The Ressies opened their Premier League Reserve programme at the Stadium of Light, with the most attractive fixture of the season at home to the most unattractive of teams. Yes the barcodes were in town.

Kevin Richardson fielded a youthful side with the exception of play maker Graham Kavanagh. Disappointingly, Ian Harte’s international clearance had been delayed, preventing him from having a useful 90 minutes match practice. Hartey had to make do with a seat on the sidelines with Stokesy as company, unlucky.

The home side’s best scoring chance early on came after excellent work by Michael Kay down the right hand flank but his deep cross was just marginally behind David Dowson’s run, preventing the striker from making a truer contact, with the goal at his mercy.

However, with the exception of two foraging runs from Kay, it was the visitors who started the brighter and it was no great surprise when they took the lead after 12 minutes when Jonathan Godsmark worked some space inside of Michael Liddle and curled a shot into the far top corner of the net giving Carson no chance. The handful of barcodes who had made the trip applauded loudly, but I guess it’s easier to clap loudly when you’ve got six fingers on each hand.

Sunderland stepped up a gear backed by over three thousand home fans and soon after Dowson’s claims for obstruction inside the area were turned away by a consistently unsympathetic referee, Weir dragged his shot wide of the right hand upright.

Just after the half hour mark, Kavanagh found O’Donovan clean through with a raking pass and the Irishman should perhaps have just lifted the ball over the stranded keeper’s head but hesitated just long enough for Forster to reposition and pull off a good save tipping O’Donovan’s effort over the bar.

The save was to be in vain, however, as Dennehy’s corner was headed in powerfully by captain Donoghue. Just before the break, Kavanagh saw his 25 yard direct free kick just turned round his post by Forster.

H/T 1v1

Just when you thought there was no-one on the earth you hated more than the mags, enter Messers Wise and Poyet, who’d presumably come to see some decent footballers instead of their third tier crap. Still it was nice that Poyet suppressed the urge to throw any balls onto the pitch during play, cheers Gus.

After a fruitless, and indeed meatless, wait in the pie queue it was back to the action and Kevin Richardson must have given a good half time talk as the lads flew out of the blocks. Richardson junior came on to replace Michael Kay, who after a solid first half display may well have played his way in to contention for duty at Old Trafford on Saturday. The versatile Robbie Weir dropped back from wide right midfield to Kay’s favoured right back spot allowing Jake to slot in, in front of him.

It took only two minutes for the lads to take the lead, when O’Donovan burst into the box and intelligently pulled the ball back only to see Forster parry the ball out but just as far as the on-rushing Chandler who blasted it high into the net 2v1, well, we always win 2v1, don’t we? I wish.

The following twenty minutes was dominated by the lads. First Dowson dragged his shot wide of the post and O’Donovan saw his effort just turned round the post after good work from Richardson who contributed well after coming on in an unfamiliar wide position.

There was a warning, however, for the home side when against the run of play Troisi quickly closed down a back pass to Carson who blasted it against him and thankfully out for a goal kick and the Aussie was lucky he didn’t end up back ‘down under’ after the power in Carson’s attempted clearance.

On 68 minutes and very much against the run of play, Lough’s ball from the left landed at the feet of Doninger who blasted home from so far out, only the pie queue at half time had travelled further. Carson had no chance for the second time in the evening after having little else to do.

On 75 minutes O’Donovan showed great foot work again bursting into the box and after Chandler had uncharacteristically miscued, the ball dropped to Richardson, who headed just wide.

The match ended with Sunderland’s young team having failed to capitalise on a purple patch early in the second half when they should have put the game out of the reach of the mags and although normally there would be no denying the quality of Doninger’s equalising goal, he’s a mag, so it was a lucky 25 yard scuff.

Full Time: Sunderland Reserves 2 v 2 Scum Reserves

Attendance: 3271

Sunderland: Carson, Kay (Jake Richardson, 45), Liddle, Hartley, Donoghue (cpt), Kavanagh, Weir, Chandler, Dowson (Waghorn 75), O'Donovan, Dennehy. Subs unused: Hunter, Luscombe, Henderson

Man of the Match: Jamie Chandler