Nigel Pearson said he fully supported his players who chose to make a statement about racism in football by boycotting the wearing of T-shirts in support of the 'One Community, Kick it Out' campaign.
All the City players were due to wear T-shirts supporting the campaign during the warm-up, but Lloyd Dyer and Jeff Schlupp decided not to.
Although Pearson admitted he would have preferred all his players to have donned the shirts, he said he had no issue with individual decisions.
Several high-profile black players chose not to wear the T-shirts before games on Saturday, including Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand and Reading's Jason Roberts, in protest at the perceived lack of progress in ridding the game of racism. But Pearson feels their stand may actually help the cause in the long run.
"Yes, it was their decision and I spoke to them (Dyer and Schlupp) before the game," said Pearson.
"I said to them they have our total support and backing.
"There has been a lot of exposure to this particular topic in the media, and certainly with what happened in Serbia (when black players in the England Under-21 side were subjected to monkey chants) was unfortunate and totally unacceptable, so if players decide they want to make a personal statement, then fine.
"What our players know is that the rest of the squad and the staff are behind them.
"If it is a statement they want to make, then fine, and if it heightens exposure to an issue we want to eradicate from the game and society, then fine.
"I would rather we were all together, but having said that we are together in how we back those players who decided not to. There is no issue with us.
"The fact that people have noticed it has perhaps intensified the need to deal with what is a totally unacceptable problem."
