Toure the hero as Manchester City beat Stoke to win FA Cup

Yaya Toure was the hero for Manchester City as they beat Stoke City 1-0 at Wembley on Saturday to win the FA Cup for the fifth time in their history.

The midfielder pounced on a loose ball about 10 yards from goal with 16 minutes to go and Roberto Mancini's side hung on to win the trophy for the first time since 1969.

"I'm happy for the supporters," Mancini said. "For a long time they didn't win. My feeling is good but it is more important that their feeling is good.

"After many years they deserve to win this trophy. I didn't feel we dominated this game. We need to improve but we are very happy. We did a small piece of history of Manchester City. We start now."

Goalscorer Toure said it was the perfect end to what had already been a great season, with City qualifying for the Champions League by finishing in the top four in the league.

"The dream is now real and it's so fantastic to win for the club," Toure said. "For me when we started the season, I said to the other players it would be fantastic to win something and I think it is amazing we have won this final."

Big-spending City dominated the first half and should have taken the lead through David Silva but the Spaniard headed a golden opportunity down and over the Stoke bar.

Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen kept his side in it with a good save from Carlos Tevez and an even better one from Mario Balotelli but failed to create any decent chances of their own in the opening 45 minutes.

Tony Pulis' Stoke side came into the match in the second half and Kenwyne Jones was only denied by the legs of Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

But with 16 minutes to go, a shot by Balotelli broke kindly for City in the area and Toure drove home an unstoppable left-foot shot.

Stoke tried to take the attack to their opponents in search of an equalizer that would have forced the match into extra time but could not find the killer pass they needed.

Two corners, one after the other, caused a few hearts to beat a bit faster among the Manchester City fans but the pre-match favourites hung on to clinch a deserved victory.

City have already qualified for the Champions League through their league position so Stoke will take the Europa League place usually reserved for the Cup winners.

Stoke goalkeeper Sorensen admitted that Manchester City had been the better team on the day.

"It's disappointing that we didn't play better," he said. "We've done so in the past - especially lately, we've done really well - that's the most disappointing thing."

"I thought we were coming back (before the goal). The first half was a big disappointment - we never really got playing.

"I thought they were running out of ideas so it came at a bad time for us. We were just getting into the game. We'd just had a good chance with Kenwyne. We're just so disappointed."