Bristol City lost further ground in the Sky Bet Championship promotion race on Saturday when they lost 2-0 at home to Cardiff City in a performance manager Dean Holden admits was “nowhere near good enough”.

The Severnside derby defeat was the third straight loss for City who dropped to tenth in the tables, six points behind the play-off places.

Striker Nahki Wells, who scored a consolation goal in their 3-2 loss to Brentford on Wednesday, returned to the starting line-up. He put a header wide in second-half stoppage time as the hosts tried to salvage something late in the game.

The home side never recovered after conceding two first-half goals. Curtis Nelson headed Cardiff in front in the 18th minute before Kieffer Moore made it 2-0 from another header seven minutes later.

“It’s been a bad afternoon for us, there’s no doubt about that,” Holden said to Robins TV.

“They got the first goal and the second was poor defending. We showed a little bit of response after the second goal with moments where we didn’t quite execute to get in.

“We didn’t carry any threat in that attacking play and we let ourselves down in the basics with our passing, controlling it and moving the ball.

“There’s plenty of work to do. We’ve had a good, honest chat about my thoughts and feelings on today’s performance and it was nowhere near good enough. We have to regroup now and throw some punches in the next one.”

City are hoping to end their slump in the FA Cup on Wednesday when they meet Sheffield United in an away fifth round tie.

“My job is to galvanise and regroup and pick the lads up,” added Holden.

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The home side took the lead through Tyrone Barnett before seeing Joe Partington sent off for a second booking.

With just three minutes into stoppage time substitute Joe Sbarra netted to earn the visitors a share of the points.