FA Cup: Mark Hughes feared Stoke upset during win over Wrexham
Monday 5 January 2015 11:16, UK
Stoke boss Mark Hughes expressed his relief at his side making it through to the FA Cup fourth round, having been sure they were headed for an embarrassing defeat to Conference outfit Wrexham at the Britannia Stadium.
A major upset appeared very much on when Mark Carrington's header put the non-league side ahead in the 73rd minute, but Marko Arnautovic's 80th minute equaliser and a late brace from substitute Stephen Ireland sealed a 3-1 win for the Premier League side.
"The emotion is probably relief and we didn't play anything like we expected to," Hughes said.
"The score isn't a fair reflection of the game and is fairly hard on Wrexham, but in the end we are delighted we are through.
"Credit to Wrexham - they had a good shape about them and a game plan. In terms of what they were trying to do today compared to what we were, I think they'd probably be more pleased.
"But at the end it is about progressing and thankfully we were able to do that."
The Conference side impressed throughout at the Britannia Stadium, rattling the Stoke crossbar through Wes York before going ahead.
When asked afterwards if he had feared the worst at 1-0, Hughes - who used to watch Wrexham as a boy - said: "At that point, I thought we were going out to be perfectly honest.
"Wrexham were good value and we hadn't produced anything of real note. It didn't really look like we were going to either.
"But thankfully we had made a couple of changes and that helped us. I didn't really want to involve Peter Crouch or Jonathan Walters today, but we needed their understanding of what was required.
"We were able to get back level quickly, which was important, and then Stephen Ireland comes on and produces that craft I talk about time and time again.
