In a rare moment of Premier League ‘Mea culpa’ the brutally honest England international declared that he was pointing the finger at himself for the Clint Dempsey goal that sent the Londoners home with a point.
And the 27-year-old confessed that the shine of his first goal for the Blues had been rubbed clean away by Fulham’s late revival in the 2-2 draw.
The Blues were denied a seventh straight home win and dropped their first points of the season at the City of Manchester Stadium thanks to second half strikes from Damien Duff and the aforementioned Dempsey.
Those efforts wiped out the advantage given to the home side by Lescott and Martin Petrov and left the central defender less chipper than he might have otherwise been.
“It was probably my fault that Dempsey got a header and that is something I will try to address,” he declared.
We are all professionals and can take criticism. No one was pointing the finger at me in the dressing room but I point the finger at myself because I know I can do better.
...Joleon Lescott...
“We are all winners and we all want to do well. There are no excuses. Being two goals up we should be able to see the game out and disappointment was the main feeling in the dressing room after the game.”
The draw left City in sixth place in the table still with a game in hand on all those above them except Arsenal who also gave up a two-goal lead on Sunday afternoon.
Attention now turns to the Carling Cup tie at home to Scunthorpe on Wednesday night when a place in the last eight is up for grabs.
“The best way to get something like what happened on Sunday out of the system is to get a win under the belt and we have the chance to do just that on Wednesday in the cup against Scunthorpe,” reckoned Lescott.
“After that performance on Sunday we just want to get out there as soon as possible and prove that wasn’t the real City. We want to win that one and then go into the Birmingham game next Sunday with confidence.
“We have the capacity to score goals from all over the pitch but we must also stop conceding at set plays and we have to address that.”
And on his goal, the first of what he hopes will be many for City?
“It was my goal – Ade knows that - and it is nice to score but the most important thing is the team winning and we didn’t manage to do that so I am disappointed,” he concluded.
