A very young Sunderland reserve side were given a lesson in finishing by a powerful Hull City outfit in our first home game of the FA Premier Reserve League season at Hetton on Tuesday night.

Keith Bertschin kept faith with the youngsters who’d done so well to win at Wigan last week although with injuries to Meyler, Liddle, Luscombe, Weir, Noble and Madden and with Carson not risked given Marton Fulop’s injury, all on top of seven players out on loan and a much smaller squad than last season, it was arguable that he didn’t have much choice.

Despite being the brighter side for the first half hour the Lads were completely undone when the Tigers hit three goals inside the seven minutes leading up to half time.

The lads lined up with Kay (captain) partnering Cornforth in the centre of defence and Bagnall and Brown right and left respectively. Central midfield consisted of Reed and Hourihane, of which the latter looked much more comfortable than when deputising at left back during pre-season. Slegg and O’Mahoney provided the width, with Ryan Noble and finally the token first team experience of O’Donovan up front.

The lads started well, with Reed covering every blade of grass and repeatedly robbing the opposition by playing right up in their faces and Hourihane provided an excellent foil to Adam stroking and passing the ball to good effect. O’Mahoney looked a threat down the left although a few less tricks and a bit more crossing may have been more productive. However, it was the Irish youngster who had the first opportunity but he skied the 25 yard free kick so high it almost cleared next door’s lei landi and that’s no mean feat as there are aircraft that barely manage that.

Moments later Reed robbed a Hull player and O’Donovan gained possession but instead of an easy ball out to his right for Noble to run on to he fluffed his lines and lost possession cheaply.

Hull’s first chance was created and taken by Featherstone who turned Kay inside out and then again but having completed the hard work shot tamely at Misiewicz.

Hourihane was fortunate not to get a yellow card for an ill judged challenge on a Hull midfielder before Bagnall, who had a solid game, drove forward down the right jinking past his man inside the box but shot across the goal beyond the far post.

Just before the half hour mark O’Donovan managed what he had failed to do earlier by slotting in Noble and the youngster grabbed his second reserve goal in two games to see the Lads take the lead. That prompted a Falcao style celebration from the ball boy next to us which was understandable given how he and everyone else outside the main stand was getting utterly soaked and miserable in the pouring rain.

O’Donovan reverted to type minutes later when again he could have played in Noble but tried a Frazier Campbell-esque overhead kick which, well how can I be kind, wasn’t as good as Frazier’s.

Had it been a favour in the first place, Ryan returned it minutes later when he did excellent work down the right and crossed to the far post only for Roy to just miss out on doubling the lead.

Hull then sent the Lads a warning when the impressive Kendall chested down a powerful cross and swivelled in one flowing movement hitting an excellent shot toward the top of the net but it was too close to Misiewicz who palmed it over the bar.

If it was a warning, it wasn’t heeded and an excellent right wing cross was clinically converted by Tom Cairney at he back post to restore parity. Minutes later Adam Slegg collapsed to the ground holding what looked to be his hamstring as he chased Wigan’s left winger, but his Latic counterpart showed no mercy for him, cut in and pulled it back for Featherstone to stroke home all too easily. There was to be no Paulo Di Canio sportsmanship moment to save us from conceding.

On the stroke of half time things not only got worse but comical as Cornforth did some sort of footballing hokey-cokey with their centre forward before weakly allowing him to turn and as Misiewicz took an airshot of Paul Robinson proportions, Kendall stroked home coolly.

Half time was a godsend and a chance to reorganise but soon after a good clearance from Cornforth just before the hour mark the resultant corner kick saw the impressive Fagan capitalise on indecision and effect an overhead with a somewhat better result than Roy. Four-one became five thanks again to Fagan who delighted in pointing out the score to one of our defenders who perhaps should have been tighter.

Things went from bad to worse when a poor two-footed challenge from Brown kicked off an almighty melee on the left wing. I’ve a feeling Bally’s gonna be having words with one or two of them this morning and I think I’m too scared to even be a fly of the wall of that room. He wasn’t best pleased. Anyhow, for those few remaining fans given the weather and score-line it may well have been the highlight of the second half, but lets not tell Bally that.

Full Time: Sunderland Reserves 1-5 Hull City Reserves

Sunderland: Misiewicz, Bagnall, Brown, Reed (Wilson) Kay, Cornforth, Slegg, Hourihane, O’Donovan, Noble, O’Mahoney

Subs unused: Egan, Hubbuck

Man of the Match: Reed just pips it for his 60 minutes of graft

Attendance: 638

Dov