Danny Mills gets his head to the ball in Shanghai

City, who are carrying so many injuries that boss Stuart Pearce was forced to start as a substitute, trailed after just 11 minutes and were never ahead.

Paul Dickov went close to equalising before Antoine Sibierski levelled, heading in Trevor Sinclair's cross.

On the hour City were 3-1 down and goals from Georgios Samaras and Joey Barton were merely a consolation.

"It was a tough old encounter to be honest," said Pearce.

"From a tactical point of view we started with too slow a tempo and I don't think we are a good side when we do that.

"It just showed at the end of the game when we upped the tempo we're a better side. I think we have got to understand what makes us a decent side."

Samaras' shot from the edge of the area was mis-read by Sogahata on the bumpy pitch and the Japanese goalkeeper allowed the ball to roll past him in embarrassing fashion.

But while it gave Pearce's team hope, their rivals soon snuffed it out when Joe Hart flapped at Takuya Nozawa's low shot.

Barton, on as a substitute for the injured Claudio Reyna, struck with a fine effort from the edge of the area to reduce the deficit to a solitary goal again, but City were unable to pull level.

Despite conceding four goals, Pearce praised Hart: "I think for the youngster in goal it was great and he'll come on leaps and bounds because of evenings like tonight.

"But I don't think he had a great deal of cover in front of him, to be fair."

Reyna went off with an injury to his right ankle and new signing Dietmar Hamann failed to shake off a foot injury from Friday's win over Shanghai Shenhua.

Neither Richard Dunne nor Sun Jihai were available for selection due to minor injuries and Ben Thatcher was suspended.