Man City progress to FA Cup fourth round

Man City 1 West Ham 0

Brazilian magician Elano dispensed with the silky skills and resorted to English-style bravery to earn Manchester City an FA Cup trip to Sheffield United.

After a superb start to his City career, Elano has suffered a noticeable dip in form recently, not helped by a niggling injury which has proved difficult to shake off.

But after substitute Rolando Bianchi saw his header bounce off a post, Elano dived in where it hurts, netting a goal Alan Shearer would have been proud of as he nodded home amid a mass of raised boots.

It was only the former Shakhtar Donetsk man’s second goal since October but could prove very timely as it sent 2006 finalists West Ham out of the competition and retained City’s hopes of ending a 32-year trophy drought.

Yet the man who gained most from the contest was City goalkeeper Joe Hart, who edged out Matthew Upson and Micah Richards as the best Englishman on view and certainly came out on top in his battle with Dean Ashton.

Although Fabio Capello was not present, he did despatch trusted advisor Franco Baldini to the north-west.

And, with Richards virtually guaranteed a start in the first game of England’s new era against Switzerland on February 6, Baldini was presumably focussing more on Ashton than any of the other 10 English-qualified starters.

Injury has twice wrecked Ashton’s hopes of making a much-anticipated international debut and with Capello’s options in attack fairly limited, if the former Norwich man is fit, he must have a chance of being in the squad for the Swiss encounter, which is due to be named at the beginning of next month.

Yet any objective analysis by Baldini at the end of a largely forgettable first-half would have offered Hart high praise indeed.

Capello has pledged to work closely with Stuart Pearce, who sat next to Baldini in a near 30,000 crowd, so he probably already knows plenty about the youngster as it was the England Under-21 boss who signed Hart from Shrewsbury when he was still City manager.

Hart is still capable of the odd mistake, as his failure to make any connection with his attempt to punch Freddie Ljungberg’s free-kick clear late in the opening period showed, but he has already done enough to persuade Sven-Goran Eriksson to dump Sweden’s World Cup keeper Andreas Isaksson and the Swede feels he could follow in the footsteps of David Seaman and Peter Shilton as a world-class England number one.

A talented cricketer in his youth, Hart stood as strong as an opening batsmen facing a fast-ball battery when Luis Boa Morte picked out Ashton with an astute cross from the right.

Although he was at full stretch, Ashton got plenty of power behind his volley but it just bounced off Hart, who made a similar, if slightly less difficult save from Boa Morte himself not long after the break.

If anything, Hart was even braver in stoppage-time as he confronted Ashton in a body-to-body duel when Richard Dunne looped an attempted clearance into his own box.

Yet again, it was the keeper who came out on top, both in winning the ball and the clash of bodies which inevitably followed.

The loss of loan signing Nery Castillo with a dislocated shoulder after barely half an hour hardly aided City’s cause.

But, after a slow start to the second period, Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men began to get into their stride with Martin Petrov leading the offensive.

The Bulgarian has been in top form recently and after substitute Bianchi bundled one low cross wide, Upson, another Englishman to impress, was at full stretch to prevent Petrov picking out the same man, who had found a much better position.

There was to be no reprieve for the Hammers when Petrov drove past Lucas Neill 17 minutes from time.

This time, Bianchi met the far-post cross with a firm header, which crashed back off a post, only for Elano to dive in and get his head on the ball between a mass of raised boots.

City needed to survive a couple of late scares as West Ham had a penalty claim against Dunne turned down before Richards nodded a dangerous Lee Bowyer cross out from underneath his own crossbar.

But, in the end, they are the ones who can start planning for a Roses battle at Bramall Lane.