Patrick Vieira and Didi Hamann were at Stalybridge Celtic’s Bower Fold ground for this Manchester Senior Cup tie, with the latter running the rule over his second-string a few months after taking over as County manager.
The Stalybridge traffic caught out World Cup winner Vieira, who missed the opening exchanges, but he will have been impressed by what he did see of City’s younger players.
City did not take long to get into their stride, taking the lead after just seven minutes.
Joan Roman slipped past three Stockport players before burying a raking low shot past the keeper from outside the area
...EDS report
Both Silva jnr and Robinson forced good saves out of Ormson but there was nothing County’s custodian could do about a header from his own defender that looped over him to double City’s lead after 29 minutes.
Joan Roman pulled the strings throughout, and he set up Chris Chantler for City’s third, the skipper stroking the ball in from the edge of the area on 52 minutes.
Andy Welsh’s substitutes did the trick to extend the lead as the second half wore on. Jordi Hiwula, in fine form for the Under 18s, superbly brought down a great pass from Mancini before deftly making it 4-0. The Italian’s replacement, Adam Drury, added a fifth a few minutes later when he placed in a cross from the right.
Eirik Johansen had little to do but he did make sure of a clean sheet with a good stop with 10 minutes to go, but Harry Bunn missed a chance for the youngsters to match the seniors, failing to make it six from close range just before the end.
