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City secure FA Cup win, United draw with Wolves

Published:Sunday | January 5, 2020 | 12:56 AM
Manchester City’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis (right) celebrates scoring his side’s third goal of the game with teammate John Stones during the English FA Cup third round match between Manchester City and Port Vale at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, yesterday. City won 4-1.
AP
Manchester City’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis (right) celebrates scoring his side’s third goal of the game with teammate John Stones during the English FA Cup third round match between Manchester City and Port Vale at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, yesterday. City won 4-1.

Watching John Stones make defensive mistakes while playing for England in the Nations League finals in June, Port Vale striker Tom Pope took to Twitter to say he would “love to play … every week” against the Manchester City centre back.

“I’d get 40 a season!” wrote Pope, who described Stones as “soft” and “weak”.

Well, he got his chance when fourth-tier Port Vale was drawn to play City in the third round and both players were selected to start.

And Pope did go on to score, although he wasn’t being marked by Stones when heading in a shock equaliser at Etihad Stadium to cancel out Oleksandr Zinchenko’s deflected opener.

“I never dreamed I would score,” Pope said. “I would have been happy to have a few touches.”

City reacted by scoring through Sergio Aguero, youngster Taylor Harwood-Bellis – who deflected in a shot from Stones – and Phil Foden as the holders made a successful start to their title defence with a 4-1 win.

“Before the game, I was worried that teams have come here and been annihilated, but I’m sure the fans are proud of the team,” said Port Vale manager John Askey,whose players were invited into City’s locker room after the game and took selfies.

“We rode our luck a little bit at times. When that goal (from Pope) went in, you start to dream a little bit.”

GENTLE WARM-UP

It was a gentle warm-up for City ahead of a derby match against Manchester United in the first leg of the English League Cup next week. United had a much more gruelling test, against Wolverhampton away, and fought to a 0-0 draw that necessitates a replay on either January 14 or 15.

It adds to the fixture congestion at the start of 2020 for United, which have to play five league games, a two-legged League Cup semi-final, and potentially three FA Cup matches from January 1 to February 1.

Marcus Rashford struck a shot against the crossbar soon after coming on as a substitute while Wolves later had a goal by Matt Doherty ruled out for handball.

“I’m happier to be in the replay than going out,” United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. “It’s a tough place to come.

Leicester, in second place in the Premier League, was among the top-flight teams to make wholesale changes for the cup, but it didn’t stop Brendan Rodgers’ side beating second-tier Wigan 2-0 thanks to an own-goal and a strike by Harvey Barnes.

Burnley, Southampton, Norwich, and Bournemouth also avoided upsets with some ease to book their places in the fourth round.