The Blues’ first team coach admitted that the players failed to press home their one-man advantage after Steven Pienaar was shown a red card, but he was frustrated that the referee did not award a penalty for a Marouane Fellaini handball.
Said Platt: “Perhaps we didn’t throw enough at them and when we did create chances we didn’t put them away.
“The way the game went with bags of bookings, you felt as though somebody was going to go down to ten men. They did and we didn’t take advantage of that.
Perhaps our performance throughout the 90 minutes didn’t deserve a great deal out of the game, but by the same token, sometimes you look for decisions to go your way and they don’t. People made mistakes
...David Platt
Platt was unhappy a free-kick was awarded outside the area, when TV replays confirmed Fellaini had handled inside the box.
“From where I was down on the touchline I didn’t know if it was inside or not, but we quickly had a message come through to us that it was inside – having now seen it myself, it was well inside the box, but it’s not gone for us,” continued Platt.
“But even then we probably created enough decent chances to get something out of the game.”
One thing Platt was adamant about was City’s resolve and that targets will remain unaffected between now and the end of the campaign.
“Our intention is to win football matches,” he said. “No one’s been shouting from the rooftops saying we’ll chase the 12 point deficit down.
Manchester United have got a significant points advantage and our obligation is to go out and be professional and win football matches
...Match reaction...
“We haven’t done that today and by the end of the evening it could be 15 points and people will start talking about that.
“It’s not mathematically impossible, but even then it is it doesn’t change our focus and intensity.
“Our professionalism will be to go out and win our remaining games to ensure that we finish as high up the table as we possibly can and try to ensure that we win the FA Cup, too.”
