Source: Telegraph
Stoke City 3 York City 1: match report
For those precious 60 seconds, all the trials and tribulations of York City's odyssey to Stoke City were worth it. Snow and sleet may have made the usually straightforward journey across the Pennines a test of endurance, but the trip home will have flown by. [LNB]Martin Foyle's side, of the Blue Square Premier, may not have become the first non-league team to win at a top flight ground in the FA Cup for 21 years, but for one, fleeting minute, they looked like they might.[LNB]Stoke struck back, ruthlessly and immediately, but that was the least that was expected of them. Neil Bennett's header from Alex Lawless's free kick exceeded even the wildest York dream. [LNB]No doubt, too, the pleasure was heightened by the anticipation. York's team coach, and a flotilla of buses carrying their supporters to the Potteries, was caught in a blizzard on the M62 and held in heavy traffic on the M6. [LNB]Referee Mike Jones delayed kick-off by half an hour, vowing to postpone the game should the visitors not arrive by 3pm. [LNB]They arrived at 2.58pm. A cursory warm-up, then into battle. Of such stuff are upsets made. [LNB]Their fans, still streaming into the ground even after the delayed kick-off, were determined to make the most of their sojourn to the bright lights of life in the Premier League, or at least the close approximation of it offered by Stoke. Corners were cheered with gusto, shots greeted with the sort of fervour most teams reserve for goals. [LNB]For 20 minutes, even as Stoke asserted themselves and Rory Delap's skimming, spinning throws flummoxed non-league defenders as they do Premier League ones, they had every reason to cheer. York bit into tackles, harried and harassed. It was not, in truth, immediately obvious which of these sides regularly visited the great cathedrals of the game and which the parish churches. [LNB]And then, as though it were written in the stars, York scored. Robert Huth gave away a careless free kick, Alex Lawless delivered and Neil Bennett glanced a header, expertly, past Thomas Sorensen. Cue bedlam. [LNB]Stoke, though, are no respecters of romance. York's impudence seemed to shake Tony Pulis's side from their torpor, briefly at least. Within 60 seconds, Delap was given chance to launch another of his menacing missiles and Danny Parslow, the York captain, sliced into his own net under pressure from Matthew Etherington. [LNB]Worse was to come. Another Delap throw, this time from the opposite flank, found Leon Cort at the far post and the central defender nodded the ball to Ricardo Fuller six yards out. York's hearts broke. [LNB]Martin Foyle's team can, though, take great pride in their performance. For all the 83 league places between these two sides, Stoke never overran their opposition. Michael Ingham tipped one Robert Huth header over the bar after the break but could do little about Etherington's clincher, a beautifully curled free kick into his top right hand corner.[LNB]
