Mancini lays off goalkeeper Hart

MANCHESTER City manager Roberto Mancini refused to blame goalkeeper Joe Hart for his side's disappointing 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers.

A frustrating afternoon at Eastlands was characterised by a calamitous mix-up between England stopper Hart and defender Kolo Toure, which saw Nikola Klasnic roll the ball into the net after 24 minutes.

Patrick Vieira converted skipper Carlos Tevez's low cross to level matters 10 minutes after the interval, but a combination of wasted chances and fine defending from Rovers prevented a home win.

Mancini said: "Their goal was a fluke, these things can happen in football. I hope after today, we can finish our opportunities anyway.

"Blackburn came here for a draw and we must find a solution, because the Sunderland match was the same."

Jerome Boateng, Aleksander Kolarov, Nigel De Jong, Emmanuel Adebayor and Mario Balotelli were all missing from the squad.

Mancini also confirmed his captain wasn't operating at full capacity, despite completing the full 90 minutes.

It all started brightly for City. James Milner found England colleague Adam Johnson on a breakaway down the right after two minutes, and his powerful drive was tipped around the post by Paul Robinson.

A Shaun Wright-Phillips effort from the edge of the box screamed just wide, before Milner and Johnson combined again after 12 minutes, with Johnson's curling shot falling the wrong side of the post.

The hosts seemed to have the wind taken out of their sails by Klasnic's goal and lost their momentum until Vieira struck in the second half.

Rovers had chances of their own. Mame Biram Diouf, released by Klasnic down the left channel, looked like giving his side the lead, only to be thwarted by Hart with a fine save at full stretch.

City looked certain to snatch the three points in injury time, when Tevez cut the ball back for Jo inside the six-yard box.

But Rovers captain Chris Samba threw his body in the way to secure a point.


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