If St Valentine had agreed to call the 13th of Feb the day for true love instead of the 14th or if the Football Association had thought to play this tie on the 14th then we really would be in love with the beautiful game even more.
On the weekend that celebrates all that is romantic you can forget the red roses or chocolate, because true love can found in the beautiful game that is football.Stoke City played Manchester City in the darling of all cup competitions, the English F.A Cup and the date was set, February the 13th not 14th.
The two men responsible for the success of the date with old lady F.A Cup were Welshman Tony Pulis manager of Stoke City and the Italian Roberto Mancini the head coach of Manchester City.
The two teams, one an unfancied, unattractive side whose style was bite and fright against the free flowing expensively assembled team of international superstars.
Manchester City are the wealthiest football club on the planet owned by billionaire oil tycoons from the middle east against the modest Stoke City owned by a local businessman who's wealth from his online betting company makes him the 25th richest man in English football but by comparison is similar to a Solicitor taking on a King in order to win the heart of the F.A Cup herself.
Man City have spent in excess of £250m on a team of 11 players against Stoke City's modest £25m in an attempt to win some silverware for their club's supporters.The stage was set, the game was screened live on terrestrial T.V so millions upon millions of avid football fans could watch the leading men show their hand and hopefully play their aces.
The result was a compelling 1-1 draw in which Stoke should have won and deserved to take the winnings but for a mistake from the usually rock solid defence the billionaires survived for another day.
The house kept its money but the gamblers out there would certainly have won a few pounds celebrating Stoke City's Ricardo Fuller running around the pitch shooting an imaginary gun into the stands when he scored, something which he may think twice about in the future but then again this man has been arrested on several occasions and is currently on bail but let’s be honest we all love a scoundrel.
The home team were and are like billionaire actors rehearsing for their big performance but only really whispering their lines as they were poor and seemed to sit back and allow the opposition to create the best chances. The watching England manager and fellow Italian Fabio Capello attending to see if his back up left back Wayne Bridge was up to the game following the sad news that his ex girlfriend had an affair with his best friend and now ex England captain John Terry. This farcical situation made worse by the national press overshadowed a Stoke City team including two genuine players who may make his squad to play in the World Cup in South Africa this summer.
Like all good Hollywood stories the two rookies who had their chance to impress the emperor in the big arena both fell just short of the mark, Matthew Etherington the tricky left sided winger that the national team is crying out for sustained a knee injury after 15 minutes and was stretchered off and Ryan Shawcross the colossal centre half with so much potential slipped at a crucial stage with Mancini's men scoring from his mistake.
Tony Pulis the Stoke City manager captures the hearts of every average fan with his no nonsense approach to his work. This man in his early fifties wears his heart on his sleeve with his clubs emblem sitting proudly on top of his favoured and now trademark baseball cap embodies what some women would call a real man.
The Manchester City manager is Italian crooner Roberto Mancini, a man so suave he'd pull your fiancé on your wedding day. He embodies the typical Italian stereotype, handsome, well tanned and with his greying hair even makes a blue and white stripped scarf look fashionable was standing proud in front of his adoring female fans with the cool calm eloquence of a film noire leading man walking up the red carpet.
The unfancied Mr Pulis was brave and commanding where as Mr Mancini sat quietly in his seat biting his lip as his team of glamorous players including romantic names such as Roque Santa Cruise and Emmanuelle Adebayor were shown up by names such as Rory Delap and Danny Higginbotham as they took centre stage to show the F.A Cup's leading lady how to dance.
Overall the game was superb, Stoke deserved the TV money, they deserved to win the game, they didn’t deserve to have 3 players out injured but what they got was the satisfaction that it doesn’t matter what aftershave you wear its he who wears it that matters.
Sorry Mr Mancini but the man wearing a baseball cap and tracksuit went home with the girl this time and will have to up his game in the replay because his valentines present didn’t impress not one bit.
Yes the game finished at a stalemate but the working man's hero has a second date and the Italian model is scratching his head in disbelief on how his advances yielded little response.
The scene is set; the 24th of February will be the day to find out which man will take his team on a trip down the Kings road to Chelsea in the quarter finals of this wonderful competition.
Roberto Mancini
Tony Pulis....
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