Lambert's timely boost for duo

Paul Lambert has boosted John Ruddy and Ryan Bennett by telling the City duo not to dwell on mistakes made against Manchester City.

City keeper Ruddy apologised to fans on his personal Twitter account after a bad day at the office which saw him only parry Yaya Toure's angled strike before Carlos Tevez reacted first to head the rebound home to put City 3-1 ahead in the second half. But Lambert insists his players deserve nothing but the highest praise and says he will not be too critical of them after a 6-1 home mauling - the same scoreline Manchester United were handed out by City back in October. "I said to him with the third goal, the thing about his job is if you make one mistake, that's what can happen," said Lambert. "But you get no thanks for it when you make wonder saves, so that's the position he's in. John Ruddy has been brilliant for me. I won't get too bothered by it. I know which way the game went. "As I said to them, 'you dust yourself down and you go again.' For 70 minutes we were right in the game but when you have lads like that who can finish as they can then you have to take your medicine. I can't be too critical of the performance." Lambert also defended young centre-back Ryan Bennett after Tevez pounced on an underhit header to swerve around Ruddy for his hat-trick. "The third goal was poor and young Ryan makes a mistake for the fourth but he has been excellent for us so that will be a learning curve for him," said Lambert. "He's only a young lad and he's come into this place and he's been a revelation for us. The great thing about that mistake was he never wilted. He kept on going. "They have been excellent. The thing with football is you always get another chance and we will have that next Saturday (at Blackburn)."