The Robins opened up a four-point advantage over Coventry after a 3-1 win at Ashton Gate, although they had to come from behind after Jon Stead's first-half goal.

Stead levelled before goals from Yannick Bolasie and Chris Wood, either side of Brett Pitman's red card, earned City a potentially decisive victory.

"We will need the same commitment, if not more, to get anything at Birmingham on Saturday and the same applies to our other remaining games," said McInnes, whose side won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest two days ago.

Magnificent effort

"To beat Nottingham Forest and Coventry in the space of three days is a magnificent effort by the players and I couldn't have asked for more.

"But the job is not done yet. All we have done is given ourselves a decent chance of staying up.

"We picked two different teams for the two Easter games, knowing that we would need freshness and energy in front of our own fans in the second of them.

"That's how it worked out and the six changes demonstrated that it is a squad, rather than a team effort, which will be all important."

Leggy

Coventry boss Thorn had no complaints about the result, commenting: "I was pleased to go in 1-0 up at half-time because we hadn't played well.

"I thought we looked very leggy in the second half. We have some injuries and some knocks and numbers told on us in the end. Bristol looked fresher than we did.

"But we have been on a good run prior to this game and we will pick the players up and go again.

"We have enough games left to get ourselves out of trouble and Bristol probably have a tougher run-in, so it isn't over yet."