Whilst Green and Byrne are not up to the standard required they should know where the goal is but they didn't even make the bench.
City relied upon Feeney and MacLean but they came up against lads in the Stoke defence who were able to swat them away like bugs.
Stoke came with the plan of spoiling and taking chances up front if they came. Well of course we gave them a chance, albeit from a contested corner, and they scored. That was it. Game over. No matter what we'll hear from the club about being unlucky, dominating etc etc the fact is we were weak, poor and looked nothing like a side that could challenge.
We were handed a lifeline when the referee finally made a proper decision and penalised the Stoke player for pulling at MacLean in the 87th minute. A penalty was awarded but MacLean blew his effort with a shoddy kick that was saved, MacLean had a chance to make ammends but he missed the rebound as well.
That summed up City's day.
It was a shame for the 18,000+ that turned up in the hot Saturday sunshine.
FT City 0 - 1 Stoke.