Roque Santa Cruz headed home a controversial 84th-minute equaliser to wreck Manchester City's perfect Premier League home record this season as they drew 2-2 with Blackburn on Thursday night.
Manchester City had gone 1-0 up on 27 minutes when Darius Vassell headed home Martin Petrov's cross from the left wing.
Petrov was in good form all night and had earlier set up a chance for Rolando Bianchi, which the Italian somehow managed to miss from three yards.
Just a minute later Santa Cruz equalised when he headed home David Bentley's free-kick from eight yards.
However, Manchester City quickly regained the lead on the half-hour mark when Petrov's ball across the face of the Blackburn box was turned into his own net by Ryan Nelsen.
The second-half was a quiet affair until Santa Cruz's 13th goal of the campaign.
The former Bayern Munich striker headed home Bentley's corner, however the goal was only allowed to stand after the nearside linesman informed referee Howard Webb he had incorrectly flagged for offside against a non-active David Dunn when Bentley's cross was put into the box.
That late goal saw City's 100 per cent home league record come to an end in their 10th game and left them fifth in the table, a point behind fourth-placed Liverpool. Rovers climb up to ninth.
Blackburn boss Mark Hughes praised assistant referee Darren Cann's "honesty" after he appeared to change his mind and allow Santa Cruz's late goal.
Hughes said: "He has been honest to admit he had got decision wrong. He flagged initially for David Dunn, but he changed his mind and we're absolutely delighted he was able to do that.
"In the past I've questioned officials but on this occasion he was strong enough to change his mind."
Hughes felt Rovers were good value for a point in the end and told Sky Sports: "We never laid a glove on City in the first half and in the second half we needed a response and I thought we were excellent, we took the game towards them. Another 10 to 15 minutes and we could have won that game.
"It's a positive result, we've got two games coming up (away to Derby and at home to Sunderland) which we feel will help us get points on the board and hopefully this result has kickstarted us."
Having seen his side concede an equally controversial goal at Tottenham recently, City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson could be forgiven for feeling somewhat hard done by.
Yet the Swede remained his usual ice-cool self, although he indicated he felt the ruling was wrong.
"Dunn was in an offside position and he tried to flick the ball but it went over him," observed Eriksson.
"By being in that position, Dunn decides what our goalkeeper is going to do.
"Whether that is interference according to FIFA I don't know but to me it is interference. I asked the referee to explain it to me afterwards and he did say it is a big grey area."
Source ; www.sportinglife.com
