Mancini: FA Cup just the start

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini wants the club’s FA Cup triumph over Stoke City to lead to greater success.

A 75th-minute strike from Yaya Toure gave City a 1-0 win at Wembley on Saturday and their first trophy since the 1976 League Cup.

Mancini said he was delighted for the fans and wanted the club to build on the win.

“I can say only that I’m very happy for all the supporters. After many years, they deserved to win this trophy,” he said.

“I didn’t feel we dominated this game. We need to improve but we are very happy. We did a small piece of history of Manchester City. We start now.”

Toure, the hero of the day, said the focus all season had been on claiming at least one trophy.

“The dream is now… it’s fantastic to win. It’s fantastic for the history of the club,” the Ivory Coast international said.

“We wanted to win something and get through to the Champions League. It’s amazing.”

Striker Mario Balotelli, who was named man of the match, said the players felt they had the advantage over Stoke heading into the encounter.

“I’m happy. I said to the guys before the game, ‘we’re better than them, we have to respect them and give everything and if we do we’re going to win’,” he said.

Defender Micah Richards agreed with his boss in wanting City to build towards great things on the back of the trophy win.

“It’s unbelievable. Words can’t describe it. We’ve worked hard all season. Now it’s happened, it’s unbelievable,” Richards said.

“This is the first one and this is the most important. We’ve got to build on this.”

Goalkeeper Joe Hart said he only cared about City’s result and not Manchester United’s league triumph at Blackburn earlier in the day.

“It’s nothing to do with Manchester United, it’s about Man City. We deserved to win the cup, we’ve beaten the best and we’ve beaten a very good Stoke side today.”