Monday’s defeat to Everton featured City once again stringing together passages of attractive play, but sadly without the required finish.

Dunne is on record as saying how much the whole team, from the defence forwards, has enjoyed playing in a more continental vein this season and he wants that continue when City take on Wigan this Saturday.

Richard declares, “I don’t know what the possession count was against Everton but I think it was a lot in our favour. That’s the way the Manager believes we will improve  if we play that way, he’s been proved right all season that that way works and we have to keep it going.

“We played reasonably well on Monday night without creating the chances on goal, so we will just have to come again on Saturday. We’ll try the same approach and hopefully we’ll get the goals against Wigan.”

With the race for Europe, either through the Champions League, UEFA Cup or Intertoto Cup, hotting up in the wake of last weekend’s results – including Spurs’ winning the Carling Cup – Dunne is determined that City put Monday night firmly behind them.

“We’re still in with a chance, there are a lot of big games to go for the four or five teams chasing a place in Europe. There are plenty of turns come the end of the season so we have to make sure that Everton was our worst result of the season. It’s a question of picking up points in every game to give ourselves that chance."