Notts County 1 Manchester City 1

EDIN DZEKO threw Manchester City an FA Cup lifeline after Notts County had come agonisingly close to humiliating Roberto Mancini’s men.

Neal Bishop’s header on the hour threatened to add City’s name to the Sunderland scalp County collected in the previous round.

Shocks in the FA Cup are almost as old as County themselves and, for 20 minutes, the League One outfit thought they were going to claim another.

But Dzeko had other ideas and drilled home Micah Richards’ cross ten minutes from time to break his own City duck and rescue the Eastlands outfit, who must play again in three weeks time for the right to reach the last 16.

Having struggled to dispose of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Leicester in the last round, Mancini would have expected to be similarly troubled by a team managed by Paul Ince.

After all, their shared history includes a red card for Mancini for a tackle on Ince during a particularly ill-tempered Serie A spat between Sampdoria and Inter Milan.

And the world’s oldest Football League club did not disappoint, matching City blow for blow on a pudding of a pitch, churned up badly by the two recent rugby matches.

Certainly Jon Harley’s tackle on James Milner was straight out of the 15-a-side code’s textbook, although as referee Chris Foy elected to show Mike Edwards the yellow card, perhaps he did not get a good view.

By that point City should have been ahead from the only decent opportunity of the opening 45 minutes.

Richards burst down the right flank and sent over a low cross to the near post.

Yaya Toure got his not-inconsiderable frame to the ball first and prodded it goalwards.

But Stuart Nelson was alive to the danger and turned it away with an excellent feetfirst save.

Having opted to rest Carlos Tevez, Mancini handed £27m new-boy Dzeko his FA Cup debut.

One shot from the angle of the area soared disappointingly over, then Krystian Pryce needed to make an excellent tackle to prevent the Bosnian trying his luck from very close range.

Lee Hughes made his muscular presence felt in an aerial duel with Joleon Lescott which he was convinced should have brought about a penalty.

Referee Foy only gave a corner, which as it turned out was just perfect for the League One outfit, Bishop rising to meet Gow’s near-post corner and glancing the ball beyond Hart.

With time ticking away, Richards crossed low and hard and this time, from six yards, Dzeko did not miss.