A late strike by forgotten man Georgios Samaras sent Manchester City through to the Carling Cup fourth round at the expense of Norwich.

A drab encounter had looked to be going to extra time until Greek forward Samaras, who had not even made the bench this season before this game, scored in the 89th minute to seal the win.

The £6million Stuart Pearce signing would surely have been sold in August had a suitable buyer been found, but despite interest from Middlesbrough Samaras opted to stay at Eastlands and fight for his place.

The battle will not be an easy one to win but Samaras started in the best manner possible, finishing off Kelvin Etuhu’s superb through ball to ensure the Premier League high-flyers overcame a determined Norwich side who scrapped throughout but never really looked like causing a shock.

Not that City were that good. With only three chances of any note, the hosts seemed set to be taken into extra-time until Samaras found his range, charging clear of the Canaries defence to set the Blues fans chirping.

City have not been in the top four for very long but Eriksson has quickly adopted the same Carling Cup strategy as England’s Champions League contenders.

The Swede assured everyone he was taking the competition - the last major trophy City have won - seriously, then promptly dropped nine of his starting line-up from the weekend draw at Fulham.

Only skipper Richard Dunne and midfielder Stephen Ireland remained and both men, for differing reasons, had missed the previous weekend’s win over Aston Villa.

It quickly became apparent most of City’s attacks would come through Brazilian midfielder Geovanni, who has flitted in and out of Eriksson’s first-choice line-up this season and whose most notable contribution so far was the derby-day winner against United.

Poor

Unfortunately, his efforts met with little success during a poor opening period.

Indeed, the nearest City came to breaking the deadlock was from one of the free-kicks Geovanni did not take, Michael Ball curling an effort towards the top corner which David Marshall unconvincingly fumbled away.

At the other end, England Under-21 international Joe Hart was somewhat more certain of his angles as he flew to his left to steer a 20-yard Jon Otsemobor free-kick away from danger.

And that, in terms of goalmouth action, was more or less it apart from one Samaras shot.

Although the football was not great, a point of interest for Blues fans was the progress of Canaries winger and former Academy graduate Lee Croft.

In his anxiety to impress against his old club, Croft struggled to make an impact.

Yet he could quite easily have put Norwich in front when he benefited from a dubious onside call as he strode on to Jon Otsemobor’s touchline pass.

Despite the tightness of the angle, Croft really should have gone for goal himself. Instead he tried to find Jamie Cureton with a square ball and one-time team-mate Nedum Onuoha slid in to clear.

The lack of entertainment was summed up midway through the second period when Norwich manager Peter Grant controlled a punt out of play on his chest and began an impromptu keepie-uppie session which earned one of the biggest cheers of the entire night.

City substitute Etuhu wasted an opportunity to mark his debut with a winner, while Rolando Bianchi was also off target with a snap-shot as the clock ticked down.

But there was still time for a winner as Etuhu produced the pin-point pass which allowed Samaras to send City into the last 16.

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