Slaven Bilic praised his team after a game which saw them all give 100 per cent in a game we could easily have won.
Speaking to the official website the manager said: “I am disappointed with the result but I said to the lads after the game I could not have asked for anymore, especially effort wise.
We had good team energy and they played as a team today. I cannot be unhappy about that.
“I thought Mauro’s shot had gone in and it was a great chance that he created by himself coming from the left to the right hand side. We also had a great chance right at the end.
“Sometimes they are crucial for the season, let alone for one game. You sometimes need those goals to boost the whole club and the individuals. Unfortunately it was not meant to be today.
“We had a lot of positives from our side especially when you consider the amount of players we had missing today. To play like this against a good team makes me proud of the boys.
“It was a good game to watch. We have not scored for two games but we have kept two clean sheets and both of those games should not have finished 0-0.
“Michail did really well. He worked hard and has been waiting for his chance. Now he has got it and he used it really well. Sometimes it is hard for a player to come in and take their chance when they get it.
“But he did exactly that and I am really pleased for him.”
This mid table team out classed City last week,
The man is honest and says it as he sees it,no excuses about injuries no excuses about ref decisions,no excuses about fatigue,
He gave us entertaining footballs threw forwards on to try and win the game instead of trying to hold on for one point and loosing in the last ten minutes,
Carroll worked hard all the game in defence as well and don’t blame him for the poor delivery of crosses that gave him few chances,
The stats tell the story shots corners possession but then we were on the back foot ?
This is just ‘head in the sand’ nonsense. Stoke could just as easily won this game too. For a large portion of the match, they were clearly in controll and constantly had us on the back foot. It was really only the last fifteen or twenty minutes we started to really push them.
And, when you think this is a regular mid-table team, it tells us exactly what we are at this time.
The one good thing about this game was seeing Valencia back on the pitch. I pray we see him upfront next game because Carroll is a fish out of water in this side. Zarate gave him a lesson in what a striker is supposed to do