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City 1 Hull 1

The danger at holding a 1-0 and not killing a side off when you are in the ascendancy is that you run the risk of allowing your opponents back into the game.

Today was a perfect example of this and what should have been a return to winning ways to start an important week results in the sense of frustration continuing.

It shouldn't have come to this of course given our dominance over the first hour of the game, in particular the first half which was our best for some time. It was reward perhaps for a more attacking approach adopted by Mark Hughes; Zabaleta, Barry and Bellamy made way for Richards, Tevez and the returning Robinho.

It was Robinho who was largely instrumental in our first half performance. The side showed fantastic movement and interchange play with Robinho, Ireland and Tevez all moving around to great effectiveness. We attacked with pace and purpose, creating ourselves some great positions yet just lacked a cutting edge.

Having got the lead on the stroke of half-time however, this should have been the spur to kick on and put the game beyond reach early in the second half. Not to be however, and despite their frailties, if a side has the likes of Bullard and Hunt they are likely to be able to create at least one opportunity.

The penalty may well have been questionable, but by no means could you argue it wasn't one. We were then left with little time to try and re-group and restore our lead. It was not to be.

Questions I'm sure will be asked of the defence once again - particularly in terms of their concentration, but this was one of our better performances at the back.

Far more worrying is the fact that despite the quality in the attacking positions we are showing either the ruthlesness or clinical nature needed to be a top four side. Seven successive draws bears this out, and we have thrown away leads in our last three home games against Fulham, Burnley and now Hull - all games we should be winning of course.

This aspect, as much as anything is the one we need to rectify to get the season back on course.