City 0 Blackburn 3

I did the match review (click here) for The Observer this week, so I'll just expand add a few comments onto that as it's a little pushed for space on there.

It was disappointing that after the progress made over the past month, we turn in a performance surely as poor as anything seen this season. From the start both sides had little attacking intent and the pace of the game did little to rouse a crowd that was as flat as I've come across for a 5.15 kick off.

Clearly we missed Barton's energy and impetus in midfield and neither Dabo or Sinclair picked up the slack. It had 0-0 written all over the game but we conceded a soft goal just before half-time and never looked like threatening to get anything from the game.

All three goals for me could have been avoided - the first Trabelsi was slow in attacking the ball which allowed Pedersen to head past Weaver. The second was also a mistake as Richards was given a poor ball which resulted in him giving away the free kick which was hit home well against Pedersen (who I had tipped to be a goalscoring threat), and as for the third - it somehow managed to look worse on TV as Jordan managed to turn being in a good position goalside to gifting the ball away for a third goal to ice the game.

We looked far too defensive in the first half and only the introduction of Beasley at half-time sparked any life into us. Both Trabelsi and Jordan offered nothing going forward an although Ireland had some nice touches, he couldn't really get anything going.

Up front, Corradi was again yanked at half-time and Vassell failed to convert a couple of half chances. Perhaps it was a game too far given the amount of games that have been played over the past month, but it is to be hoped that we don't slide back into the poor form shown before Christmas - given that we are heading into a game on Sunday that could shape the remainder of our season.