Stoke City came within minutes of claiming a critical Premier League point against newly crowned world champions Manchester United with just 10 men, but a late Carlos Tevez goal dashed hopes of a welcome share of the spoils...

Brave Stoke City pushed the newly crowned world champions - Manchester United - all the way at the Britannia Stadium and were unlucky late on when their rewards were pulled from underneath them in two critical and late moments.

Understandably, Manchester United had more of the ball and pressed Stoke back for long periods, but the first half saw Ricardo Fuller with great chance when put clean through only for untimely boot to fly off and Rory Delap's throws keeping the champions on red alert.

For all the visitors territory and possession, only Rooney's header made the target and was easily pouched by Sorensen. In the second half, the visitors urgency intensified, but Stoke had the best chance of the game when Danny Pugh headed over from another Rory Delap throw.

As time ticked and Sorensen had seen off a good effort from Paul Scholes, City dared to dream of a hard earned point. But Andy Wilkinson's challenge on the baited Ronaldo induced a second yellow card with 18 minutes left and the challenge to hold on was magnified tenfold.

The visitors poured forward and with just seven minutes remaining, Carlos Tevez scooped in at the far post to rescue a victory for Manchester United and finally break Stoke's dogged resilience and proposed share of the spoils.

Afterwards Stoke boss Tony Pulis stated on Andy Wilkinson's red card - "Andy's a smashing lad and he's had a great game but the second challenge was a poor challenge, he's given the referee no option. Having said that, I thought his first booking was a poor decision by the ref."

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