Evan Ferguson fires Brighton into FA Cup quarter-finals with win at Stoke

Brighton made it into the FA Cup sixth round, their class in the end just about easing them past a doughty Stoke side. The hosts threatened from corners and controlled the ball, moving their visitors around, but lacked the class Brighton showed in the sequence that presaged the Evan Ferguson strike that proved the winner and puts them in the draw for the last eight.

Sadly this encounter drew only a sparse crowd, perhaps a reflection of the current straitened times. Those were still vocal and saw, first up, Tyrese Campbell’s shot repelled by Jason Steele, the visiting goalkeeper. Soon, at the other end, Jack Bonham did the same, saving Facundo Buonanotte’s stooping header low to his left.

This earned a corner but both this and Alexis Mac Allister’s second from the same right quadrant, a little later, disappointed.

Brighton, in their lime green changed strip, tapped the ball about as Roberto De Zerbi has them schooled expertly. When not in possession, his striker, Ferguson, pressed from the front in an XI that had five changes but still featured Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo in midfield and Lewis Dunk marshalling defence, the captain’s importance shown when foiling a Jacob Brown break by extending a telescopic leg.

This became the tale of the game for a passage: openings often snuffed out before they became clear chances. This was Kaoru Mitoma’s fate when thwarted as he looked to race in, but the next time he received this changed. Dunk this time slid a sweetly precise pass inside Stoke’s right-back, Dujon Sterling, to the Japanese who padded in and turned the ball across and Ferguson, at close-range, finished.

This was the 18-year-old Irishman’s fifth goal of the season and had Brighton firmly in control.

A Tariq Lamptey squeeze on Campbell, more Ferguson closing down of Bonham, a dash of tiki-taka ball-play between the Brighton rearguard, and a mazy Pascal Gross run all illustrated this.

So, at the interval Alex Neil was the less content manager though he did see, before the whistle, Jordan Thompson cause Steele to fly right to prevent the equaliser.

Stoke’s second half began with a mini-bombardment of Brighton but the visitors were always too fast or strong to be breached. Perhaps, then, frustration had Lewis Baker chopping down Caicedo for which he entered Darren Bond’s book. Caicedo drew accusations of “cheat” and when Buonanotte too tasted turf, the midfielder received the same treatment so his supporters, in return, berated him.

Stoke had disrupted Brighton but, then, Jeremy Sarmiento swivelled and skated upfield, scattering those in stripes. He fed Mitoma but his pass to Gross was heavy and Ki-Jana Hoever tackled. Sarmiento’s following act was to blaze hard and Bonham’s reflexes kept the score the same, before, at the other end, Axel Tuanzebe spurned a header from Thompson’s dead ball to equalise.

This appeared to be as close as Stoke would manage as the tie at one juncture seemed to be fizzling out. But, then came their rally towards the end: it proved fruitless but though Danny Welbeck, in added time hit a post, his side were given a scare for which their hosts can be proud.