Hull City dropped a place to fourth in the Championship after they lost 3-2 at home to Bristol City in a game delayed when a squirrel twice invaded the pitch at the MKM Stadium.

Oli McBurnie put the Tigers ahead against the run of play with a calm finish midway through the first half, but the Robins were soon level thanks to Rob Atkinson's header from a corner.

The visitors went into the break with a deserved lead when Ross McCrorie lashed an effort into the top corner from 12 yards after a number of missed chances.

It was 3-1 shortly after half time when Emil Riis finished well after being put through on goal as the Robins showed no lingering effects of a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Derby in their previous fixture.

The game was paused soon after when a squirrel twice got on to the field as ground staff scrambled to capture it, and 15 minutes after the resumption Hull made it 3-2 when Kieran Dowell blasted in from six yards.

But Hull could not find a winner - despite 10 minutes of squirrel-induced stoppage time - as they failed to capitalise on leaders Coventry City's inability to beat 10-man Oxford United at home, while Ipswich Town moved above them into third after a 2-1 win at Derby County.

Bristol City are now just a point off the play-off places having moved up to eighth place with a 13th win of the season.

The visitors were without influential midfielder Jason Knight, who injured his ankle in training, as boss Gerhard Struber made four changes from the side that lost 5-0 at home to Derby.

But they showed a willingness to put that heavy loss behind them and should have gone ahead in the eighth minute when Riis broke clear, but he shot straight at Ivor Pandur - much to the frustration of debutant Tomi Horvat who was in a great position to score from a square pass.

Horvat dragged a shot wide from the edge of the box four minutes later as the visitors impressed in the opening quarter before going behind with Hull's first chance of the game.

McBurnie got his 12th goal of the season as he side-footed home from 12 yards after getting past Atkinson following good build-up play by Regan Slater.

But the visitors claimed an equaliser their chances deserved 10 minutes later as Atkinson outmuscled Lewie Coyle on the six-yard line to head home Horvat's corner.

Paddy McNair had a 38th-minute shot well saved by Radek Vitek as Bristol City went straight up the other end and scored - the impressive Horvat missed a gilt-edged chance, but the ball was eventually crossed in, and when Scott Twine's effort was blocked it fell to McCrorie who blasted home.

Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic brought on Liam Millar and Lewis Koumas at half time, but it had little effect as their opponents made it 3-1 within five minutes of the restart - Twine's excellent through ball perfectly found Riis who calmly finished from 12 yards.

The game was paused twice soon after when the grey squirrel made its way on to the field - it was first chased into the stands by a member of staff brandishing a coat, but not before a drop of its furry shoulder left its pursuer embarrassingly wrong-footed.

But it returned minutes later and ran through the legs of a number of its chasers before finally being cornered by a ball boy's stool and trapped under a coat following an acrobatic dive by one of those in pursuit - much to the disappointment of many of the home fans for whom it had been the best bit of action since McBurnie's goal.

The breaks, which totalled around five minutes, ruined the flow of the game and when it resumed Bristol City were in no mood to give away any chances to the hosts, as Joe Gelhardt had an effort from the edge of the box blocked.

Hull's best post-squirrel effort came when Dowell made it 3-2 - Koumas crossed from the left, Gelhardt outmuscled Vitek and the ball fell to the midfielder who thumped in from close range into an unguarded net.

Hull tried in vain to get a winner despite a lengthy period of stoppage time, but Bristol City managed to squirrel away the points.

Hull City manager Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside:

"We made a lot of crucial mistakes in today's game.

"We started well I think, we controlled their everything, but after a while we started to lose easy duels or easy balls, we were very soft in those duels and they had a good two chances when it was 0-0.

"We took the lead with with a nice action, great finishing from Oli and then I think that we brought them into the game with our two mistakes.

"Two cheap goals because we are there with the numbers, we can control those players there, but when you make those mistakes it's mostly a goal, they punish you immediately."

Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber told BBC Radio Bristol:

"We know what we had a week ago and I think today was reaction time and the boys showed a really good face against a team that had a really big momentum and many, many wins.

"The win and the performance was on a really high level otherwise you could not win here.

"The resilience was on a really high level, and this is something that you need in the Championship, you need in the end front foot style players who are always ready to press high, but also players that are smart and understand what the game needs.

"In the end our box defending was great and to bring the points home in this way was not easy, but we did it."

On the squirrel: "In the end we enjoyed it a little bit, especially when we saw they could not catch the squirrel.

"It was a lovely animal. I like animals but this was really funny to see how they wanted to catch it.

"I like it when I see the boys in the same way as the squirrel 'no-one can catch us', maybe this was good to see.

"It also interrupted the game in some momentum, but how we dealt with that was also really good to see from my boys."