Records broken as Stoke City beat Leyton Orient in the Third Round of the FA Cup

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16-year-old Emre Tezgel became Stoke City’s youngest-ever player as the Potters beat Kenny Jackett’s Leyton Orient 2-0 in the FA Cup Third Round.

The Staffordshire-born striker came on for fellow Potters debutant D’Margio Wright-Phillips with just over four minutes left on the clock.

Debuting at 16 years, three months and 19 days old, Peter Bullock’s 60-year record was broken by the young forward who many hail to be ‘the next Harry Kane.’

Stoke’s latest academy graduate entered the field of play moments before the Potters substitute Tyrese Campbell doubled the home side’s advantage by scoring his third goal of the season with a minute of normal time remaining.

The 22-year-old latched onto the end of Tom Ince’s pinged through ball which he hit first time straight past the hapless Lawrence Vigouroux from close range.

Ince, whose father Paul collected two FA Cup medals in his career, netted Stoke’s first of the afternoon three minutes before the interval.

After some excellent play by Alfie Doughty on the left, the ball was perfectly squared to the feet of the 29-year-old whose shot from six yards went in after kissing the bar.

The Potters had plenty of FA Cup success running through their side’s veins. D’Margio Wright-Phillips’ father, Shaun, won the 2006/07 FA Cup with Chelsea and his grandfather, Ian Wright, won this competition twice during the 1990s, as well as Campbell’s father, Kevin, who won the 1993 final with Arsenal.

Sam Clucas also had his fair share of chances in the game, which led to Doughty getting a goal ruled out for offside in the first period.

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At the other end of the pitch, another Stoke debutant, Jack Bonham, kept a deserved clean sheet as he dealt with the Orient threat impeccably. A fine stop to deny Harry Smith’s close-range header midway through the first half was the best of the bunch.

After the game, Stoke boss Michael O’Neill gave his thoughts on a brilliant Third Round FA Cup tie.

“We had to be patient in the first half… I thought the first goal was very well created and very well taken and the second goal was as well.

“We probably made hard work of it in the second half, they were always in the game, that’s the nature of a cup tie but the most important thing was we came through and scored two goals and kept a clean sheet as well.”

The game will leave somewhat of a bitter taste in the mouths of some connected to Stoke after influential playmaker Mario Vrancic was seen hobbling towards the end of the game and could be a doubt for some crucial upcoming Championship fixtures.

O’Neill described the Bosnian’s early hamstring-related prognosis as ‘a big blow.’

The 2-0 triumph earned the 2011 FA Cup finalists a home tie against League One side Wigan Athletic in Round Four which will be played in early-February. The Tics scored a stoppage-time winner against Blackburn Rovers courtesy of Thelo Aasgaard to progress into the next round of the competition.

For the visitors, they will feel frustrated that they did not take the game to extra-time or even beat Stoke in 90 minutes.

Darren Pratley and Aaron Drinan squandered several chances throughout the tie with Smith and Paul Smyth linking up well to create Orient openings, but they could not hit the target either.

The most golden chance for the O’s was when James Chester and Morgan Fox got caught up which left Ruel Sotiriou one-on-one with Jack Bonham, however, he tried an audacious dink that went up and over the Stoke goal with eight minutes to go.

Kenny Jackett’s side also had two penalty appeals waved away in the second period. After 64 minutes, Connor Wood’s cross struck the arm of Demeaco Duhaney in the penalty area and Stoke were lucky that VAR was not in use because that decision could have been overturned.

Orient had another claim denied just over 15 minutes later as Shadrach Ogie’s long throw was propelled to the head of Omar Beckles. The ball then fell to Pratley but the O’s captain was caught on the head by Joe Allen’s acrobatic clearance but the referee waved appeals away.

Leyton Orient manager Kenny Jackett also gave his overall assessment of the game.

“We made some good chances in the first half, but we just needed the first goal.

“The performance levels didn’t drop despite being 1-0 down, but in the end you have to put the ball away, especially with the amount of chances we had.”

Both sides return to league action within the next week. For Stoke, they make the rescheduled away trip to Barnsley on Wednesday night before Orient travel to Oldham Athletic in League Two on Saturday.

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