Coventry City have endured a decade of decline but gave their fans a moment of unbridled joy when the League Two side deservedly put Premier League Stoke City out of the FA Cup – and Mark Hughes out of his job. Joy for the Sky Blues, but Hughes clinging to his job by his fingernails beforehand and the result broke his grip conclusively.

Having long since run out of excuses for his team’s poor league form he sent out a highly disjointed side. Finishing the match with six forwards Stoke had their chances but too often wilted at crucial moments. The hosts, on the other hand, were clinical in theirs.

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Coventry opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when the defender Jordan Willis turned in a knockdown from a corner. Willis then gave away a penalty in the opening minutes of the second half, which was converted by Charlie Adam, as Stoke threw the kitchen sink at getting a result. But the 23-year-old full‑back Jack Grimmer decided the match with a fine solo strike in the 68th minute.

“It was a hard-fought win but it was deserved,” said the Coventry manager, Mark Robins. “There’s been some unbelievably mature performances from young players and they couldn’t have complained if we were 3-0 up at half-time. We’ve played against Premier League-quality athletes and had to cope with it. We were magnificent.”

Relegated to League Two last summer, the club’s lowest position in half a century, the one-time Premier League mainstays have been enjoying a strong season under Robins and sit third in the table. Robins opted to select his first team, with the addition of a debut for the loanee winger Jordan Maguire-Drew. Hughes had promised to pick a strong side and his team was packed with experience.

Stoke started on top. Mame Biram Diouf and Stephen Ireland – the midfielder making his first start in almost two years after an injury layoff – should have scored before Coventry started to find their feet.

But once the initial spark fizzled out the hosts began to assert themselves. On the right flank Grimmer and Maguire-Drew were making hay against Stoke’s makeshift wingback, Ramadan Sobhi.

Grimmer got beyond the Egyptian in the 23rd minute and crossed to the striker Marc McNulty whose deflected effort earned a corner. Maguire-Drew took the resultant set piece and lofted it to the back post, where the centre-half Tom Davies knocked it down for Willis to turn the ball home from six yards.

An already lively Ricoh erupted and the tension among Stoke fans was palpable. The groans only got louder when, in the 29th minute, Diouf missed a clear chance to equalise by bouncing a free header from a Sobhi cross off the floor and over the bar.

As the first half drew to a close Coventry began to smell blood and twice nearly doubled their lead. First, the teenager Tom Bayliss played in McNulty one on one. The striker rounded Jack Butland but hit his shot wide of the far post. Seconds later, McNulty was in again and shot on target through Butland only for Cameron to hoof it clear.

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It took seven minutes of the second half for Hughes to hit the big red button marked “Peter Crouch”. The change gave Stoke an immediate boost of energy and almost straight away Sobhi won them a penalty, driving into the box and drawing a foul from Willis. Adams calmly sent the spot kick low into the centre of the goal for the equaliser.

Crouch saw a crafty flick at a Sobhi shot fly just wide of the post in the 61st minute, but the visiting side’s flash of energy had burned out and back came Coventry with a goal of real quality.

Grimmer, in an apparently innocuous position, put his foot on the gas to cut inside Sobhi, evaded Alllen and from the edge of the penalty area cracked a shot that whipped past Butland and inside his left post.

“Once we equalised we were clearly in the ascendancy‚” said Hughes, “but we have got to keep the back door shut. It’s tough to take.”

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Xherdan Shaqiri joined the fray to make it six up front for Stoke and things started to get hectic. Crouch had a 25-yard volley punched clear by Liam O’Brien. Berahino, soon approaching the two-year anniversary of his last goal, had all the time in the world to place his shot from inside the box in the 78th minute, but saw it blocked by a sliding challenge.

With the clock ticking down Shaqiri had a volley blocked, Crouch another volleyed effort saved and Diouf contrived to miss a header even easier than his first.

“We had five or six chances to score‚“, said Hughes. “If just one goes in, it’s a different story.” It proved to be the end of the final chapter for the Welshman after just over four and a half years.