Gordon Strachan surveyed the wreckage of the last five days and contemplated how he could motivate his side to pull away from the relegation zone in the light of tomorrow’s home game against Manchester United followed by a trip to Aston Villa in eight days time.

"We’ve done it before and we can do it again," he rapped defiantly.

"We have to remember how we played in the previous two months and we can’t let five days of bad football wipe that out."

City were strangely lethargic in losing 2-1 at Everton in the fifth round of the FA Cup – a performance which was labelled their worst of the season. They then lost 4-1 at Newcastle United in midweek, when Bosnian centre back Mo Konjic replaced Gary Breen,

Strachan said:

"Believe it or not I was happier after the Newcastle match. It was a far better performance than Saturday’s. We produced maybe three good individual performances on Saturday but at Newcastle there were six or seven.

"Against Manchester United we need eleven, or maybe 13 or 14. It could be the best game of the season or the worst. It will be a cup tie.

"I thought about going to watch United on Sunday, but than I scrapped the idea. What do you learn except what you already know, that there are eleven world class players working their socks off for each other. I stayed at home and watched on television.

"There are no weaknesses. You can screw yourself to the wall trying to find weaknesses. You have to come up with a plan so that everyone knows what they have to do.

"We have players who can turn games however. People like Boateng, Huckerby and Whelan. Whelan was magnificent at Newcastle and his workrate was phenomenal.

"But we are not winning at the moment and if you are not winning you have problems."