CITY were left cursing two points dropped at Notts County with boss Phil Parkinson admitting: “We should have killed them off.”

Mike Edwards cancelled out Jon Stead’s earlier goal for City, who had blown a string of opportunities to nail an away win.

Parkinson said: “I thought we were excellent today and have let them off the hook. We had four or five gilt-edged chances in the second half to kill the game off.

“When you don’t take them, you always put yourselves under a bit of pressure.

“The only real chance they had in the second half was a set play and the lad scored.

“But in terms of the way we played across the game, I couldn’t have asked for more. We deserved three points but in football you don't always get what you deserve.”

Parkinson made six changes ahead of Monday’s FA Cup quarter-final replay at Reading and was delighted with the performance of the ones he brought in.

The City boss added: “I thought the lads who came in were our best players.

“Ourselves and Reading both had difficult team selections today and we took the decision to rest certain players.

“But the lads who came in didn’t weaken the team and in certain areas strengthened it.”