Gerhard Struber enjoyed an early taste of the Ashton Gate atmosphere as his first home game in charge of Bristol City ended in a hard-fought Carabao Cup victory.
A sixth-minute header from captain Jason Knight and powerful 61st-minute finish from substitute Yu Hirakawa earned a 2-0 win over League Two MK Dons which puts the Championship club safely into round two.
City head coach Struber said: “My feeling was that the game might attract 4,000 or 5,000 fans and we end up getting 10,000. We can feel the appreciation of the supporters and the atmosphere here is so important to us.
“I hear the game against Charlton on Saturday is sold out, so we will have a packed crowd and that will be even more important against a team from the same level.
“In the first half we found it difficult to break MK Dons down but in the second there was much more power in our game.”
Dons boss Paul Warne said: “I was pleased with the effort shown.
“We made a lot of changes to get game-time into other players and they came really strong.
“Apart from the first five or six minutes we gave a good account of ourselves and I was pretty proud. I’m also pleased we came away with no injuries.
“Bristol City thoroughly deserved to go through and I have no complaints. It doesn’t detract from the fact that we did very well and we can go into our next league game [at home to Cheltenham] full of confidence.”
