SHEFFIELD, England (AFP) - Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce has been warned not to expect an easy ride when his side try to overcome Sheffield Wednesday at the second attempt.

City were held to a 1-1 FA Cup third round draw by their Championship opponents on Sunday as Steven MacLean produced a superb equaliser just seconds after Georgios Samaras had given the visitors the lead from the penalty spot.

The teams will meet again at Eastlands later this month and Premiership side City will be favourites to go through to the next round.

But Wednesday manager Brian Laws is adamant his side can spring a surprise when they travel to Manchester.

"It would have been a travesty if we had not got the equaliser," said Laws. "I believe we were the better side on the day, but at least we have another bite of the cherry and we are in the hat for the draw for the next round.

"We will go there with confidence because we´ve a good away record, we are playing well, so it will be no easy ride for Manchester City."

City took the lead when Kenny Lunt brought down Micah Richards in the penalty area and Greek striker Samaras stroked in his seventh goal of the season.

But MacLean surged straight down the other end from the kick-off and drove his long-range shot through a crowd of players to level less than a minute later.

Pearce was full of praise for Wednesday and said: "I think a draw was a fair result on the balance of play. Once we got our noses in front it would have been nice to have held on, but a little lapse of concentration cost us.

"Give Sheffield Wednesday credit because I thought they played extremely well, and in the end either team could have won it."

Pearce also played down a clash between England defender Richards and Wednesday´s Glenn Whelan, who appeared to strike the City teenager, even though it was Richards who was booked by referee Graham Poll.

"The incident happened right in front of me," said Pearce. The kid (Whelan) pulled Richards back and Micah pushed him.

"A yellow card was a fair conclusion. The ref dealt with it well and the players got on with it."