Diao warns City of more specials from Delap

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE/Stoke City v Manchester City:STOKE MIDFIELDER Salif Diao has warned Manchester City to expect further aerial bombardment from Rory Delap at the Britannia Stadium tonight. Stoke held Roberto Mancini's men to a draw in their FA Cup fifth-round clash at Eastlands on Saturday as they once again profited from their most infamous tactic.

Stoke were trailing to a Shaun Wright-Phillips goal when Ricardo Fuller raced into the box to equalise by heading in a trademark long throw-in from Delap.

Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given afterwards rued the fact the hosts had fallen victim to such an old trick but Diao is promising more of the same as the sides meet again in the Premier League.

Diao said: "I think it is one of our weapons and we need to use it. It is working so we need to carry on using it."

And with the cup tie requiring a replay, Diao added Delap's throws will merely be one facet of what will be two tough visits to Stoke for City in quick succession. The Senegal international said: "I think the Britannia, as everyone knows, is a very hard ground to come to. I can't see any players saying they like to come to the Britannia because they all know what to expect - it will a hard battle. We need to make sure we don't disappoint them when they come."

Even though it was Stoke who had to recover from a goal down at the weekend, Diao felt the club missed an opportunity to claim a place in the last eight. They only fell behind after the ball took an unfortunate rebound into the path of Wright-Phillips off Ryan Shawcross. Gareth Barry later brought a fine save from Thomas Sorensen but other than that Diao felt Stoke had the better of the game.

The 33-year-old added: "At the end I think we deserved the draw or maybe to win the game because we had more clear chances than them. We went for it and if we had played maybe five or 10 minutes more we would have had the chance to score another goal."

Diao was recalled for the game after being left out for the previous two matches following a poor showing at Sunderland on February 1st. The former Liverpool player admitted he had no qualms with Tony Pulis' decision to drop him but hopes he can now find some form. "I think in the last two or three weeks I haven't really been in the right shape. The confidence was not there so I think the gaffer did well to put me out. I just made sure while I wasn't in for the last few games I worked very hard on the side and waited for my chance to come back and to make sure I delivered what the gaffer and fans are expecting from me."

Stoke will be without Matthew Etherington tonight as the midfielder is facing a lay-off after suffering in a knee injury in Saturday's clash. The 28-year-old had a scan yesterday morning. Pulis is hopeful he will be out for weeks rather than months. Andy Wilkinson (ankle) and Liam Lawrence (knee) also took knocks but should be fit while Abdoulaye Faye (back) is fit and in contention.

Mancini is facing a severe shortage of players as Carlos Tevez has returned to Argentina for family reasons, with Craig Bellamy (knee) and Vincent Kompany (groin) set to join him on the sidelines. Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland and Martin Petrov suffered knocks at the weekend and could miss out. Adam Johnson does return after being cup-tied at the weekend.