Johnson's men earn Sven seal of approval as they score on technique

Bristol's narrow exit against a Premiership side was the first defeat of the season for Gary Johnson's newly-promoted outfit.

"We should have finished the game a lot earlier, but Bristol City played very well in the second half," said Eriksson. "They scored a goal and could have scored more.

"I said congratulations to their manager. I told him they play good football, and that's the truth. They like to keep the ball on the ground and have a lot of good footballers; they have good technique and organisation."

The Robins also have two players who have good reason to remember the Owls.

Star striker Lee Trundle, bought from Swansea for 1 million in the summer, was the subject of an unsuccessful 750,000 bid from Wednesday last October, while Michael McIndoe was the opponent fouled by Frankie Simek when the winger, then with Wolves, was sent off last season in a incident that sparked pandemonium on the touchline.

Trundle, scorer of 86 goals for Swansea in the last four seasons at League One and Two level, made his Championship mark with two efforts that won rave reports after last week's 2-1 home win against Scunthorpe.

One was a long-range shot, the other a chip, and they kept up the 30-year-old's reputation producing something out of the ordinary.

Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins reflected: "Bristol City invested heavily in one player and it paid off for them against us. You can't argue with the quality of his goals."

City manager Gary Johnson said: "We knew Lee could produce those types of goals and that is why we bought him."

McIndoe was signed from Molineux for around 500,000 - further strengthening for City as Johnson braced himself for a big challenge in the Championship.

So far, it has gone pretty well. They have drawn 2-2 with QPR, knocked Brentford out of the Carling Cup, 3-0, drawn 1-1 at Blackpool and beaten Scunthorpe 2-1 at home.

The City manager said: "You only have to look at the teams in the Championship to realise how big a step up it is. There are clubs like Watford, Charlton, West Brom and Sheffield United who have been in the Premier League recently and who are still able to afford top-flight wages and transfer fees.

"Now we are in a bigger league, we have to compete financially with these clubs. But that will not happen overnight and we first have to establish ourselves in the Championship. The last thing we want is to become a yo-yo club.

"Supporters always have expectations and there is nothing wrong with that. But they have to be realistic."

Johnson has brought in seven new players during the summer.

"My chairman and board have given me everything I've asked for and I'm grateful to them. You need to strengthen when you move up a level and I believe we've done that," he said.

"I am not the sort of person who settles for second best and there's no way we're in the Championship just to survive. We've gone into it full of confidence after winning promotion last season, knowing that we deserve to be where we are."

The other new signings are keeper Stephen Henderson, signed on a free from Aston Villa; right winger and Chris Brunt's Northern Ireland colleague, Ivan Sproule, 500,000 from Hibernian; midfield man Marvin Elliott, from Millwall, who cost a compensation package; centre-half Tamas Vasko, on a year-long loan from Hungarian club Ujpest; and former Rotherham striker Darren Byfield, who was signed from Millwall this week.

City won 3-2 on their last visit to Hillsborough, in the last match of the 2004-05 season after the Owls had already clinched their place in the play-offs with a 2-1 victory at Hull.

City finished a point off the top six, came ninth the following year and went up as runners-up to Scunthorpe last season.

The draw for the third round of the Carling Cup will take place tomorrow at 12.15pm.