The Sunderland Youths thrashed their counterparts from Norwich 6-1 in an entertaining match at the Stadium of Light. The only consolation for the handful of visiting fans being that they could keep count of our goals on one hand – I on the other ‘hand’ had to rely on my mate Michael.

The Lads had considerable reserve experience in the form of Kay, Henderson, Waghorn, Luscombe and captain, Jack Colback. As early as the first minute, Martyn Waghorn slipped a lovely weighted ball through to Nathan Luscombe but Nath failed to take the pass in his stride and the danger was cleared.

Waghorn was unlucky not to win a penalty a few minutes later when he drove a ball in from the right hand edge of the box and it struck a defender’s arm. Maybe more ball to hand than vice versa but if it were Stamford Bridge and we were Chelski we would have got it. We’re Sunderland so we didn’t.

Luscombe then returned the favour to Wags on the quarter hour mark but an uncharacteristically poor first touch let him down when clean through.

Adam Reed was then stamped on after a perfectly fair challenge and the ref did precisely what you would expect a ref would do for us - nowt. Having said that he must have been fully four yards from the incident and looking straight at it, so you couldn’t expect him to notice anything from that sort of range. It was an injury that probably accounted for Reed’s non appearance at the start of the second period.

The opening goal came after 23 minutes following good pressure from Waghorn resulted in a poor clearance by the City keeper Emson and Jordan Henderson returned the ball straight back over Emson’s flailing arms into the net with a trademark long range shot.

Norwich immediately forced a corner and equalised through Danny Kelly, with Hunter’s lack of height appearing to be the decisive factor. Soon after Josh Home-Jackson forced a good save from the Emson but from the resultant corner Waghorn scored his first goal of the night with a near post header.

Five minutes before the break Adam Reed’s shot from just outside the box deflected into the net leaving Emson wrong footed and with no chance.

H/T 3-1

Shortly before the hour mark Home-Jackson blocked an attempted clearance by the City backline and his direct run left space at the back post for Waghorn to arrive unmarked and slot home his second.

It was notable that even at 4-1 and with only 20 minutes left, the Sunderland lads were still hungry for more and chased down every ball – I guess you’d expect nothing else from any of Bally’s teams.

Home-Jackson showed some sublime footwork and shot narrowly wide of the post from just outside the box. He was then replaced by under 16 Ryan Noble who scored a few minutes later with possibly only his second touch of the game. He showed good pace latching on to McArdle’s long through ball, got an excellent touch with his forehead to stop the ball sitting up too high for him and despatched the ball low into the net.

Waghorn narrowly missed with a rocket past the junction of the far post and crossbar from just outside the box but wrapped up his hat-trick with a minute remaining when he slotted home with his left foot after good work from Henderson.

Any hat-trick performance is likely to get you the man of the match award but Waghorn contributed constantly throughout the match. Jack Colback was impressive as ever, Henderson and Luscombe played well and young Joe Cornforth looked assured enough to apply some pressure to the older centre backs currently making the reserve side.

Hats off to the crowd too - an impressive turn out of 487 - which for a youth match on a bitterly cold night, with an entry fee to pay when you could have stayed in and considered Sarah Beeny’s finer points on TV is a good turn out.

The crowd also included amongst many Stokesy, Whitehead, Ward, McShane and Carson. I’m hoping their presence was more to do with supporting the youngsters and nothing to do with blanket bans at the Spider, threats from Bally or ignorance of the aforementioned Beeny’s finer points. Fair play to them all if it was.

The lads will play the winners of Wednesday’s Blackpool v Macclesfield Town tie. This may cause some head scratching for my 7 year old Sunderland season ticket holding nephew, Charlie, a resident of Macclesfield and Macclesfield Town season ticket holder on the side. Who will he support if we get ‘Macc’? I think the answer would be like tonight’s match - no contest. Ha’way the Lads.

Full Time: Sunderland Youths 6 – 1 Norwich City Youths

Sunderland: Hunter, Kay, Hourihane (Adams), Reed (Cook), Cornforth, McArdle, Henderson, Colback, Home-Jackson (Noble), Waghorn, Luscombe.

Subs unused: Wilson, Slegg

Man of the Match: Martyn Waghorn

Attendance: 487

Dov