Sam Allardyce has made no bones about the fact he’s bitterly disappointed with the semi-final draw in the Capital One Cup.

Anyone expecting a show of full-on bravado from the manager after we were drawn to play Manchester City at the Etihad was clearly living in an alternative reality

For Allardyce declared: “The big disappointment is that we have Manchester City in the semi-final! Away from home they haven’t been too clever, but at home they’ve been scoring an average of four goals a game.

“You never know and we’ll go and give it our best shot, but we want to see more performances like that and pick up more points in what is the main priority for us – the Premier League.”