Manchester City's perfect Barclays Premier League home record bit the dust amid huge controversy as Roque Santa Cruz scored twice to earn Blackburn a point.

The Paraguayan had already levelled once for Blackburn after Darius Vassell nodded City ahead.

Yet Rovers quickly found themselves behind when skipper Ryan Nelsen slid into his own net and Sven-Goran Eriksson's men seemed certain to be celebrating victory until David Bentley swung over a right-wing cross six minutes from time.

The nearside linesman Darren Cann immediately raised his flag as Santa Cruz powered home his 13th goal of the campaign, only to then advise referee Howard Webb he had made an incorrect decision in ruling a non-active David Dunn offside.

Given Rovers boss Mark Hughes had spent most of the second period berating the officials for a series of borderline decisions that went against his team, it was an ironic ruling which not only ended City's nine-match winning streak at Eastlands and cost them fourth spot in the table but also did scant justice to the tremendous efforts of Martin Petrov.

Among the glut of eight new faces Eriksson introduced at City within days of his installation as manager, Petrov and Elano have been the two undoubted stars.

Yet, while City have continued to over-achieve, the influence of the stand-out pair has started to wane.

With Elano demoted to the bench, Petrov seemed to feel a return to top form was overdue and, in Rovers full-back Zurab Khizanishvili, the Bulgarian had just the opponent required.

Khizanishvili is not a bad player, far from it. But the Georgian's lack of pace was ruthlessly exposed and he was left to look distinctly second class as Petrov zoomed past him at regular intervals.

Three times the winger reached the by-line at top speed having outsmarted the Blackburn defence. That City only scored twice was more to do with an atrocious miss by Rolando Bianchi than anything Petrov did wrong.

Bianchi is a favourite of the City faithful, who have seen enough misfiring strikers down the years to recognise a top-notch talent in their midst.

Finally, Eriksson has recognised it too and been rewarded with three goals in Bianchi's last three games.

Yet the £8.8million striker must have been wishing the ground would open up and swallow him after Petrov had galloped onto Stephen Ireland's return pass, then rolled across along the face of the Blackburn goal which left an unmarked Bianchi with a two-yard tap-in. Inexplicably, he missed.

Thankfully, Vassell was not so profligate shortly afterwards when he rose to power home a far-post header after Petrov, leaving Khizanishvili gasping in his slipstream, delivered the perfect cross.

It was the trigger for a goal explosion as, within a four-minute spell, Blackburn levelled before City went in front again.

Santa Cruz must wonder if he is cursed at the moment. Scorer of a hat-trick against Wigan earlier this month, then two against Arsenal in Blackburn's following game, the Paraguayan finished a loser on both occasions.

He netted his 12th goal of an excellent campaign to level matters for Rovers, flicking David Bentley's curling free-kick beyond Joe Hart, yet Hughes' men barely had time to catch their breath before they were behind again.

Petrov was the architect once more, producing a carbon-copy cross to the one Bianchi had wasted earlier. Again, the Italian was hunting a goal but on this occasion Nelsen saved him the bother sliding the ball into his own net from four yards.

The least surprising event of the night was that Khizanishvili failed to re-appear for the second half, put out of his misery by Hughes who presumably could only see major problems if the defender remained on the field.

Hughes' move worked to the extent Petrov's space was closed down by Brett Emerton, although the arrival of Benni McCarthy did little to lift an out-of-sorts visiting attack, Santa Cruz excepted.

The introduction of Elano just after the hour mark threatened more, especially when the Brazilian neatly controlled Christopher Samba's poor clearance on his chest and then sent a dipping volley inches wide.

With Blackburn's threat withering, there appeared only one outcome.

It still appeared the case even when Santa Cruz nodded home Bentley's late corner.

But, after discussion between Webb and his brave assistant, Blackburn had their point and City's proud home record had gone.

Teams:

Man City Hart, Onuoha, Dunne, Richards, Ball, Corluka, Gelson,Ireland (Garrido 78), Petrov, Bianchi (Elano 64), Vassell.

Subs Not Used: Isaksson, Geovanni, Hamann.

Booked: Richards.

Goals: Vassell 27, Nelsen 30 og.

Blackburn Friedel, Khizanishvili (McCarthy 46), Nelsen, Samba,Berner, Emerton, Reid, Dunn (Kerimoglu 90), Pedersen, Bentley,Santa Cruz (Roberts 90).

Subs Not Used: Brown, Olsson.

Booked: Berner.

Goals: Santa Cruz 28, 84.

Att: 42,112

Ref: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire).