Forgotten man comes to fore in Nic of time

CITY'S injury crisis has rubbished the lazy stereotype that they have enough resources to field two quality teams at once.

- By JOE BRAY

CITY'S injury crisis has rubbished the lazy stereotype that they have enough resources to field two quality teams at once.

Yet on Saturday the reserve team huffed and puffed their way to an FA Cup quarter-final place to teach Pep Guardiola plenty about which players should be part of his future plans.

Most eyes were on Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan, who are arguably playing their way out of contracts, albeit Gundogan is 'close' to triggering an extra year according to Guardiola.

Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish could have done with performances against Plymouth given Guardiola backed both to be part of his plans for next season.

There were moments of promise and frustration for each of those established names in a game that was made tougher than it needed to be. But the man to bail them out was not one of the leadership group or a Treble winner.

It was the often-forgotten Nico O'Reilly.