I appreciate that the mannequin challenge has gone viral but I can't help thinking that the first minute of a vital Championship game was an inappropriate time for the entire City defence to take part in it.

While the resultant sending off of Martin Olsson and a spirited last 20 minutes (oh, if only football matches didn't last 90!) may have obscured things a little the bottom line is that the run of defeats continues because City are defensively inept and are showing no signs of improvement.

After the comedy of errors leading to the penalty and red card we were then treated to the sight of Sebastian Polter leaping high above an earthbound Sebastien Bassong to knock a free header down to Conor Washington, on the move while his marker Robbie Brady was on his heels, for the opener.

That was bad enough, but the second, which saw Bassong watching the ball while Polter peeled off his shoulder to win a footrace as he burst into a gap wider than the M25 between City's two central defenders was much worse.

Considering Russell Martin's kamikaze second half back pass which resulted in the first of two magnificent John Ruddy saves, the second of which, by the way, also came from a free header, City should perhaps be grateful that the final score was as close as it was rather than patting themselves on the back for managing a late flurry against a very ordinary home team.

Instead of improving, City's defending is actually getting worse, and the fact that Saturday's back four was made up of players who have all been at the club for several years emphasised how little has been done to address a deficiency which seems glaringly obvious to the fans but has not been adequately addressed by City's recruitment teams over the last two seasons.

I think we've long since reached the point where most fans are sick of the weekly sound bites about how hard everyone is working to put things right when so little evidence of positive results from that work are being seen on the pitch. It's easy enough to talk about doing something, but this is a time for action, not empty words.

Inevitably there was plenty of invective aimed at Alex Neil from the away section on Saturday and his post-match interview offered little evidence that he had any more faith than the fans in his ability to turn things around.

Whether there is some incisive and innovative thinking going on behind the predictable clichés that were trotted out remains to be seen, but it's hard to imagine that he can survive another defeat today, despite the board's vote of confidence at Wednesday's AGM.

However, sacking a manager is the easy part; securing a replacement who can reunite the dressing room, immediately improve performances and quickly reinstall a winning mentality may prove significantly trickier.

What's more, any replacement would have to work with a squad which appears disunited, with some members having apparently disappeared without trace under Neil and others guilty of systematic under-performance over a period much longer than the last six games. It will be an unenviable task but that doesn't justify inaction.

After a seven-year spell in which the club progressed in line with a well defined long term plan that only failed at the last hurdle of becoming established in the Premier League it's difficult to discern any similar strategy to move it on from a state which now looks dangerously like stagnation.

Unfortunately, saying 'promotion' three times doesn't magically make it happen nor provide the necessary actions to maximise the chances of achieving it, and the projected losses going forward don't augur well for a much needed rebuilding of the squad.