After suffering potentially life-threatening injuries when violence erupted at the end of an African Cup of Nations qualifier last October, winning a game of football might seem like small beer to Stoke City striker Mamady Sidibe.

However, when that victory, secured by two first-half goals from the Mali international, means that Stoke are within touching distance of a place in the top division for the first time in 23 years, it takes on a different perspective. Nearing the end of a tortuous promotion race in which no one had seemed capable of breasting the tape, Stoke struck a potentially decisive blow as they reclaimed second place with just two games to go.

Another win at Colchester next weekend could send them up after they won a pulsating game Bristol City manager Gary Johnson had described as like a playoff fixture.

Defeat means automatic promotion looks to have gone for his side, but a top-six finish is almost assured despite a run of just one win in nine matches. Stoke have managed only two in six, but they have now come on successive Saturdays and having seized the opportunity presented by Hull’s defeat at Sheffield United earlier in the day, manager Tony Pulis is determined not to let the chance of promotion slip by now. “It’s not there yet. I’ve been in this game too long to take anything for granted,” he said.

Nevertheless, Pulis could not resist the temptation of looking forward to the possibility of what will be to come if his team can hold their nerve as they did in repelling Bristol’s late fightback.

The result from Sheffield, and Watford’s loss to Crystal Palace, added even further to the expectation levels heightened by Stoke chairman Peter Coates’s description of this game as the most important seen in the Britannia stadium’s 11-year lifespan.

Stoke’s biggest crowd of the season responded accordingly and it was the home side that handled the occasion better. Johnson admitted that his players froze in the first half, although the opening goal was obviously pivotal. Sidibe, who suffered severed veins in his arm when being pushed through a broken window to escape the violence after Mali’s cup win in Togo, scored it after 14 minutes when he headed in a free kick from the outstanding Liam Lawrence. Remarkably, he doubled his tally for the season to four when combining with Ricardo Fuller and racing clear to beat Adriano Basso half an hour later.

Sidibe and Lawrence both went close to a third after the break but when Dele Adebola headed in a Michael McIndoe cornerafter 67 minutes Stoke’s vision of the promised land was suddenly blurred and it needed a goalline clearance from Ryan Shawcross to deny Bradley Orr an equaliser. “We must not lose sight of the fact that the lads have done magnificently,” said Johnson. “If we get a playoff place that will be an achievement.”

Star man: Mamady Sidibe (Stoke)

Stoke City: Nash 6, Riggott 6, Cort 6, Shawcross 6, Dickinson 6, Lawrence 8, Whelan 7, Delap 7, Cresswell 6 (Pearson 82), Sidibe 8 (Ameobi 88), Fuller 7

Bristol City: Basso 7, Orr 6, Carey 5, Skuse 5, McCombe 6, McAllister 6, Wilson 5 (Noble ht, 5), Elliott 5 (Vasko 87), McIndoe 7, Byfield 5 (Trundle ht, 5), Adebola 6

Scorers: Stoke City: Sidibe 14, 36 Bristol City: Adebola 67
Referee: M Riley
Attendance: 24,475