The first question is always the gentle one. The easy lead in. And true to form, one of the Wolverhampton locals provided it.
'Not too many crumbs of comfort for you today, Peter?' said the reporter at the back – and all without a hint of understatement after yesterday's horrors.
“Not one, not one,” said City boss Peter Grant. “A very poor afternoon, to say the least. From start to finish.”
There was City's first shot off target – somewhere round about the 87th minute. So credit to substitute Chris Martin for that. He had a pop. At the corner flag.
And then there was City's first corner. In the 89th minute. So credit the whole team for that. All nine of them.
“It was as tough an afternoon as you'll probably get,” admitted Grant, left distinctly battered and bruised by that 2-0 defeat to a half-decent Wolves side. One that never really needed to get much beyond second gear given the level of resistance on offer.
In fairness, Jason Shackell marked his return with the odd moment of urgency only to blot his copy-book completely with a waist-high slice through Karl Henry right underneath the referee's nose.
An automatic red duly followed – complete with a three match ban. The Norfolk club will now have both skippers, new and stand-in, sat in the stands for the next two games. Shackell will also miss the home clash with Scunthorpe United on the Tuesday night by when, you presume, Dion Dublin will have returned.
In the meantime given the current lack of movement on the loan front, Grant will have to turn to either Ian Murray or Michael Spillane for his second centre-half. Murray actually started yesterday's game back at left-back where Michael Kightly promptly took him apart – albeit with little or no help from a listless-looking Darren Huckerby.
Likewise, in fairness to the ex-Rangers utility player he has said that left-back is not his preferred position; left-sided centre-back is far more his natural habitat. Now he'll get his chance to prove his point – away at Premiership Manchester City on Tuesday night; in front of the Sky cameras next Saturday.
Both Shackell and Dublin will also be joined for one game by Julien Brellier, whose infamous collection of Scottish yellow cards now has two from south of the border.
Both awarded in the space of about four, second-half seconds after the Frenchman kicked the ball away in disgust as referee Steve Bennett reached for his yellow card for the first offence only to pop it out again as Brellier's temper flared.
If anyone was, by now, spotting an utter shambles unfolding… well, they'd be spot on.
“I've been on the coaching side probably six or seven years now and that's probably as bad a performance as I've seen from any team that I've been involved in,” said the City chief, as first-half goals from Kevin Foley and Andy Keogh proved scant reward for the level of total dominance that Wolves enjoyed.
Grant wasn't about to spare anyone's blushes – accusing his players of being unable to do even the simplest of tasks well.
“They work hard in their training; they prepare properly; they've got all the information – but at the end of the day if you cannot do your own job well, your own job properly then you'll not do anything in football.
“Probably the only pleasing thing was that it was only 2-0.”
Unlike with Dion Dublin's unscheduled exit at The Valley, Grant was not about to launch a passionate appeal on either Shackell or Brellier's behalf.
“We played better – I was hoping that they sent another one off,” he said, left to find another skipper for the games against Manchester City in the Carling Cup and Sheffield Wednesday in the league.
It will be an interesting one given that Adam Drury missed yesterday's game with back trouble. Gary Doherty might be one candidate; he was the only player mentioned by name as having done OK in the manager's eyes.
Shackell's return to the fray won't have done him any favours in terms of the responsibilities that come with a captain's armband. “You cannot go and challenge like that – whether he hits or doesn't hit him doesn't matter,” said Grant. “And Brellier's just summed up the afternoon, really. I've no qualms with that.”
Grant readily admitted that his players are capable of playing a lot, lot better than they did; why they don't is something that the manager needs to discover urgently – before either the board or the supporters start to bang loudly on his door.
On Tuesday night at Eastlands you look for spirit; next Saturday night against Wednesday you have to look for a big result. And probably a big performance – there has to be evidence of corners being turned. Of a response being generated.
Whatever was said at half-time yesterday certainly made no difference to the body language on display. That stank from first minute to last.
“That's the question I've got to ask,” said Grant. “How does that happen? I work with them during the day constantly and the information you're giving them is basics. But if you don't do the basics right – in life, never mind in football – then you've not got a hope in hell.
“We say to them try and start the second-half properly and the first thing they do is give the ball away. So what do you do? You cannot play for them.
“You're giving them information to try and help them; to try and make them better and that's all you can do as a coach and a manager.
“I've been there, as a player, when things are tough and that's when you just try and do the simple things well – but we can't even do those right.”
He did, at least, find one friend in Wolves boss Mick McCarthy who – without a question being asked – opened his Press conference by saying that “that was not a Peter Grant team that you saw playing today”.
Which was a fine gesture of support as the storm clouds begin to gather. But the danger for the increasingly embattled City chief is that it was a Peter Grant team that City's travelling faithful saw play – that there were only three players of the starting eleven who were here under his predecessor, Nigel Worthington.
Shackell, Doherty and Darren Huckerby. Otherwise, they were all his boys. And his boys have to start to digging their gaffer out of a hole sooner rather than later – before, in short, that hole becomes six-foot deep.
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