carling Cup.

Millwall poached two of their three goals from set-piece routines at Ashton Gate last Saturday, while a revamped defence twice went missing to allow Southend strikers Barry Corr and Matt Paterson free headers, as the Shrimpers came from behind to win 3-2 in extra-time at Roots Hall in midweek.

City's difficulties at the back can be explained in terms of the injuries that have ruled out Louis Carey, Christian Ribeiro and Lewin Nyatanga, while the task of assimilating new signings takes time.

Yet left-back McAllister is loath to use those factors as an excuse.

He said: "It takes time to develop an understanding and that can only happen by playing games. We had three newcomers in the back five last Saturday and had to play a midfielder at centre-half in midweek.

"That is not an ideal situation, but there is no excuse for the sloppy goals we conceded, especially from set-pieces. We didn't win enough first balls and enough first headers and that went for the whole team, not just at the back.

"Those are things you have to work on in training and we've tried to do that this week. It's a case of recreating set-piece situations, defending against them and making sure we win our headers."

Goalkeeper David James, right-back Nicky Hunt and centre-half Damion Stewart are still getting to know their new team-mates.

McAllister said: "When you change that many players at the back, a certain amount of readjustment is called for. Unfortunately, you do not have much time in these situations and you have to learn very quickly.

"We must learn from game to game and it's a matter of trying to improve with each passing week. We were really tight in defence over the last 12 games of last season, because we had a settled side.

"That is not the case this season and we have to learn from every game, work hard on the training ground and make sure we continue to improve. It is a process we have to go through and things are not going to fall into place overnight."

City will need to improve significantly if they are to change their fortunes tomorrow against a Doncaster side likely to provide a stiffer test of their credentials than anything they have come up against so far. Sean O'Driscoll's side completed a Championship double over the Robins last season and McAllister knows there will be no hiding place should he and his team-mates lose again.

"The boys are gutted and we are hurting after what happened," admitted the Scot. "We just never got going against Millwall.

"You cannot use the injuries as an excuse. We still had 11 boys out there who wanted to win, a big crowd behind us and a great atmosphere inside the ground. We didn't quite step up to the challenge and that's all there is to it."

He added: "People were saying we could have done without the game at Southend in the week, but that was not the case. After what happened on Saturday, we wanted the next game to come around quickly, so we could put things right.

"We wanted to get our first win on the board and progress in the Carling Cup and we were relishing the challenge. Unfortunately, things did not work out on the night."