Manchester City slumped to its second straight defeat as it lost to Blackburn 1-0 in their Premiership clash on Sunday.

Las season's tops corer Benni McCarthy came to Blackburn's rescue to score the solitary goal of the match in the 13th minute to give all three points to Mark Hughes' men as both the teams ended with 10 men on the field. Kasper Schmeichel continued to impress in the goal though he was unable to do anything to McCarthy's close range effort.

The win extends Blackburn's unbeaten streak to 14 league games from season and are yet to taste defeat in any competition this time round. The win was fully deserved as Blackburn dominated the match throughout and would be disappointed not to have added to their one goal lead.

Manchester City created the first chance of the match when Brad Freidel had to dive full stretch to deny Martin Petrov's 25-yard drive. However the hosts soon took control, blunting the City attack and scoring from the first opening.

Roque Santa Cruz met Christopher Samba's headed cross from the far post but Schmeichel did well to parry the shot. However the rebound fell straight to McCarthy and the South African striker made no mistake to score his first league goal of the season with a close range shot.

Blackburn created a host of chances to score with David Dunn, Santa Cruz and Morten Gamst Pedersen all having glorious opportunities to score, but Schmeichel was equal to the task. Blackburn continued to dominate in the second half as Santa Cruz was sent though by a great pass from McCarthy but the Paraguay international failed to latch on to the ball.

Elano almost equalized for City in the 53rd minute but his free kick effort went inches wide of the post. The visitors got a break when Tugay was shown his second yellow card in the 55th minute after fouling Dietmar Hamann.

City tried to take advantage of the numerical superiority and Hughes had to go on the defensive, replacing McCarthy with Andre Ooijer. However parity was ensured in the 65th minute when Richard Dunne was given his second yellow card for tackling Santa Cruz.

Schmeichel kept out Emerton and Pedersen but with City unable to break through the Blackburn defense, McCarthy's goal was enough for the hosts to finish the game with all three points.