Preview
I was a bit worried that the game might be off because of the weather but I’ve heard nothing to indicate that, though if it starts snowing again it may well affect the match itself. Bruce has shown maximum respect to Barrow and I imagine we’ve all ran mental-previews of possible horror-stories in the last couple of days e.g. Barrow go for it from the start, snatch a very early goal and roared on by their eight thousand fans manage to unsettle our lot while sections of the home crowd boo... I think Barrow will score but I’m as sure as I can be that we’ll end up winning this one and I’m plumping for 3-1. It looks like we have little choice but to field the squad that faced Blackburn but I imagine that if we’ve built a comfortable lead, a couple of the colts, as we used to call them, especially Noble will have a run out to get some first team experience.

The Match
I got the team news around 2.45 and Steed was in while Nos had joined the injured list and Cana had moved to partner Da Silva in the centre of the back four. I also heard that the Barrow chairman and his director son were both big Sunderland fans. I was hoping for an enjoyable diversion from the Premier and the fact that Bolton will probably have a new manager when we play them next week had made that game less winnable than it’d looked previously. For some reason I couldn’t get Radio Newcastle on the internet and while I watched that little green band fail to move fully from the left to the right I had to try to pick up morsels from Five Live but it was clear that Barrow were going for it from the start. The next report started with, “The seven thousand travelling fans…” and I thought Barrow had taken the lead but it immediately went on to say that Steed had slotted us one-up after a pass from Campbell. Also Sunderland loanee sensation Jack Colback had put Ipswich one-up. At 3.28 the commentary finally decided to come on and the atmosphere sounded great with Barrow, particularly Jason Walker, doing a lot of pressing. We sounded nervy and Barrow were giving us no time for contemplation. Cana, of course, and McCartney were booked in quick succession and having just got the game on, I found myself looking forward to half-time. Meyler sounded like he wasn’t afraid to have a shot at goal and their goalie saved well with a few minutes left. We should’ve gone two-up just before the break but Steed failed to pass to the unmarked Bent. Despite a few minutes of decent Sunderland pressure all I could hear were the Barrow fans chanting. Anyway, we got to the break with it still a shaky 1-0.

It seemed clear that if we could get a quick second goal, that would effectively kill off the game but that was looking like a big if as the second half kicked off. There were no changes, not surprisingly as our first choice players were having a pretty hard time of it. The crowd was announced – 25,190 with almost a third being Barrow fans. I can’t remember any other opposition fans making up such a large share of our home crowd. Following his good show against Blackburn, Murphy was again sounding threatening and from his free-kick about five minutes after the break Campbell nodded us 2-0 up. I hoped that would give Campbell some much-needed confidence and obviously it did as just before the hour-mark he got his second, another header following good work by Bardsley. At that stage I could see it ending 5-0 or 6-0 as the different fitness levels of the sides began to show and I hoped we wouldn’t risk any possible injuries to Bent and others while unused subs were freezing their balls off on the bench. With twenty minutes to go Campbell missed a great chance to get his hat-trick when he completely missed the ball and then Bent shot well but Deasy made a great save. Just after that both Deasy and Campbell were yellow-carded for a bit of a tussle. Then Ryan Noble came on for Bent, who got a great ovation, and I fancied him to get one. Within two minutes he’d nearly done so, shooting just wide after more good work by Murphy. Some reports say that there are no offers on the table for Murphy anyway and even if there were, if he’s going to play like this, we should hang on to him for a while. Having just written that, Healy replaced Murphy and I hoped he would do something for us for a change. The Barrow fans were still making a very good racket and were clearly enjoying their day in the sleet. With eight or so minutes to go Michael Liddle replaced McCartney. I could hear the stadium announcer say that the A66 was closed, putting more time on the Barrow fans’ journey home, and there were cheers at the news. Noble was really having a shot whenever the opportunity arose and he again went very close in stoppage-time.