CHRIS Martin played a central role on his second start of the season in last night's 2-1 defeat to MK Dons at stadiumMK.
The quick-fire striker netted just 17 seconds in - quick but not quick enough to beat City's record held by Ralph Johnson, for his strike against Leyton Orient in 1946, timed at 10 seconds. In the second half Martin was adjudged to have tripped Lewis Gobern in the box, although replays show him appearing to win the ball first.
His early goal got City off to the best possible start: "I was happy to get a goal, all I remember is the ball came across to me, I took a touch and my first thought was to get a shot off. I cut inside which I like to do and luckily it crept into the bottom corner."
However, two second half goals - a 56th minute free-kick from Jason Puncheon and that 76th minute controversial penalty converted by Peter Leven gave MK Dons the points.
Despite referee Roger East initially signalling Martin won the ball, his assistant Dave Naylor flagged for the penalty and the spot-kick was awarded, Martin though is adamant he played the ball: "I definitely got a nick on the ball, I was shocked when I saw the lino right in front of me put his flag across his chest. I think you can tell by players' reactions, none of them claimed for the penalty and I played on as well as though we were still playing. I'm still shocked now that it was given.
"I know that I won the ball, but what can you do? The penalty was given and he scored it, there's not a lot we can do now but I definitely know in my mind I won the ball."
Manager Paul Lambert had three changes thrust upon him during the match, Stephen Hughes (achilles), Adam Drury (hip) and Michael Nelson (heel), which didn't help City's flow throughout the match and the latter stages of the first half: "They possibly changed the course of the game a little bit but I still think the lads that came on did very well. The first 20 minutes we were very good and on top of the game, we grabbed an early goal, which helped matters. I suppose it does disrupt the balance a little bit in the team, when you have prepared for a game in a different position but you try and react to it as best you can."
Last night's goal was Martin's second of the season, adding to his strike against Brentford at Carrow Road in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy first round win: "I think I need to do more than just score, obviously forward players are judged on that, I need to work very hard as well on that left side, up and down."
The Beccles-born striker was one of five Academy products that featured last night, starting alongside Korey Smith and Luke Daley with Tom Adeyemi and Michael Spillane introduced from the bench: "I think if you look at the age of quite a few of the lads it does bode well for the future. It shows how well we did fight today against a very good MK Dons team, who passed the ball very well."
Next up for City is Charlton Athletic, who come to Carrow Road on Saturday and Martin feels there are positives to be taken from the defeat: "We can take the positives of the first 20 minutes, where we were very good, the rest of the game we dug in defensively and we were beaten by a penalty, which was dubious and a free-kick which was a great free-kick, but again a set-piece. I don't think we looked too much like conceding from open play and I think we were very unlucky tonight. I think we can take a lot of positives from tonight into Saturday and go and get a positive result."
