City were given a lesson today by the tenacious tigers of Hull City as they dropped more points in their quest for the coveted fourth spot.
From start to finish Phil Brown’s men worked their socks off and showed the desire that will probably keep them in the Premier League this year.
Hunt, Boetang, Fagan and Altidore shone but the rest of the team stuck to the game plan and saw the game out.
A super finish by young American striker Altidore and a wonder strike from the edge of the box from veteran Boetang were enough to see off Mancini’s timid City who just didn’t want it as much as Hull.
City did make a fist of it in the last twenty minutes through Adebayor from close range after a goal mouth scramble and some good work by Toure.
But it was a case of too little too late for the Sky Blues as they were guilty of some woeful finishing, misplaced passing and not keeping the ball on the deck.
The football we play when we keep it on the floor can be exquisite, but today we didn’t do it enough and were guilty of lack of composure from the back right through to the front.
The were some positives to be emerge from this latest away debacle as Wayne Bridge made his long awaited comeback and received a warm welcome from both sets of supporters.
Debutantes Adam Johnson and Patrick Viera also came off the bench for the disappointing Bellamy and unimposing Ireland.
Johnson looked direct and whipped in some good crosses on occasions and looks like he could be starting a game sooner rather than later in an attempt to rest some of the more jaded players.
Viera played well enough with some assured passes and feisty challenges although he was booked for a challenge on young Carney.
He will take some time to get up to speed but gives us an aerial presence in the middle of the park that has been badly missed.
Hull deserved the win as they wanted it more, as did Everton and quite frankly Portsmouth last week. The question is what is Bobby Manc going to do about it and how can we turn our away form into something that at least resembles a top four challenge.
A very disgruntled Blue
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