OTD: SUNDERLAND 4-2 MK DONS

On this day in 2013, Sunderland scored four goals in the last 12 minutes to avoid a cup defeat to MK Dons. This match would go on to be a part of SAFC folklore, as we made the final that year, but we were 15 minutes away from being dumped out at the first time of asking…

Paolo Di Canio was yet to manage Sunderland to a victory in 2013/14, and the Lads hosted MK Dons going into the game extremely low on confidence. Looking back, the Dons side had a handful of really high-quality players who went on to play in the Premier League: including George Baldock, but more notably Patrick Bamford and a recently-turned-17 Dele Alli. Ironically, Brendan Galloway was also on the bench and years later he would go on to endure a dreadful loan spell with Sunderland. Former Leeds and Manchester United player Alan Smith was also playing in their midfield. Karl Robinson, a man we would go on to face countless times during the dark League One days, was in the dugout at the time.

We lined up: Manone (debut), Celustka, O’Shea, Roberge, Colback, Johnson, Cabral, Vaughan, Moberg Karlsson (debut), Altidore, Ji.

It was a heavily rotated squad (six changes from the last game) and that was obvious - Bamford put the visitors ahead after just seven minutes and to be honest, even this early in the game it was deserved. Ji was sloppy to give the ball away and the Chelsea loanee picked it up on the edge of the box. He slotted a nice finish into the bottom corner, past the helpless debuting Mannone.

Ji, who was clearly a player with talent but seemed to be hugely affected by a lack of confidence, soon lost the ball again. Paolo Di Canio looked like he was going to explode and sent Connor Wickham to warm up! Dons had a few early chances to double their lead - the first one came when a set piece was headed goalwards and smartly parried away by Mannone, the second came when some good football carved us open but Izale McLeod pulled his shot wide.

Still in the first half, Jozy Altidore was desperately unlucky not to score his first Sunderland goal when his fierce effort struck the post. David Moberg Karlsson mis-hit the rebound before heading a tame effort towards their goalkeeper. Altidore could easily have equalised there but the score remained 0-1 going into the break.

To display his anger at Ji and show the South Korean exactly what the fans thought of his first-half performance, Paolo Di Canio did not make any changes at half time despite Wickham warming up for most of the first 45. Instead, he waited until 49 minutes to haul the striker off, to ironic cheers from most of the stadium.

On 55, Cabral messed up a pass near the halfway line and we were punished once again for being poor in possession. McLeod was allowed to run the entire length of our half unchallenged and coolly chipped his shot over the onrushing Mannone. He missed a golden chance to score in the first half but made no mistake here. 0-2.

Di Canio introduced Seb Larsson from the bench and also gave Charis Mavrias his debut, but the whole team was still flat. MK controlled the game and never looked like breaking a sweat. However, we were handed a lifeline when Wickham lifted a ball over the top to release Altidore, one-on-one with the keeper. He showed great pace and kept his composure, slotting his first Sunderland goal into the bottom corner with confidence. The first of many for our American forward? Maybe not.

The goal seemed to wake our Lads up - they’d sleepwalked through most of the game but now there was a real opportunity for a cup comeback. Some nice build-up play led to a Celustka cut-back for Wickham, who finished the move and made it 2-2 with three minutes left on the clock. Nice one Connor, you changed the game from the bench, thanks for taking this game to a draw and forcing a replay.

Before the fans had even finished celebrating that equaliser though, Jozy Altidore won a free kick which he took quickly - he passed to Wickham whose long-ranger took a massive deflection and bobbled into the back of the net. 3-2 out of absolutely nowhere, just as the clock ticked over 90 minutes and six of added time was announced.

During those six minutes we added a fourth, from Johnson who skipped down the wing and finished from a tight angle. For 75 minutes Sunderland were really bad, but somehow managed to come away from the tie with a victory and four goals! Altidore improved hugely in the last 15 minutes but it was Connor Wickham who deserved most of the credit, scoring twice from the bench and generally making himself a nuisance.

After the game, our mad gaffer Di Canio said: We can be happy with the win; when you come back like we did it's something special - it's not very often you score four goals in 13 minutes; that was special. We made the fans and the club happy and ourselves in some way, but I have to be strict on this because I did not enjoy the first 75 minutes. If we only focus on the last 15 minutes then we are never going to improve. It is my job to keep everybody's feet on the ground because otherwise it will be difficult. My team is still a work in progress. What we can take from this game is heart and pride, the team showed great desire and ambition and they never gave up. It was an incredible cup game.”

He was sacked less than a month later having registered just one league point, Gus Poyet came in, Sunderland stayed up and we got to the League Cup final this year. In a strange way, PDC might argue that our success in the cup was down to his substitutions in this game.