FA Cup/ Manchester City 3 Southampton 1: Manchester City are not exactly stimulating cup fever. They were seldom fluent yesterday, a long way from convincing in a stadium of missing persons, and there should be no rush to the bookmakers on the back of this.

But they are in the hat for the fifth round and it was a day when the bottom line mattered more than anything, especially after Kenwyne Jones gave Southampton a 23rd-minute lead.

Had the Saints held on to it for more than three minutes, this could have been a trial for Stuart Pearce but Darius Vassell nipped that possibility quickly in the bud and Joey Barton's goal on the stroke of half-time changed the mood of the afternoon. City never looked back and merit credit for perseverance.

So there remains in this part of the world the fantasy of a Manchester final. United were represented here by Carlos Queiroz and Mike Phelan but they were more interested in Southampton's 17-year-old left-back Gareth Bale than in their local rivals.

Bale played well yesterday, though as with Southampton as a team, some weaker moments undermined good work. That enabled City to progress and after the previous game here - a 3-0 defeat by Blackburn Rovers - Pearce and his club needed that.

"Obviously we made it a little difficult for ourselves but I think in the end we deserved to win," Pearce said.

He had praise for Barton and suggested he should be in the next England squad but it was the tidy, less extrovert player alongside Barton, Stephen Ireland, who threw subtle light on a humdrum occasion. The victory belonged to Ireland more than England.

The 20-year-old midfielder does not have the benefit of forwards who read and make good his teasing through-balls and Ireland must have been dismayed to see the leaden Georgios Samaras all but miss his kick after Ireland had lanced the visitors' back four.

Samaras was clean through yet all Kelvin Davis had to do was to pick the ball up. From Davis it went swiftly to David McGoldrick and his 40-yard pass was met on the bounce by Jones as Nicky Weaver charged recklessly off his line and clattered into Sylvain Distin. It was a poor goal from a blue perspective and Ireland must have experienced particular frustration.

As the ball sailed into the net, City looked a little bedraggled. The near immediate restoration of parity was essential to the overall recovery. Bale will not reflect happily on his part in the equaliser, the teenager being harassed off the ball by Hatem Trabelsi in the corner of his penalty area. The ball ran to Vassell and his volley beat Davis at his near post.

That was too soon for Southampton to exploit their lead and a stadium lacking atmosphere. Instead City encouraged some cheer with sporadic attacks and Bale cleared a Samaras cross off the line in the 42nd minute. But then in first-half injury-time Ireland delivered a pass almost identical to the one that teed up Samaras. Now Barton was the receiver and with his left foot he calmly beat Davis.

Barton then celebrated in front of the visiting fans. Pearce says he is more mature these days.

DaMarcus Beasley sealed the win, the American scoring his first City goal from a long pass by Richard Dunne. Davis made it a bit too easy for Beasley, a comment that could apply to Southampton who, as manager George Burley said, have big league games this week against Sheffield Wednesday and Burley's former club, Derby County.

While all this was going on there was some confusion regarding Pearce's role in the England set-up. The City manager said that he had accepted the position of England Under-21 manager and expects to be in charge of the team for England's friendly against Spain at Derby's Pride Park tomorrow week.

However, later on City said they had not released Pearce to take up the temporary post but are to continue talks with the Football Association.

• Guardian Service