Dublin rescues Coventry at the death

Coventry City 2 Manchester City 2

Dion Dublin's injury time equaliser earned Coventry a replay at Highfield Road last night and kept alive his team's only hope of silverware this season.

Manchester City must have thought they had set up a dream fifth-round derby with United at Old Trafford when Garry Flitcroft stabbed in a Steve Lomas cross to break the deadlock in a scrappy second half with just nine minutes left. But Coventry refused to follow the script and Dublin appeared on the end of Gordon Strachan's cross to save the tie with almost the last kick of the game.

It all had started so badly for Alan Ball's team, as they had hardly been out of their own half when Noel Whelan forced a corner in the second minute and eventually scored from it. Richard Shaw drove in a shot off the corner, which deflected straight into the path of Whelan who coolly slipped his shot beyond the goalkeeper, Eike Immel.

Manchester City battled to repair the early damage, with their Georgian, Georgi Kinkladze, as the architect of the fightback. This pressure was finally rewarded after 33 minutes when a low cross by Uwe Rosler was turned in to his own net by the lunging David Busst.

Coventry City: Ogrizovic; Borrows, Hall, Shaw, Busst, Richardson, Telfer (Ndlovu, 82), Strachan, Dublin, Whelan, Salako. Substitutes not used: Pickering, Filan (gk).

Manchester City: Immel; Lomas, Curle, Kinkladze, Flitcroft, I Brightwell, Symons, Summerbee, Brown, Clough, Rosler. Substitutes not used: Creaney, Rowlands, Margetson (gk).

Referee: G Ashby (Worcester).