Nigel Pearson is right to highlight these two Bristol City positives from frustrating Luton Town defeat: Opinion | OneFootball

Bristol City were overpowered by Luton Town on a sodden Wednesday evening at Kenilworth Road - suffering a third defeat in their last five games on the road against the play-off chasing Hatters.

The first half, in particular, made for ugly watching for Robins fans as it looked like men against boys with Nigel Pearson's side unable to keep up with their hosts' physicality.

Rob Edwards and his team exploited City's lightweight XI - with the likes of Carlton Morris and Emmanuel Adebayo proving too much for a makeshift defensive line.

Given their physicality, intensity, and directness, it's hard to think of a worse team for the Robins to have to face in the absence of three central defenders and their two strongest defensive midfielders.

But as dismal as the performance might've seemed on the night, with the visitors struggling to string together passes at points and being split open with regularity, there are some reasons to be cheerful on reflection.

Having gone behind after four minutes, heads could have gone down as Luton piled the pressure on but despite few, if any, City players being at their best they battled to the break with the deficit just one goal and were much improved in the second half.

Rightly, Pearson commended his players for showing that backbone. This is a team that have crumbled and surrendered leads far too often in recent years but they showed some admirable resilience under difficult circumstances on Wednesday evening.

The other positive for City was the introduction of 19-year-old Omar Taylor-Clarke. The latest academy talent to begin the transition to first team football, Taylor-Clarke was handed his debut in the FA Cup and recent injuries have led to opportunities in the Championship as well.

Last night was far from an ideal situation to hand a teenager his fifth senior appearance - it was a battle against a physical side when many of his teammates were struggling - but as Pearson highlighted to club media after the game, that he felt Taylor-Clarke was ready for such an occasion is a testament to him.

The young midfielder reacted very well to what was a tough challenge - never shying away from getting on possession and looking to create opportunities as his side went in pursuit of an equaliser.