ENGLISH FA CUP Manchester City 5 Notts County 0:MANCHESTER CITY took their time to demonstrate the gulf between the two clubs but, once they worked up a head of steam, it left the 18th-placed side in League One grateful to be spared further punishment.
Roberto Mancini’s men can look forward to a fifth-round tie at home to Aston Villa and a possible quarter-final against Everton or Reading, courtesy of two headers from Patrick Vieira and a late onslaught that brought goals from Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and Micah Richards in the final six minutes.
Tevez has now scored 50 times in his 73 appearances for the club, giving the Argentinian legitimate credentials to be recognised as the outstanding striker in their history. On a wider scale, however, the greater satisfaction for City may originate from the 89th-minute header with which Dzeko made it 4-0. The Bosnian subsequently wasted a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, Stuart Nelson, but his first home goal for his new employers should soothe his confidence after Mancini’s criticisms of his performance in the Europa League against Aris Thessaloniki last Tuesday. “In Greece he missed three or four chances, so it was important for him to score,” Mancini said.
There were fleeting signs that Dzeko may have the beginnings of a partnership flourishing with Tevez, the two strikers creating each other’s goals. On the flipside there was another show of petulance from Mario Balotelli, annoyed to be substituted after a clash of heads with Krystian Pearce, as Vieira scored his second goal, in the 57th minute.
Balotelli, who was taken to hospital as a precaution but given the all-clear, had looked rusty in his first start since late December and could be seen reaching for the troublesome knee that has disrupted his first season in Manchester. His reaction to his withdrawal, gesturing angrily and throwing his snood to the ground as he went down the tunnel, was strange given that Mancini said afterwards he had pre-arranged with the player to take him off after an hour.
That apart, it was a slow-burning day of satisfaction for City once they had resisted a spirited opening half-hour from Paul Ince’s team. Fifty-nine places below their hosts in the order of English football, Notts played with spirit and togetherness.
They will look back to that moment, with the game scoreless, when Karl Hawley curled a wonderful shot against the post. “With a little bit of luck we could have made it 1-0 but the width of the post denied us,” Ince said. “We were disappointed at half-time because we felt we were the better side. It had felt like a home game at times.”
Yet their challenge faded once Vieira opened the scoring, heading in David Silva’s corner courtesy of a deflection off Pearce’s hand. Notts’s inability to deal with crosses was recurring and, although Mancini acknowledged afterwards it had been a lethargic first-half display, City controlled the rhythm of the game after taking the lead and there was never a sense they might give it up.
Even so, the late capitulation was not in keeping with the rest of the game. “It was never a 5-0,” Ince said. Notts even had a flurry to get back in the game at 2-0, with Joe Hart keeping out Alain Gow’s 78th-minute volley. This was Hart’s 17th clean sheet since taking over from Shay Given in August and a miserable season for the Republic of Ireland international has been compounded by another shoulder injury; he sees a specialist this week to determine whether he needs an operation.
On the pitch, it was probably not a fluke that City’s improvement coincided with Tevez’s introduction. The club’s leading scorer immediately gave the side a more penetrative edge. He made it 3-0 when he ran on to Dzeko’s pass, accelerated away from his marker and rounded Nelson before sliding the ball in. Dzeko’s header came from a Tevez cross and, as Notts failed to deal with another corner, Richards hooked in the fifth to make it a rout.
Guardian Service
