Elano heads City into fourth round

After a superb start to his City career, Elano has suffered a noticeable dip in form recently, not helped by a niggling injury which has proved difficult to shake off.

But after substitute Rolando Bianchi saw his header bounce off a post, Elano dived in where it hurts, netting a goal Alan Shearer would have been proud of as he nodded home amid a mass of raised boots.

It was only the former Shakhtar Donetsk man's second goal since October but could prove very timely as it sent 2006 finalists West Ham out of the competition and retained City's hopes of ending a 32-year trophy drought.

Yet the man who gained most from the contest was City goalkeeper Joe Hart, who edged out Matthew Upson and Micah Richards as the best Englishman on view and certainly came out on top in his battle with Dean Ashton.

Hart is still capable of the odd mistake, as his failure to make any connection with his attempt to punch Freddie Ljungberg's free-kick clear late in the opening period showed, but he has already done enough to persuade Sven-Goran Eriksson to dump Sweden's World Cup keeper Andreas Isaksson.

Hart made an instinctive block when Ashton got plenty of power behind his volley and he showed his bravery in stoppage-time as he confronted Ashton in a body-to-body duel when Richard Dunne looped an attempted clearance into his own box. Yet again, it was the keeper who came out on top, both in winning the ball and the clash of bodies which inevitably followed.

The loss of loan signing Nery Castillo with a dislocated shoulder after barely half an hour hardly aided City's cause. But, after a slow start to the second period, Sven-Goran Eriksson's men began to get into their stride with Martin Petrov leading the offensive.

The Bulgarian has been in top form recently and after substitute Bianchi bundled one low cross wide, Upson, another Englishman to impress, was at full stretch to prevent Petrov picking out the same man, who had found a much better position.

There was to be no reprieve for the Hammers when Petrov drove past Lucas Neill 17 minutes from time. This time, Bianchi met the far-post cross with a firm header, which crashed back off a post, only for Elano to dive in and get his head on the ball between a mass of raised boots.