Paul Mayo won City’s third corner but surprise surprise, it went straight to the goalkeeper and it wasn’t the defender’s day as he had a goal bound shot blocked. It had been a good opening for City as the Imps were well on top of their opponents but in typical style, Port Vale almost scored with their first chance when Jeff Smith’s shot was well saved by Marriott. However, with half an hour gone and with only their second shot of the game, Port Vale took the lead much against the run of play when the defenders failed to close down Danny Whittaker and the midfielder shot across goal from the edge of the box and it went in.

It was almost 2 straight from the restart when Paul Harsley was so shocked to be left completely unmarked 6 yards out, that he could only send a weak header straight at Marriott. Sodje then missed a good chance as he also headed wide after again being unmarked. However, he did double the Port Vale lead in almost comical circumstances a few minutes later when he managed to out strength Colin Cryan but the defender held on, Nat Brown quite literally skipped nearby and when Sodje broke free, Brown’s skipping continues and he didn’t even try to tackle him as he rounded Marriott and easily tapped in for 2-0 just before half time.

City started the second half and were just as on top as they had been at the start of the first half but the side seemed frightened to take shots and Sodje had the second half’s first opportunity but he could only shoot a long way over the bar.

Port Vale were now finding it easy to get past City’s defence and only Marriott’s bravery prevented it from being 3-0 when the defence let Constantine through on goal but the keeper saved well at his feet. With City’s 2 main back up strikers, Martin Gritton and Ollie Ryan both being injured, Schofield replaced Colin Cryan with Lenell John-Lewis, yet another youngster making his debut for the Imps under John Schofield as City reverted to a 4-3-3 formation.

It wasn’t long before the 17 year old was in action as he picked up the ball from around 25 yards out and despite having better options to his left and right, he tried his luck but he shot went embarrassingly wide. Ross Gardner replaced Abbey for the hosts but the former Macclesfield man wasn’t happy about it at all as he threw punches at someone else on his bench before storming off down the tunnel. Strangely, despite being 2-0 down, Schofield decided to replaced a midfielder with a defender as Morgan replaced Kerr.

With just under 10 minutes to go, Lee Frecklington was the first to enter the book for persistent fouling, interestingly, you could count the amount of free kicks City won on one hand and still be wasting a few fingers. However, Frecklington did have a positive impact with 6 minutes left when he headed in Lee Beever’s cross from the left. He tried to equalise a few minutes later but his long range shot went no-where near the goal.

The game was heading into it’s final minute of injury time when the ball found itself in the box and it fell to Mark Stallard, the striker smashed a right footed shot goal wards and it was heading in before a defender managed to get his leg in front of it and the referee blew his whistle seconds later and City were out of yet another cup competition.