Former English national team goaltender Paul Robinson put in a great effort and allowed Blackburn to escape as Man City and Blackburn tied 1-1.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini refused to criticise goalkeeper Joe Hart as the club's stuttering start to the season continued.
After City's 1-1 draw with Blackburn the Italian felt it improper to accuse either Hart or Toure for the goal. "It was a strange goal, '' he said. "It can happen. This is football. Joe Hart is a good goalkeeper.''
In contrast Robinson, recently retired from England, was in commanding form between the posts for Blackburn but Sam Allardyce gave a modest appraisal of the goalkeeper's qualities.
Allardyce said: "Paul has played better than that for us. He put himself in the right position to make those saves today. That has helped us get a point.
"We have measured up to a club that should brushing us aside in terms of the quality of players they can afford, the wages they can pay and the limited budget we work on. But good organisation, team spirit and hard working side can always cause an upset. Manchester City fans would see this result as an upset.
"Even towards the end we might have nicked another goal when Kalinic was through but Joe Hart made a good save. But hopefully this will boost our confidence. I was very pleased with our performance. We feel we got what we deserved after an outstanding team effort both in the way we defended and our possession of the ball.
"Nikola capitalised on their mistake and we were pleased he tucked that one away and put us in front. It was an unexpected opportunity to score. We looked very comfortable in the first half. I was disappointed Mame Diouf did not make it 2-0. That would have been an outstanding situation for us.''
Mancini also failed to criticise Tevez for his less than clinical performance: "It was very difficult for him as he only arrived the day before the game. But I still thought he had a good match. We were very unlucky. We must have had 25 chances to score against Blackburn. It is very hard when teams put 10 players behind the ball but we have to try and find a solution.''
Scoring Summary:
Manchester City:
Patrick Vieira (56)
Blackburn:
Nikola Kalinic (25)
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