Hughes: January reinforcements possible

(GSM)- Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has demanded effort from his squad players at Eastlands as the team looks to change their fortunes against Sunderland on Saturday.

City failed to build on their brilliant triumph over Chelsea at the start of the month and dropped points at Bolton and lost at Tottenham in their last match.

City stars Robinho and Emmanuel Adebayor are among the players who gave a disappointing performance at White Hart Lane yesterday night.

Nigel de Jong is suspended for the Sunderland game, while Nedum Onuoha could remain in defence as Joleon Lescott will be absent for 5 weeks after picking up an injury.

Hughes was not planning on bringing players in during January but with Lescott injured and fellow centre-back Kolo Toure going to the African Nations Cup, he admitted: “We will see what’s out there.”

There is still an expectation of City climbing into the Champions League places – and midfielder Gareth Barry insists they have to bounce back straight away from the Spurs defeat.

Barry said, “We’ve only got a couple of days to put it right, but we want to repay the fans that came down to Spurs and put a good performance in for them.”

Barry revealed the disappointment in the City dressing room after the 3-0 defeat at White Hart Lane.

Barry said, “It’s obviously very disappointing, because I thought in the first half an hour we played some really good football and there was nothing in the game.

“But once they scored we really did not create anything until the last 20 minutes. We are very disappointed and we are really hurting in the changing room, and the best thing we can do is try to put it right on Saturday.

“We knew that the first goal would be important, with them being at home their confidence was bound to grow. They had looked a bit nervous early on and if we had gone in front it could have been a different story.

“Shay (Given) had not had too many saves to make, we played some good stuff at times and got some shots away. We were also a bit unlucky with a couple of offsides, but there are not too many positives to take and plenty of things to put right.”