Stoke boss Mark Robins is worried about the lack of interest in the FA Cup after watching his side overcome Sunderland 2-1 in front of just 15,000 fans at the Stadium of Light.
Robins, who won the FA Cup as a player with Manchester United and led Coventry City to the semi-finals last year, is concerned about the future of the competition amid low attendances in several of the third round games.
Robins’ Stoke side booked their place in the fourth round thanks to substitute Niall Ennis’ extra-time winner. Tom Cannon had given the Potters a fourth-minute lead before Milan Aleksic levelled for Sunderland in the second period.
Robins, who made only three changes and named a strong starting XI, said: “I’m really glad we got through. The lads deserve credit for sticking at it and the two goals came from our good press.
“It was two young teams with people making mistakes when they didn’t need to. There wasn’t many chances.
“No crowd really. It’s a really weird one this. It’s the FA Cup. Where are the people? I understand the cost of things and it must be really biting. The cold is biting, the finances are biting. It isn’t good.
“It’s really worrying and sad. I’ve seen there’s been empty stadia up and down the country and it’s not good. This stadium normally has 50,000 people in it and absolutely rocking so it’s a bit of a surprise.
“Thank you to everyone who came because that’s really important, and particularly our supporters.
“I’m glad we got through. It was tough watching at times but it’s a start for us. If you can’t play brilliantly then stick at it, which we did.”
For Sunderland, who are well positioned in the Championship and chasing promotion to the Premier League, it was a first home defeat of the season.
New signing Enzo Le Fee, who has joined on loan from Roma, was introduced to the fans before kick-off.
Boss Regis Le Bris, who made five changes to his side, said: “We started a bit slowly. After that we were in the game we wanted to play.
“After the first goal, with the team we had today we played good football and we tried until the end to score.
“We deserved the equaliser and we could have probably won before full-time but it wasn’t the case. In extra time both teams were tired and that led to a mistake from us.”
