Mancini: I would have scored three

Roberto Mancini believes he could give his Manchester City players a lesson in finishing after scraping a narrow win over Bolton.

City scrapped a 1-0 victory at Eastlands in the English Premier League on Saturday thanks a Carlos Tevez strike four minutes in.

The margin of victory might have been more comfortable but for a number of gilt-edged chances butchered by Mario Balotelli and David Silva.

A frustrated Mancini declared afterwards that he would have shown no such profligacy during his own playing career.

“You can say we had some bad luck but we must improve. Sometimes we are too selfish,” Mancini said.

“We had maybe 15 chances to score. When you have a lot of chances you think the game is easy.”

“You shoot when it is better to pass the ball. We must improve this situation. It means you can draw when you should have won by three or four goals.”

“It was the same at Stoke where we deserved to win but we drew. When we have a chance we must score. If I had played today I would have scored two or three goals.”

Visiting manager Owen Coyle was left to rue the early goal that had Bolton playing catch-up right from the off.

“When you come to an elite club you do not want to be chasing the game as early as we were,” Coyle said.

“It was a soft goal to concede.”

“But bit by bit I felt we got into the game and were always in it. We could very easily got the equaliser.”

“As much as I didn’t think we got to our maximum – we didn’t put enough quality ball in the box – we could have nicked a point. We showed tremendous spirit.”

The 1-0 loss was Bolton’s first defeat in five games, a proud record that Coyle was disappointed to relinquish.

“Of course I am unhappy our run has ended but we will get back to work with a smile on our face next week.”