Blues see off plucky Scunthorpe

The lads this afternoon booked their place in the fifth round of the FA Cup following a terrific game at Glanford Park. A six-goal thriller comprehensively rounded up a great weekend of football, Petrov, Onuoha, Sylvinho and Robinho grabbing the goals in front of a capacity crowd at the Championship club.

Roberto Mancini made several changes to his line-up ahead of Wednesday's win at Old Trafford. Stuart Taylor replaced Shay Given in goal, Ned Onuoha and Sylvinho came in for Richards and Garrido, Abdi Ibrahim, Stevie Ireland & Martin Petrov all played ahead of Barry, Zabaleta and Wright-Phillips, and Benjani started alone upfront.

Nigel Adkins went with experience over form in goal for the Iron, Joe Murphy getting the nod over Josh Lillis. Garry Thompson was also preferred to Josh Wright as Michael O'Connor's replacement. Otherwise it was as expected, with Woolford and Thompson wide of a 4-4-2 and dangermen Hayes and Hooper leading the line.

The tie got off to an extremely lively start, Scunthorpe carving out a half-chance within thirty seconds, Hayes forcing stand-in 'keeper Taylor to sweep up after the former Barnsley striker had found himself through on goal. Once that had been dealt with we put our foot on the gas, knocking the ball around nicely to take the lead in the third minute. Robinho, subjected to the boos, as you might expect, picked up the ball on the edge of the area, feigned a dozen needless step-overs and poked a ball through to Martin Petrov who lashed a beauty past Murphy with his sublime left peg.

On taking the lead one might've thought the afternoon's work would prove easier than we'd expected, far from it, once Ireland and Benjani had failed to create a second minutes later Scunny rallied and completely dominated for a solid twenty minutes plus. Left-winger Woolford cut in and blasted an effort over with his right, and the home side would go on to create several chances in quick succession that should have seen them at least level.

Firstly, impressive left-back Williams roared through our defence, exchanging passes with Woolford and only being snuffed out by a late Ibrahim block. From the resultant corner captain Cliff Byrne hit the bar with a powerful header, and with us scrambling clear, a dink back in saw a cross just evade the troublesome Paul Hayes. We were certainly riding our luck, and for a time being completely outplayed.

For all Scunny's possession we were having success on the break, Onuoha failed to finish a move involving Benjani, Ibrahim and Petrov, then a tame Robinho effort was easy work for Murphy. The Brazilian was impressing, but appeared to have left his shooting boots at home as for all his effort and good build-up play his shots on goal were half-hearted and powder-puff, and you felt that such poor finishing could potentially cost us.

Just before the half-hour the game was level, a header out of defence was hooked back into the area and Hayes, who was offside, it must be said, volleyed home delightfully to square thing at 1-1. The linesman making an incorrect call aside, it was deserved, we'd constantly been penned back and were being outfought. Before the break Hayes and Hooper combined briliantly, the latter smashing over after a nice one-two.

We seemed to regain the ascendancy over the last ten minutes of the half, as the home side tired after an admirable bout of constant pressure. Ireland broke out of defence, riding a couple of challenges and finding Robinho whose shot was again weak. Fortunately, as the half edged to its end, we retook the lead, debutant Ibrahim free down the left, his cross being headed away, faling to Ireland whose dinked throughball was poked home by Onuoha. Ireland was later put through and could have put the game beyond doubt, but opened his body too much and saw his placed attempt drift wide.

At half-time Mancini decided to replace Nigel de Jong with rookie left-back Gregg Cunningham, Sylvinho moving into the central midfield role tried previously at Boro in the previous round. Within two minutes the young defender had been booked, perhaps harshly, for a 50/50 challenge on the halfway line. Scunthorpe again pressed, continuing to outdo us, midfield workhorse Sam Togwell forcing a truly world-class save from Taylor with a high, pacy, curling crack at goal.

From quite early on in the second half fitness seemed to play its part, and for all the Glanford Park side pushed we seemed quite confident of sitting back and picking them off on the counter. Petrov and Robinho exchanged passes before the Bulgarian smashed wide, but in the 57th minute we'd got the third, temporary midfielder Sylvinho receiving the ball arund forty yards from goal and spanking home a sublime dipper reminiscent of his strike at Stamford Bridge for Arsenal a decade ago.

A fourth should have followed, firstly Petrov dragged a shot wide after being released down the left, then Murphy made a brilliant hat-trick of stops, two from Robinho. It was Adkins' side who grabbed the next goal however, a throw-in from their right sneaking through to right-back Byrne whose tame stab deflected off the otherwise imperious Boyata to set up a frenetic last twenty minutes.

With centre-half Jones pushed up into an emergency striking role we were really tested. McCann's second ball following a corner was flicked wide by Woolford, and aerial balls were constantly troubling us and until the last ten minutes we were still looking second best. Late on, Petrov tested Murphy once more, Boyata headed wide from a corner and we asserted our authority.

Robinho did get his goal with five minutes left on the clock, Nedum Onuoha touched a ball through to sub Zabaleta, the Argentine road a challenge and slipped possession back to Silvinho, on to Robinho, then Petrov, his reverse ball trickling through to the record buy who calmly stroked home to put the game beyond doubt before being replaced by Craig Bellamy.

For me, this afternoon was a classic cup tie, and by no means easy for us. Scunthorpe bossed parts of the game and had they been a bit more clinical may now be facing Stoke in the fifth round. Quality in the final third and overall fitness ultimately won us a game that could have gone either way, and though bowing out of any competition is disappointing, as we know all too well, they can hold their heads high. They gave it a real go, and matched a side that although made up of second string players, cost us £60m+.

The high point of this evening, in my opinion, were the performances of youngsters Boyata and Ibrahim. Before Mancini arrived it was unthinkable that either would get their chance, but both excelled. The two of them were the pick of the bunch, Ibrahim showed confidence beyond his years and Boyata was solid alongside countryman Kompany. Martin Petrov again put in an effortless shift, and should today prove Robinho's final game in a City shirt then at least he'll have bowed out on a high note. I don't want to spread nasty rumours but i even saw him make a couple of tackles today!

Team:
Taylor, Onuoha, Sylvinho, Boyata, Kompany, de Jong (Cunningham '46), Ireland (Zabaleta '66), Ibrahim, Petrov, Benjani, Robinho (Bellamy '85)