CONSIDERING a replay was the very last thing that Mick McCarthy or Tony Pulis wanted, their sides did their absolute damndest to achieve the extra game.

Then, out of nowhere, came an 81st minute opener to put the sparse crowd out of their misery.

But even then Wolves only had themselves to blame for their FA Cup exit – spurning a 92nd minute penalty that would have earned that extra date.

Matt Jarvis’ low free-kick led to a spot of pinball in the box before Nenad Milijas was tripped by Robert Huth.

The Serbian dusted himself down but saw his poorly-hit spot-kick saved by Thomas Sorensen, who didn’t have far to move to his left.

One thing Stoke do well is set-pieces and the winner arrived when Matthew Etherington swung over a dangerous cross from the right allowing the unmarked Huth to convert a simple header.

The missing 16,000 home fans would have been chuntering into their radio sets. They may even have choked on their Sunday roast. In the main, though, they were the lucky ones.

Substitute Sam Vokes missed a golden chance to rubber-stamp a replay but headed too close to Sorensen in the 89th minute from Jarvis’ centre.

Molineux Street and Camp Street were closed after the game. One can only deduce there was a sale on somewhere in the Wulfrun Centre, or a late flood of interest in Aladdin at The Grand.

Quite what Jamie O’Hara and his partner, the former Miss Great Britain Danielle Lloyd, thought of the entertainment was another matter.

The pair swapped shopping for designer suits in Saville Row on Friday for the executive box at Molineux ahead of the midfielder’s loan move from Tottenham, which was confirmed before the final whistle.

Fortunately for them they could easily have sneaked out early. Asda was open next door if they fancied a shirt and tie combination to go with the expensive garment.

Unfortunately for the non-suit shopping majority left to watch the match in its entirety, the action was rather gloomy.

Played on a surface that would have been really quite excellent in the 1970s but now resembles something from which vegetables should sprout, and played in front of great swathes of empty plastic yellow seats, it was the sort of match for which replays should be banned in the public interest.

While nobody on the pitch was really showing any great interest in pulling the game up by the scruff of the neck, the one man who seemingly wanted nothing to do with it at all was Salif Diao.

The Stoke midfielder received an early yellow card and looked determined to get another before Pulis hooked him out of proceedings at half-time.

That would have given him enough time – should he have chosen to do so – to get showered and changed and join O’Hara and Lloyd in the George clothing department next door.