Andy Myers was grateful to centre-back partner Robert Molenaar for helping him through against Preston.

And the City player of the year intends to repay the compliment by finding his best form to tackle Derby at the Bradford & Bingley Stadium tomorrow.

Myers was rushed back early from a calf injury to help City protect their unbeaten home record. But he pulled no punches about his own performance.

"I don't think I had a great game, to put it mildly," he said. "But I had to make the numbers up and do the best I could.

"I thought Robert had a great game, though. He's done well the last few weeks and he had to on Saturday playing next to me when I was nowhere near full

cylinders."

Nicky Law would have preferred to hold back Myers another week to allow him to make a full recovery. But with suspensions and injuries reducing staff numbers to critical levels, he was forced into rushing back the likes of Myers, Ashley Ward and Lewis Emanuel. Myers said: "It was a very late call but I told the gaffer I'd give it a go. He would have loved to have kept me back but the circumstances dictated otherwise.

"I hadn't trained or even kicked a ball in two weeks so it was never easy. It was just nice to be back and not get beaten.

"I spoke to Ashley and he admitted he didn't feel as sharp as usual. But you just try to get back in the swing of things.

"I could feel the calf before the game but you try to switch off from it and just play as normal. Muscle injuries are a little bit different because you never know how they are going to react.

"They could easily last through a game or suddenly they just go. You run for a ball knowing you must get there and when you stop, you can feel the muscle and wonder if it will hold.

"But I managed to play the whole game and hopefully I'll be a lot sharper tomorrow after a week's proper training."

It's clearly a high-risk position playing centre-half where City suffer more injuries than anywhere. David Wetherall and Peter Atherton are still sidelined.

Myers added: "It's unbelievable. At the start of the season we had centre-halves in abundance and yet for the Preston game we were left with only Robert.

"But I think we've done very well defensively considering the different partnerships we've had to put in. It's not been a settled back four for about a year now but whoever has come in has done the job.

"We didn't play particularly well last week but to come through without getting beaten is a good sign. Under the circumstances we'd have settled for a draw.

"It's going to be tough again tomorrow and we know we'll have to do a lot better. Derby have got a lot of their Premiership team but we're confident of getting a result against anyone at home."