Bristol City 0-1 Wolves: Cavaleiro sends visitors into quarter-finals

Matt Doherty appears to be on a personal mission to win the FA Cup for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Irish defender spared their blushes with a last-minute equaliser at League One Shrewsbury Town in the fourth round and then scored twice and created another in the replay.

Here at Bristol City, it was Doherty's thrusting runs down the right wing that most unsettled the hosts and his first-half assist for Ivan Cavaleiro helped carry Wolves into the quarter-finals for the first time since 2003.

The Black Country club were in the Championship then. A hell of a lot has changed since.

Could they win the Cup for the first time since 1960? It may just be possible. They have no concerns in the Premier League, sitting high and dry in seventh, or the 'best of the rest' as it has become known.

The complete absence of relegation fears at any point in their first season back in the top-flight means Nuno Espirito Santo's side might as well have a crack at the Cup.

Manchester City remain, of course, and one of Chelsea or Manchester United but if the quarter-final draw is kind, it may just open up for Wolves.

Lee Johnson's City may have lost their nine-game winning run - they were the most in-form side in Europe prior to this - but can be proud of a second-half onslaught that had Wolves wobbling.

They have become a first-rate cup side under Johnson's leadership, claiming a number of Premier League scalps, but now one of the country's brightest young coaches can focus on taking them into the top division.

That will most likely come through the Championship play-offs if they can regain their momentum.

It quickly became apparent that the duel between Doherty and the City left-back Jay Dasilva would be of critical importance to the outcome.

As the Premier League side stifled City's early enthusiasm and quietened the crowd with their relentless possession game, Doherty was unfailingly the outlet for long balls to the right flank.

Dasilva, just 20, who is on loan at Ashton Gate from Chelsea for the season, is naturally an attack-minded wing-back but while his youthful energy is an advantage in academy games, it can be a weakness in the defensive armour in matches like this.

Doherty probed time after time having found himself in great swathes of space and it was inevitably the Irishman's intervention that delivered the game's opening goal - from its first shot - on 28 minutes.

It was Conor Coady's searching ball from just inside his own half that found Doherty and, his confidence high from early contests with Dasilva, he took him on and drove towards the box.

Dasilva seemed to anticipate Doherty cutting onto the outside, running past the ball as the Wolves man skimmed inside him. The break of the ball set Doherty into the clear and he cut the ball back to the unmarked Cavaleiro.

His low shot beat both the desperate lunge of Tomas Kalas, whose efforts unsighted goalkeeper Frank Fielding, and Cavaleiro's shot just went straight through them both.

Having taken the lead, Wolves were brimming with confidence and could easily have killed off the tie before half-time.

Two minutes after his assist, Doherty played a one-two with Leander Dendoncker and then Raul Jimenez, whose cute flick set the right-back into a shooting position. Deflected, his shot bounced off the far post.

Seconds later and the left side of City's defence was punctured again with another Jimenez touch teeing up Dendoncker for a shot that Fielding parried at his near post.

It was a one-sided half, City restricted to half-chances, with Callum O'Dowda trying an acrobatic effort that flew over and Kasey Palmer heading off target. Otherwise, it was all defensive graft.

Johnson sent his team out five minutes early for the second-half and made a double change plus a switch to 4-4-2 to try and enliven them.

It had some effect, with O'Dowda getting in behind Jonny Otto to cut back to a completely unmarked Dasilva. But the youngster had too much time to think about the strike and blazed over the bar.

Kasey Palmer, another on loan from Chelsea, flashed a free-kick just wide of the post and John Ruddy had to make a one-handed save to keep out Matty Taylor's shot after Josh Brownhill had tricked his way past three defenders.

The Ashton Gate faithful found their voices now with every attack. O'Dowda's corner deflected towards the Wolves goal off Adam Webster, only for Doherty - who else? - to clear off the line.

Wolves were only threatening fitfully now, with Fielding's fingertips touching a Joao Moutinho free-kick over the bar and his palms pushing away a shot by Morgan Gibbs-White.

There was one final wave of pressure, with Ruddy touching over Taylor's effort before Marlon Pack clipped over the bar from close range with little time to react.

And in the dying seconds, Fielding, waved forward by Johnson for a corner, saw a shot blocked by Ruddy inside a packed Wolves box.

'Que sera, we're going to Wembley,' sang the Wolves fans, daring to dream. And why not?