Tony Pulis' Potters this evening held the Blues to a 1-1 draw at Eastlands in the FA Cup fifth round. A banker on the coupons of most, City started brightly, taking the lead through Shaun Wright-Phillips before completely capitulating and in the end being lucky to have earned a replay. The sides will now face each other three times in twelve days.Roberto opted to rest Patrick Vieira after his start midweek, Carlos Tevez was missing after returning to Argentina due to personal reasons, Adam Johnson was cup-tied, and Vince Kompany's tweaked groin saw him out. Stephen Ireland, Martin Petrov, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joleon Lescott came into what initially looked like a 4-4-1-1, Ireland playing off Adebayor.
Tony Pulis opted to go with two big men up front in the shape of Fuller and Sidibe, with Tuncay dropping back to the left flank, Etherington switching to the right and lethal weapon Rory Delap having to make do with a place on the bench with Salif Diao and former Blue Glen Whelan being preferred in the centre. Right-back Andy Wilkinson surprisingly started on the left of defence, with Robert Huth to the right of one-time United duo Shawcross and Higginbotham.
You couldn't fault us for the first half hour. We really flew out of the blocks and appeared to be in the mood. We were knocking the ball around as well as we have done all season, and the result was looking a formality. Wayne Bridge, rejuvenated after the recent headlines, skinned Robert Huth, his cross smothered by Sorensen. Moments later Ireland slipped Petrov in down the same flank, but again the big Dane snuffed out a cross, this time with Wright-Phillips pressuring him.
The tenth minute saw us open the scoring, a comical goal resulting from another great pass over the top from Ireland. SWP stabbed clear of Sorensen but Shawcross was favourite to see it out of play only to mistime his swing, miss the ball all together, fall flat on his arse and head back into the path of the England winger, who pretty much walked the ball over the line. A comfortable home victory expected at this point.
Only a minute after the goal Stoke's star player of recent weeks, Matt Etherington, jarred a knee when tracking Wayne Bridge, but that piece of bad luck didn't really effect the visitors. Fuller and Sibibe exchanged passes on the edge of our area, the Jamaican blazing over as the Potters upped the pressure.
After a pretty commanding start we began to labour. Initial bouts of nice passing dried up almost instantly and the entire side seemed heavy-legged and aimless. Only a terrific last-ditch block from Bridge prevented an equaliser after Whelan had dispossessed Barry and Tuncay's cross fell to Fuller. The visitors began to sense something might be on the cards.
Not a great deal more happened before the interval. Wilkinson, given a torrid time by SWP, picked up a yellow card, Danny Higginbotham almost scored the best goal of his career, controlling and lashing a dipping volley just wide of Given's upright, and a superb flowing move involving Adebayor, Ireland and Petrov ended with the Bulgarian picking out the wrong final ball. Overall, Stoke looked in the ascendancy and would have been more confident at the sound of the whistle.
Mancini tried to make the most of a defensive change by Pulis. Wilkinson shifted to his preferred right-back role, with Huth moving across and Higginbotham to the left. SWP followed him, swapping flanks with Petrov, but we didn't go on to look any sharper. A half-hearted poke wide of goal by Barry five minutes in to the second half pretty much summed up the lethargy that had crept into the performance.
Stoke's final sub of the afternoon, following another knee injury to Lawrence, himself a replacement for Etherington, paid off when eleven minutes into the second period they drew level by the most direct means possible. A trademark long throw sailed freely over our entire defence and Fuller span off his marker to easily nod home. An extremely poor goal to concede.
I'd love to go into detail about how conceding inspired us to push on, but it really didn't. Mancini at least tried going more attacking, sticking another forward on after Emmanuel Adebayor had began to cut an increasingly desolate figure up top, but we were just off-colour again, and the creativity from the midfield virtually non-existent. If anyone was going to sneak it, you sensed it might be the visitors.
The introduction of Vieira with around twenty minutes left on the clock, though quite probably viewed as a negative change at the time, gave us a touch more impetus, and we at least began to retain the ball a bit better, but everything was flat, pedestrian and not really worthy of the fifth round of such a grand old competition. Barry forced a truly great save from Sorensen with a near post header, SWP drilled wide, and an injury time Vieira pass similar to the one which led to Adebayor's strike midweek almost paid off, Santa Cruz's effort cleared by Shawcross.
It's difficult to explain why we went on to look so poor in a game we started so brightly. We have to praise the opposition for their efforts; their front two worked tirelessly, in fact, their entire eleven did. It would be ignorant to say they solely played 'the Stoke way', though, they were better than us in possession for large parts of the game, and although they scored from a set-piece they broke well, retained the ball well, and could have even gone on to score a winner.
In my opinion, today was another case of the senior players in the side not stepping up and forcing the advantage. Toure and Zabaleta were both again far too uncomposed, the midfield was overran, and after the spells of great play early on we resorted to the ball long-ball tactics of yesteryear. If you'd have shown someone with no experience of Premier League football the last hour or so and asked him to predict which side of the two is noted for their use of the long ball they'd have quite probably said those in blue. We really need to buck our ideas up if we're to finish the season strongly.
To end on a high note, however, Wayne Bridge had his best game in a City shirt. He was rarely shaken defensively and drove forward at every opportunity, and before the watching England manager Fabio Capello. If he plays like that every week he'll be a certainty for South Africa, just a shame few of his team-mates could follow his lead. Joleon Lescott, too, did little wrong, but compliments to anyone else would be half-hearted.
Team:
Given, Zabaleta, Bridge, Toure, Lescott, de Jong, Wright-Phillps, Barry, Ireland (Vieira '72), Adebayor, Petrov (Santa Cruz '62)
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