Manchester City EDS were beaten 2-1 by Blackburn on Friday night after goalkeeper James Trafford was shown a straight red card in injury time.
The young City team started well at Leyland and James McAtee gave them an early lead with a fine run and finish past the keeper from outside the box. They would hold onto that lead until well into the second half but in the 71st minute a quick free-kick from the sidelines caught the defence off guard and it was nodded down in the box and turned home by Connor McBride.
City were not perturbed by the setback and could have gone ahead again but in the 94th minute Trafford came out of his box to meet a long ball and only succeeded in connecting with the Blackburn forward, earning a straight red from the referee.
The Blues had not used their full complement of substitutes and so were able to bring on replacement Cieran Slicker. However, if his first job was to line up a wall for the resulting free-kick his second was to pick the ball out of the net as a well-worked routine did for the away team.
While there were a few opportunities for an equaliser in the remaining time, Blackburn held out to take the victory to leave new head coach Enzo Maresca winless for a second game. City did lead 3-1 against Derby last week but conceded two late goals after striker Liam Delap was sent off for a second bookable offence.
