Football: Everton gateway to art of scoring

FA CUP history repeated itself for Everton against Bristol City but this time the men from Merseyside had to wait even longer for their decisive goal. These two sides met in this competition four years ago, also at Ashton Gate, and back then Everton snatched victory with 11 minutes left. This time Ibrahima Bakayoko, who had barely been close to goal all afternoon, rifled home a 25-yard free-kick with just four minutes remaining and then, two minutes later, squeezed his second under Steve Phillips' body from inside the penalty box.

That fourth-round win back in 1995 was the springboard for Everton to win the competition and their manager, Walter Smith, after his first English FA Cup tie, admitted that fact had been drummed into him since these two teams were drawn together. But the former Rangers manager added: "I'll take 1995 as a good omen although I know there'll be more tough games to come."

Yet while Everton will hope history repeats itself all the way to Wembley, Bristol City and their manager, Benny Lennartsson, will not. When they lost to Everton four years ago they went on to be relegated, a possibility that looms this season as they at present sit in the relegation zone of Division One.

That Bakayoko took the free-kick that broke the deadlock owed something to chance. With the regular set-piece expert John Collins out injured, it fell to the Ivory Coast international to take his chances after Gregory Goodridge had fouled John Oster, and Smith admitted his own surprise that Bakayoko had scored, saying: "He's never looked keen to take them in training."

However, it should have been Bristol City, playing well enough to suggest they could still avoid the drop, who opened the scoring. With their best move of the match the home side came close to snatching the first goal eight minutes into the second half when the midfielder Matthew Hewlett started the move in the centre circle and fed Ade Akinbiyi on the right wing. He skipped past his marker and sent in a low cross that Hewlett volleyed downwards, beating Thomas Myhre only to rebound off the post and bounce out.

The goalkeeper then palmed it off Hewlett's head and the loose ball fell to Soren Andersen, who wasted his shot. Akinbiyi missed an even easier chance 17 minutes later when he met Scott Murray's cross from the right, but headed over from six yards. Akinbiyi then had a chance to atone for his error straight from the goalkick but again wasted it by shooting high.

It seemed as if Bristol City would surmount the driving rain and supposedly superior opposition when they appealed for a penalty after 80 minutes, as the Everton midfielder Don Hutchison collided with City's Moldovan international Ion Tistemitanu, only for the referee Jeff Winter to ignore his assistant, who was flagging for a foul. But with time running out it was Bakayoko, in his first FA Cup tie, who made his mark in the history books.