FA Cup wrap: City through to fifth round

Two goals from Patrick Viera helped Manchester City beat Notts County 5-0 in an FA Cup fourth-round replay on Sunday.

League One side Notts County impressed during the early exchanges with a Karl Hawley shot hitting the post before Yaya Toure was forced to block Neil Bishop’s effort.

Krystian Pearce headed over from a corner and City goalkeeper Joe Hart could only parry Alan Gow’s free-kick.

Roberto Mancini’s hosts eventually worked their way into the game, with full-backs Aleksander Kolarov and Micah Richards both going close.

But City’s expensively assembled strike force of Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko struggled to find their rhythm and it was left to veteran midfielder Viera – a four-time FA Cup winner with Arsenal – to break the deadlock, heading the home side in front on 37 minutes.

County pressed for an equaliser early in the second half, but heads dropped when Viera struck again, connecting with a Kolarov corner to make it 2-0 on 58 minutes.

Balotelli was replaced by Carlos Tevez on the hour mark and the Italian made no secret of his displeasure at being withdrawn, storming straight down the tunnel.

Tevez eventually made the score-line comfortable for City when he rounded opposing goalkeeper Stuart Nelson to score in the 84th minute, before Dzeko and Richards struck late on to flatter City.

They will now play the winner of match between Everton and Reading for a place in the semi-finals.

Elsewhere, an Ivan Klasnic strike in the 19th minute at Craven Cottage gave Bolton Wanderers a 1-0 win over Fulham in an all-Premier League fifth-round tie.

Croatian front-man Klasnic was on target in Bolton’s fourth-round replay win over Wigan last week and he repeated the feat in West London, netting the winner with a volley from 12 yards out.

Bobby Zamora came off the bench in the defeat to make his first appearance for Fulham since suffering a broken leg in September.

Bolton will now face Carling Cup finalists Birmingham in the last eight.