A lacklustre performance

Last updated : 23 November 2011 By Dave Sugarman

Way too many passes went astray, the crossing was generally awful and the midfield was outfought, which is rare. It was a poor performance from the team as a whole, and a poor game, but City didn't get beaten, and that's the main thing.

Some observations on the players:

David Marshall - one of his more hesitant performances. Marshall has looked pretty solid recently, but appeared shaky at times last night.

Kevin McNaughton - found himself in acres of space on numerous occasions, but his crossing was dreadful and his decision-making was poor. Defended fairly well but looked weak going forward.

Anthony Gerrard - looked rusty and made a number of errors, but did make a few decent last-ditch blocks and tackles. Nevertheless, didn't look anywhere near as good as Hudson has in recent matches.

Ben Turner - man of the match for me. Looked solid throughout.

Andrew Taylor - a fair performance but didn't get on the ball often enough.

Filip Kiss - has appeared jaded in the last two games. Perhaps too many matches in a short space of time as caught up with the youngster. A spell on the bench won't do him any harm.

Aran Gunnarsson - decent effort against his former club. Probably the best of City's midfielders on the night.

Don Cowie - struggled to get into the game. Wasn't as busy or effective as usual.

Peter Whittingham - another fine goal, but one of Whittingham's quieter games. Too often his passes and crosses were over-hit, which is very rare these days.

Craig Conway - worked very hard on the left flank but struggled to make an impact.

Kenny Miller - another who worked hard but Miller missed a couple of decent opportunities and was guilty of over-playing on occasions when a strike on goal would have been a better option.

Steve McPhail - improved the midfield when he came on. I would start him ahead of Kiss on Saturday.

Darcy Blake - only on the field for six or seven minutes but played a couple of decent passes in that time. Didn't put a foot wrong.