Rather than damage a club, moments like this can forge a togetherness if a manager is as canny as Hughes. He has heard many defiant speeches in the dressing rooms at Old Trafford and now he must deliver one of his own, fostering a siege mentality in the very best Sir Alex Ferguson tradition.
It is time for Hughes to rail against the outside world, to tell his players that the Football Association, Premier League and media are against them.
Inside the City dressing room, it will not register that Adebayor actually deserves three matches on the sidelines for cynically raking Robin van Persie.
A siege mentality is a characteristic of most successful teams, particularly ones as unpopular as we are. The better we do the more people are going to dislike us (and we're not exactly the neutral's favourite now) and so all Hughes can do is really turn this to our advantage.
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