The Lads fell to a single goal defeat at home to league leaders Liverpool in their latest FA Premier League match at Eppleton CW’s home in Hetton.

An experienced side lined up with Weir at right back, Chandler and captain Dwight Yorke paired together in the middle and Stokes and Dowson up front. Billy Dennehy returned for his first match since returning from his loan at Accrington Stanley (who are they? exactly). Many of the regular youngsters were missing due to their FA Cup Youth match against Liverpool’s Youth side on Wednesday night at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland forced an early corner after good interplay from Stokes and Jake Richardson and the resultant kick saw Anderson head wide by a narrow margin.

On eight minutes Liverpool took the lead when Krisztian Nemeth brushed M’Voto aside, possibly unfairly although it was hard to tell from the far end but regardless of the legitimacy of the challenge, the Hungarian cleverly scooped the ball steeply over the advancing Carson to score what would turn out to be the only goal of the game. If the Sunderland fans were hoping the referee would give a decision against Nemeth they should have known better as yet another Groundhog-day of dismal refereeing decisions struck again for the umpty-ninth time this season.

On the quarter hour mark, Billy Dehenny sent in a superb pacey, spinning ball deep into the box that needed the simplest of touches to restore parity but no one gambled and the keeper, David Martin, (son of Alvin) held on to the ball, low to the ground at the second time of asking.

Anthony Stokes nearly caught Martin out minutes later when he looked as if he would hit the ball across the face of the goal but cleverly changed angle suddenly and drilled it through the defender’s legs at goal, but Martin just did enough to keep it out as it looked like it would sneak in at the near post. Bang on the half hour mark, Liverpool’s Jordy Brouwer, went clean through but Carson did excellently to narrow the angle and forced the striker to hit his shot just wide of the far left hand post.

H/T 0-1

It was a cold night and half time was one of the highlights of the evening with the Hetton Silver Band’s cracking rendition of ‘Abide With Me’ whilst Grace and the girls in the café provided me with what is pessimistically described as a bacon sarnie but appears to be more accurately described as half a pig in a mammoth sized bun…..and a coffee so full to the brim that there was barely enough room for any milk and all for only £2.80, magic.

For all Sunderland’s lion share of possession, they were finding efforts on goal hard to come by. Eight minutes after the restart Dowson looked to have got a good shot on target but it took a slight deflection off the calf of one of the Liverpool defenders and that took enough sting out of the shot to see Martin collect it comfortably. On the hour mark Gavin Donoghue replaced the Weir at right back and within seconds he saved Sunderland with a last ditch interception after Harte had played a suicide ball across the back four.

Man of the match Jamie Chandler then drew a fantastic double save from Martin after Richardson had sent Dowson away down the right hand side and his good centre was so nearly converted by the midfielder.

Just after the hour, the referee gave one of his trade mark poor decisions when adjudging M’Voto to have fouled his opponent when it looked clear that he had simply out powered him, shoulder to shoulder. The Scousers thought that they had scored from the free kick but a daft/inexperienced final touch from Ayala to Huth’s powerful header resulted in a correct offside decision when in fact the ball would have gone into the net without his touch and there was no defender any where close enough to have cleared it.

On seventy minutes Donoghue sent a header narrowly wide from a corner which was a carbon copy of Anderson’s early effort. If carbon copy doesn’t mean much to you then you’re probably under the age of 30 so get your dad to explain it to you whilst you’re asking him who the hell Alvin Martin is or was.

A minute later, M’Voto, whose aerial threat meant that he was fouled at every set play, saw his header superbly saved by Martin for what was probably our best effort of the night. The Frenchman then made a brilliant last ditch tackle deep inside our box although the Pool player probably dwelled too long on the ball and should have either shot or passed sooner. On 80 minutes Hartley replaced Yorke who subsequently passed the arm band to Jamie Chandler.

In the dying moments Sunderland committed everyone forward for a free kick and when the play was cleared and the visitors broke at pace Carson made an excellent block with his legs to keep the deficit to a single goal.

Although the Lads had the majority of possession they only really threatened at set pieces and it appears that the lack of regular youth team players such as Colback, Henderson, Luscombe and Waghorn had a greater effect than many might suppose. No Colback, no points ….a coincidence? You decide.

Full Time: Sunderland Reserves 0-1 The Scousers Reserves

Sunderland: Carson, Weir (Donoghue), Harte, Anderson, M’Voto, Chandler, Richardson (J), Yorke (Hartley), Dowson, Stokes, Dennehy

Subs unused: (Liam) Noble, Scott, Liddle

Man of the Match: Jamie Chandler pips M’Voto for it.

Attendance: 1324

Dov