Jim Duffy refuses to blame bad luck for City's profligacy in front of goal at the weekend. On-loan striker John Hartson admitted he should have been on the scoresheet after numerous efforts, while Adam Drury's blast over the bar from close range just about summed up City's day as they fell to a 3-1 home defeat to Bristol City - wayward.

By CHRIS LAKEY

Jim Duffy refuses to blame bad luck for City's profligacy in front of goal at the weekend.

On-loan striker John Hartson admitted he should have been on the scoresheet after numerous efforts, while Adam Drury's blast over the bar from close range just about summed up City's day as they fell to a 3-1 home defeat to Bristol City - wayward.

But caretaker manager Duffy says he won't resort to the bad luck story to explain away the result.

“You have to be clinical,” he said. “If the opposition get the chances and they are clinical with them then you can't complain about bad luck.

“We had good chances and we missed them, that's not down to bad luck, that's just down to not taking your opportunities. But yes, you can say before there was Adam Drury injured again - the guy who is guaranteed selection as much as anybody can be. You can say that side of it is maybe an element of bad luck.

“But you can wallow in self pity or get on with it, so you get on with it. You have to adapt to it and make sure that the players who come in respond in a positive manner.”

Hartson is likely to start again tonight, with Duffy accepting his lack of match fitness is offset by the prospect of him scoring goals.

“We know he's not anywhere near his match fitness,” said Duffy. “We'll train today and make assessments after training. That's why I haven't got everything 100pc in my head yet, because I've got to look at that and be realistic and say if the legs haven't recovered yet we have to make sure we are not blinded to that. I won't be blinded.

“If I believe he can do the job he did do on Saturday then he'll be in the team. If I think he hasn't recovered enough to do that then someone else will be in.

“He had probably more efforts on goal than other strikers in recent weeks. Another day he would have scored one or more goals. We know he is still searching for that sharpness but he did bring us into the game and give us opportunities around the box, either he did or his link-up play. That is what we brought him for. It just helped us be more of a goal threat.

“You can throw stats about here there and everywhere, but I know from the QPR game where we had very few shots and very few crosses. From my point of view we had a much higher percentage of efforts. The more efforts you get you will definitely take more and we have got to keep producing it.”