On this day in 2022, Sunderland exited the League Cup with a whimper against lower league opposition. Sound familiar? Here's Sobs' report from that day at Hillsborough...
Well, if the gaffer had said that they weren’t going to bother, perhaps I and a few hundred others wouldn’t have bothered either – let’s be thankful it was Sheffield and not Swindon we travelled to. In an encounter that could best be described as far from the top of the list of priorities of both clubs, we looked like a side that didn’t really want to be there – I’ve seen more interesting weather forecasts than that second half.
A goal in each period did for us, and perhaps the best we can say is that few of the eleven who started have a chance of doing so on Saturday. It was far - very far - from avenging the play-off defeat, but Wednesday can be well satisfied with their performance against our second string.
On another roasty, toasty day, we zipped down the A1 by car with a noticeable lack of the usual matchday traffic, and our only excitement was the driver’s specs falling to bits when we stopped for an ice cream at the services. That and being entertained by music from the album The Wonderful World Of Depressing Country Music. Yee-hah indeed. Once parked up within striking distance of Hillsborough, spare specs having been put to good use, we decided to get in early to work out the seating arrangements – sit where you want, but don’t stand up in the first ten rows or you’ll be out, as it turned out. We watched the warm-up, when some of our players were getting shot up the backside by the sprinklers, probably in an attempt to cool down, as it was as clammy as a swimming pool changing room. As at the end of last season, we were in the West Stand, with the East Stand closed.
Bass
Winchester Wright (c) Alese
Hume O'Nien Mate Sohna
Embleton Diamond Roberts
..and a bench of: Patterson, Cirkin, Batth, Simms, Gooch, Clarke, Spellman, Neil, and Kelly.
In the stripes, we attacked the empty end opposite us and set things away. The home side quickly set out their stall by getting injured and dragging the physio on at every opportunity, resulting in an injury/drinks break on 10 minutes. Those opening minutes had seen possession fairly evenly shared, but had been long enough to confirm that Alese, although a left-footed defender, isn’t comfortable on the left side of a three – as suspected at Hartlepool. As a result, his attempts at forward passing were less than accurate – he said kindly – as the two sides made like rubbish boxers as they traded equally ineffective punches.
On 16 minutes, it all changed. They played the ball into the centre from their right, and Aderinan stepped sideways twice to open up space for his left peg, and hit an unstoppable one from 25 yards up to Bass's right. No chance for the keeper.
Most of our movement up front was coming from Diamond, who was a bundle of energy as he chased balls in from Roberts and Winchester on the right, but shooting opportunities were hard to come by. When we won a corner on the right, we took it short and basically over-complicated things, so that when it eventually came in, O’Nien could only head tamely into the keeper’s arms from beyond the back post.
Considering the number of times Wednesday players had called for medical assistance, it was a mysterious miracle that they didn’t make a substitution until the 44th minute – Sow replacing Gregory up front when you’d have expected them to wait for the break. Wright then went against type and hit a Varga-esque (ask yer dad) pass 60 yards out to Roberts, but when he passed it to the edge of the box, Diamond snatched at it from a narrow angle, and blasted it high and wide.
The whistle came after an added three minutes and gave us the chance to dissect the performance. That dissection proved more interesting than the performance itself, as we’d seen plenty of the ball in central midfield, but both Embo and Matete went either sideways or back over, and O’9 had looked, as he did at Hartlepool, unsure of where he was supposed to be in front of them and behind Diamond. There had been loose passing all over the field despite the amount of time and apparent care we took in moving it out from the back. Even then, Bass had not been required to do much more than confidently take a high cross – a prodigious leap, I believe it’s called – and pick the ball out of the net.
Unsurprisingly, we made no changes for the second half while the home side replaced Henegan with Ihiekwe in their defence. That’ll be the last time I attempt to spell that one. Roberts started the half more central, which gave us brief hope that Diamond would have some help in the box, but it didn’t work out that way. Roberts did produce some trademark dancing feet, but couldn’t quite find space for a shot – not enough space to his satisfaction, although we in the seats thought there’d been plenty of space to loose one. Obviously. He did well, though, to lose his man and get it out to Hume, who whacked in a low cross which zipped across the face of goal, but evaded the outstretched legs of both Diamond and Sohna. Nearly but not quite, and that little spell of play turned out to be our one bright point in the game when we actually looked like we might get back into it.
Soon after that, the game was over as a contest, when Bass tried to find Alese on the left, but his pass was easily intercepted by goalscorer Adeniran who hit it first time to the back post where Sow stood unmarked, and he had the relatively simple task of putting it low to Bass’s right and into the corner. After fifteen minutes of showing why they’d win and we wouldn’t, Wednesday replaced Paterson with Cook, and another ten ineffectual minutes passed – the only highlight, if it can be called that, being O’9 hoofing a clearance over the North Stand – before they made two more changes and we made one, as Spellman replaced Embo for his competitive debut.
A foul on Roberts in a central position did give us a chance, but it was cleared out to the right, where O’9 was clipped and Roberts had another chance – which he wasted by going for the far top corner from close to the corner flag and missing. That was his last kick, as Kelly was given six minutes to impress on his debut.
At that point, Wednesday sat back and we produced a period of impressive, if ineffective, passing that had our fans indulging in a spot of irony as we sang “we’ve got the ball, we’ve got the ball.” This continued into the four added minutes, and it at least gave the debutants the chance to chase things about and get used to what a first team game should be like.
Then it was all over, and we headed down the steps and out, in a mood far from that we'd been in last time we descended. I went to put some rubbish in the bin, attracting worried looks from the polis and stewards – then I saw the words KNIFE AMNESTY BIN. “It’s only some sweet wrappers”, I told them. The miniature Swiss army knife remains safely, and safe, in my pocket.
If that was, as it looked, merely a chance to get first-team game time into the players who are unlikely to be first choices, then it worked. If it was, as it looked, the gaffer showing that we need more strength in depth, then it worked – as he said himself after the game, we had a wide man at centre forward and a central midfielder on the left wing. If it was, as it very much didn’t look, a serious attempt to progress in the League Cup, it failed. As Roy Keane, amongst many others, said – winning becomes a habit. Perhaps breaking that habit will come back to bite us. Perhaps it won’t, as we did have over 60% of the possession – that’s me looking for the positives.
