Tony Pulis admits City were off the boil during the defeat against Sheffield Wednesday but insisted luck was not on their side.

A brace from Ricardo Fuller wasn't enough as the visitors ran out 4-2 winners, and Pulis was left ruing the referee's decision to disallow John Eustace's second half thunderbolt.

Saying: "I don't think it was a free kick, little things change games and that would have put us ahead.

"It was a great strike from John, and I don't really understand why it was disallowed.

"I'm disappointed because we had the majority of the play in the second half, and without looking brilliant I thought we were a lot better.

"We created some chances which we should have put away, and we conceded goals from a couple of set-plays which was very disappointing."

Saturday's defeat was first at Britannia Stadium in eight months, but the City boss is refusing to blame City's inexperienced defence.

"I don't want to criticise the team, but our young defence got caught out a bit today.

"We have the likes of Clint Hill and Stephen Wright who would have helped out at the back today but they were out injured.

"There strikers caused our backline a lot of problems today, and hopefully the lads will have learned a lesson from that."

Back to back away trips to Crystal Palace and Bristol City are next on the cards for the Potters, and the City boss says they are going to be very difficult games.

"The next two games are going to be difficult but we have got to go out and try to get maximum points.

"Hopefully we can do that, but we will have to see," he adds.