The Reserves qualified for the second round of the Newton Moor Durham County Cup with a 3v1 victory at Jarrow Roofing. The Lads lined up with a youthful side which included only Peter Hartley with as much as a single (substitute) league appearance for the first team. The trend for revolving the captaincy for reserve matches continued with Michael Kay taking the armband whilst Robbie Weir played wide right with Jake Richardson the in the centre.

The Lads took an early lead when Michael Liddle played a defence splitting ball through for the energetic Martyn Waghorn to run on to and his cut back beat the home keeper and Robbie Weir slotted home.

The Roofer’s only real chance of the first half, came ten minutes later when a corner was headed just past the back stick. Sunderland dominated the rest of the first half but clear chances were hard to come by against a committed home side.

Half Time: Jarrow Roofing 0 v 1 Sunderland Reserves

Whilst the Lads had the better of the first half, the home side came out for the second much more aggressively and were rewarded for their endeavours on 56 minutes. A free kick out on the right was whipped in and the bounce sat up nicely for Andrew Johnson to shoot. Hunter saved the initial shot but Paul Catto was on hand to smash the ball home into the roof of the empty net.

The equaliser sparked Sunderland back into life and Waghorn should have restored their lead minutes later when Donoghue’s diagonal ball found the striker clean through, but his shot was hit straight at the keeper.

The Lads continued to press and could have scored with either of two shots from Billy Dennehy, who like the Bolton match had an unusually quiet night and Jack Colback who also duplicated his performance against Bolton by running the show, only this time it was from the starting whistle.

Six minutes from time, just as a Jarrow attack fizzled out, Henderson broke away and crossed the ball to Jack Colback who took a couple touches to compose himself and fired coolly into the bottom right corner to make it 2v1.

The lads wrapped it up inside injury time when Henderson cut in from the left and hit a 35 yarder off the underside of the bar and David Dowson was on hand to beat the keeper to the ball with his head.

Again Jack Colback looked a class act, linking play and running the show from midfield whilst Peter Hartley’s recent improvement continued as he marshalled the defence well.

Full Time: Jarrow Roofing 1 v 3 Sunderland Reserves

Sunderland: Hunter, Kay, Hartley, Donoghue, Liddle, Richardson (Cook), Weir (Henderson), Colback, Dennehy (Luscombe), Waghorn, Dowson. Sub unused: McArdle,

Man of the Match: Jack Colback

Attendance: 319

Facts by: Michael Hall, Words by: Dov