Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has admitted that he was "disappointed" by the way his side rolled over during their 4-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City.
Peter Crouch had cancelled out Sergio Aguero's earlier strike with 38 minutes played at the Britannia Stadium, although three second-half goals from the champions saw them claim all three points with relative ease in the end.
"I thought [in the] first half we played very well and arguably should have been in the ascendency," former Citizens boss Hughes is quoted as saying by Goal.com. "We caused City, who are obviously a very good team, a lot of problems during the first half I felt.
"Second half, credit to City, they came out a little bit sharper and put us under pressure higher up the field. We're disappointed in terms of how we allowed them the second goal - we didn't really lock them in in that area of the field and they produced the cross for the goal.
"At that point we started to chase the game and that really plays into City's hands. We were picked off a couple of times and there were individual errors as well and collective errors - you can't afford to do that. First half I was happy with what we produced; second half we weren't quite good enough to stop City from taking the game from us."
Stoke, who are now 10th in the Premier League table, turn attention to FA Cup duties on Saturday when they take on Blackburn Rovers.
Daniel Lewis
