I pleaded during Man City thumping - I wanted someone to speak to Pep Guardiola

Salford City manager Karl Robinson has admitted he pleaded with the fourth official to seek permission from Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to end their FA Cup third round tie exactly on 90 minutes as they were thumped 8-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

The Blues have been out of sorts for much of this season but with League Two neighbours Salford City, owned by Manchester United's Class of '92, arriving this past weekend, City found their top gear. The tie was over as a contest by half-time but Guardiola's men, who featured both youth and experience, showed no signs of letting up.

It was 6-0 with 20 minutes remaining and finally 8-0 in the 81st minute. With the dye cast a long time ago, Robinson admitted on Footy Accumulators' No Tippy Tappy Football podcast that he asked fourth official Edward Duckworth for the match to end as promptly as possible.

"I think when you go into them games, or any game of football, you self-analyse first," Robinson explained. "So what could we have done more, what didn't we do, and all these things and everything could have changed obviously because the results say that.

"But I believe in who I am and I stick by that, when someone says what would you have done differently, I say: 'Not win in round two.' On Saturday, it was 8-0 right, I looked at the scoreboard and it said 89 minutes.

"I went to the fourth official and I said I promise you I’ll ring the PGMOL on Monday about any trouble you get in, but can you please just blow the whistle. Can you speak to the manager [Guardiola] and just ask him if is he okay with it?

"As soon as the 90 minutes came up the referee blew the whistle. At that particular stage, we didn't want any more injuries and they’d done their job.

"It was two managers being