To be honest, at first I didn’t think too much of going to see the Ressies play in the final, but then suddenly it dawned on me what my evening was going to entail… The SoL drenched in glorious sunshine, a local derby, going to a match safe in the knowledge the first team wasn’t in a relegation scrap… I swiftly realised I could be in for a bit of a Tuesday night treat.
I then learnt a bit about the history of the competition; I discovered that Sunderland won the first ever Durham County Challenge Cup in 1883 and since then had triumphed in it twenty-one times, the last of which was in 1966. I also quickly found out that although the team we were playing against were called Gateshead, they were actually Mags in disguise, and like the Scum, are extremely unsuccessful in relation to the collection of silverware as they have in fact never won the competition.
Neil Bailey fielded, as he has done throughout this competition, a very youthful side, many of which had played regularly for the Academy U18 team that reached the semi final of the FA Youth Cup. They faced a Gateshead side buoyed by their recent promotion three days earlier to the Conference North, representing a step up in class for the young Sunderland side compared to their previous opponents.
I settled in to my seat a good thirty minutes before kick-off and began reading the matchday programme; then looking back up at the SoL some twenty minutes later, I realised there was a canny crowd gathered round me in the West Stand, with the Geordies seemingly doing a better job of filling the away end than either Wigan or Reading could do this season. Samson and Delilah were going about their tomfoolery as per usual and then Gateshead’s mascot appeared which was some sort of sheep that looked like the love child of Terry Mac and Mike ‘I’m a true Newcastle supporter, honest’ Ashley. The teams appeared to Kasabian’s ‘Club Foot’ (which was far better than U2’s ‘Elevation’), the wannabe Scum started singing anti-Sunderland songs and Gateshead kicked off. It certainly made a pleasant change from my previous experiences watching the Ressies, freezing my knackers off at the AoL. Ha’ way the lads!
It took Sunderland five minutes to launch their first meaningful attack, with Waghorn powerfully bombing down the right flank before cutting inside. Sadly when it came to making that final penetrating pass, the young striker, making his first appearance in the DCC since the second round, failed to deliver.
Just three minutes later Waggy was at it again, putting together a neat one-two with David Dowson before unleashing a forceful drive which was superbly saved by Kevin Ball’s former Pompy boot-boy, Paul Musselwhite.
The breakthrough came in the fifteenth minute after some fantastic work from our very own version of Paul Scholes (Jack Colback) who slid in a beautifully weighted pass which was met by Billy Dennehy; the young Irish winger was cooler than a snowman’s cool bits in the middle of January and delicately chipped a shot over the advancing ‘keeper and into the back of the net. 1-0.
The next ten minutes were all Sunderland, culminating in the Ginger Prince swiftly breaking from us defending a corner, knocking a ball out to Waggy now on the left wing, who again cut inside and forced another good save from Musselwhite.
We got to half time with our 1-0 lead intact, although this was owing to two tremendous saves from Trevor Carson on twenty-eight minutes and most impressively from Jamie Harwood on thirty-seven minutes; the former Crook Town man’s strike only being denied thanks to a point-blank save from the ever-impressing Northern Irish U21 ‘keeper. It truly was a world-class stop.
The wannabe Scum disgraced themselves further by singing the usual Keane fornicating canine rubbish and we reached the end of what was a thoroughly enjoyable first half.
H/T: 1-0
It was amusing to see the stewards at half time nit-picking on anyone they could find, such as having a go at some poor lad behind me for having his foot slightly up against his chair and me, twice, for having my bag blocking people’s path (which it wasn’t). They really should get out more.
The second half was quiet up until the 52 nd minute when Dowson, back this week from his successful loan spell at Chesterfield, spun free from a challenge thirty yards from goal; he played a tidy give and go with Waggy, outpaced Gateshead captain and Sunderland fan James Curtis to finish neatly in the bottom right hand corner. 2-0.
Nathan Luscombe looked lively coming off the bench for Dennehy on 79 minutes, but despite some good build up play, the Gateshead born player couldn’t duplicate the screamer he scored against Wolviston in the second round.
Apart from a Gateshead chance in the 63rd minute where David Southern’s pull back was cut out by Gavin Donoghue, the lads cruised to victory against the tiring Tynsiders. Trevor Carson lifted the trophy at the end of the game and all of us of a red and white persuasion went home happy.
Although this derby win by no means makes up for the gutless shambles that the first team produced against that lot up the road a few weeks ago, Wearside beating Tyneside always feels good to me.
FTM
Full Time: Sunderland Reserves 2 -0 Wannabe Scum
Attendance: 1930
Sunderland: Carson (Capt.), Weir, M’voto, Donoghue, Hartley, Henderson (Cook 79), Chandler (Richardson 84), Colback, Dennehy (Luscombe 79) Waghorn, Dowson.
Subs not used: Hunter, Liddle.
Man of the Match: Jack Colback
Graeme Cook |
