Sam Allardyce was once again left to rue defensive errors as Rovers slipped to a 4-1 defeat to Manchester City.

It was a game where defensive mistakes saw both sides take advantage and score, but it was the visitors Rovers who made the majority of them and were made to pay the heavy price as Carlos Tevez bagged a hat-trick.

"Except for the last goal, all of the goals were avoidable," said the Rovers boss. "It was really poor from our point of view, rather than Manchester City's outstanding players using their outstanding abilities.

"We've got to look at ourselves and say that we haven't done our job defensively today to make sure we stayed in the game to try and get a result out of this one."

"It started badly when we went and gifted them the first goal," said Allardyce.

"After that there's no problem and Manchester City aren't as creative as they were in the first ten minutes.

"The game was looking a little bit more of an even contest then lo and behold instead of keeping it at 1-0 going in at half-time, we let the second goal go in.

"We go again, and what do we do? Let Manchester City score with their first attack of the second half.

"Yes we came back and looked good from their on when we got the goal back and had other chances we didn't quite take, but it is too late by then, the game is effectively over."