Forest Green Rovers were punished at the death as a Shawn McCoulsky brace and a strike from Aaron Collins were cancelled out by two late Bristol City goals as the Championship side emerged 4-3 winners.

McCoulsky opened the scoring early on at The New Lawn before adding a second in style shortly before the break. Josh Brownhill then halved the deficit on the stroke of half time.

Aaron Collins added a third in the second half before an Andy Weimann penalty put the hosts within touching distance with less than 15 minutes to play.

Sammie Szmodics showed his class after 86 minutes as he raced through the Rovers backline to slide the ball under Adam Smith before Adam Webster sealed the victory for the Robins from the edge of the area.

In their toughest test of pre-season so far, it didn’t take long for Forest Green to get going and they had the lead inside three minutes.

A spell of possession around the City area saw Aaron Collins loft a delicate ball to Joseph Mills at the back post, and the full-back’s drilled volley found McCoulsky in the six-yard box who slid in to fire the ball home against his old side.

Rovers soon carved out another opportunity as a quick counter attack saw McCoulsky turn provider to slide George Williams in on goal but he was forced wide by the keeper and despite taking it round him, the Welshman couldn’t find the angle to finish.

Bristol City began to grow into the game, but Liam Walsh couldn’t keep his effort low with 21 minutes on the clock and it flew over.

Just one minute later, Lewis Thomas was called into action in the Rovers goal as he dived down to his left to push away Tommy Rowe’s goal-bound effort.

A late chance opened up for the visitors with three minutes of the half to play as Andy Weimann tried to barge his way into the area, but a crowd of green stopped him punishing FGR.

Seconds later the ball was up the other end as McCoulsky had a chance to open up and gallop towards the City goal before cutting inside from the left and curling a peach of a strike into the top corner.

City would find themselves level with seconds of the first half to play as Brownhill fired a shot goalwards, a deflection catching Thomas off guard and causing him to fumble the ball agonisingly over the line.

Forest Green started the second half the way they had started the first, and doubled their lead with 56 minutes on the clock.

A looping cross to the back post fell the way of Joseph Mills and his well struck volley couldn’t provide McCoulsky with his third, but instead the ball came loose for Collins who was able to side-foot the ball home.

With less than 15 minutes left on the clock, Saikou Janneh made a darting run into the box and as he looked to tun back out, the referee adjudged that he was tripped.

Weimann took command of the spot kick and calmly fired home high to the left, sending Adam Smith the wrong way.

Seven minutes from time another chance fell the way of Weimann as he darted into the box only to slide Szmodics pull back wide of the back post.

Just three minutes later the Robins were level as Szmodics burst through the backline, and despite the efforts of Ebou Adams tracking back, the Bristol midfielder was able to slot the ball under a sprawling Smith.

With the fourth officials board going up with three minutes of added time, the visitors struck the knockout blow. Webster picked the ball up on the edge of the area and after faking to try his luck on his left, he cut in and curled an effort into the far bottom corner from the edge of the area.