Cheltenham vs Man City brought to a halt after fireworks land on the pitch

Manchester City’s FA Cup fourth-round clash with Cheltenham on Saturday was halted due to a fireworks display.

Roughly five minutes before half-time, fireworks were let off adjacent to the Jonny-Rocks Stadium in the Whaddon Road area of Cheltenham.

Fireworks rained down on the pitch, prompting referee Stuart Attwell to halt the match for the players’ safety.

While play was halted, players for both teams remained at the side of the pitch as the fireworks continued to go off.

It took a good six minutes before the game was restarted.

Cheltenham were not overawed against their illustrious opponents, as the score was 0-0 when the match was brought to a temporary halt.

City boss Pep Guardiola made a raft of changes to his side for the trip to Cheltenham.

Only Phil Foden retained his place in the starting XI from the team that beat Aston Villa 2-0 in the Premier League on Wednesday.

But given the depth of talent at the Catalan coach’s disposal, Guardiola could field players of the calibre of Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres, Riyad Mahrez, Benjamin Mendy, Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho.

Guardiola said prior to the game that he would not take lightly a side who are 72 places behind them in the football pyramid.

“I know the Premier League is the most important one and the Champions League is the second most important one, but four finals in a row in the Carabao Cup is because every game is important,” Guardioa told the club's official website.

"So, no chance [of prioritising]. Even if we arrive at the game without players, we are going to play the second team, but we don’t drop any competition.

“When we lose it is because the opponent is better or we made a bad performance, but not because I don’t care for this competition.

"Cheltenham deserve my respect.

“I am more curious than other games because I don’t know them. I have had to pay more attention to what they are like as a team.

“Now I am going to play the team against Cheltenham and today we watched them, all the team, we are training exactly what we want to do to try and beat them.”