Neil Warnock bemoaned his players inability to see out what would have been a crucial victory at Griffin Park on Boxing Day.
Kenneth Zohore had given City a 2 - 1 lead in the 89th minute but instead of seeing the game out City's generous defence allowed Brentford a second equaliser.
Peter Whittingham's first half penalty was cancelled out in the 84th minute by Sullay Kaikai's sunning strike.
"It seems like a loss but I am very pleased with a few of the lads and very disappointed with one or two others," he said.
"We can be a decent team but a team has to be 11 lads on the same wavelength or opponents at this level will find you out.
"One or two out there didn't have the desire when we needed it most and need to look at themselves."
He added: "The lads want to punish me. They don't want to make it easy for me.
"It seems like a loss to be honest. Some of our experienced lads have to stand up - we have one or two who just please themselves instead of taking the game by the scruff of the neck."
He accused his players of failing to create more in the final third and slated right-back Stuart O'Keefe for failing to stop Kaikai cutting in for the first equaliser.
"If you don't know he coming in then there's something wrong. Likewise the lad should never be allowed to get the cross in for the second goal, so it all feels a bit flat," he said.
Referee Simon Hooper was the villain of the piece for the Bees fans, who saw the official award a first-half penalty for a coming-together between Andreas Bjelland and Sean Morrison.
Whittingham despatched that spot-kick before Hooper waved away three penalty appeals from the Londoners.
Brentford boss Dean Smith preferred to focus on the bravery of his players, who kept searching for the equaliser despite a string of knockbacks from the referee.
"We can only control what we do," he said. "We speak about things like that (refereeing decisions) but we have to concentrate on what we do.
"I'm delighted to say that we did that right to the final whistle which is what got us the rewards.
"I find it amazing that we have not had a single penalty this season but we have been there before. The officiating has not been the best this season and that is something that needs to improve.
"That said, we should not have got ourselves into that position in the first place."
He added: "We started brightly but then they got the penalty and we lost a bit of confidence. We started to go a little bit more direct but we had a talk at half-time and came out a lot stronger."
Smith hailed the contribution of two goal Kaikai, saying: "I have a lot of faith in him.
"He's a really modest, decent young lad and he produces goals like that in training all the time so when you see someone like that come on and do well they thoroughly deserve it."