The Lads posted their third win in four league games beating a very young Hull City side 2-1. The lads lined up with McArdle and Hartley in the centre of defence and Dowson leading the line, with Henderson and Luscombe attacking from right and left respectively, and Colback looking like he’d been asked to get up early, supporting from deep.

The young Hull keeper Mark Oxley, who if I was less biased may have grabbed man of the match pulled off the first of many good saves from captain Jack as early as the fourth minute. As the half wore on Jack appeared to have to drop deeper to collect the ball as our defence nervously passed the ball out of play or to the opposition as often as to each other. However, his dropping deep wrestled play away from Hull who had started quite brightly early on and it has to be said that at least early in the match, it was surprising that the visitors had started the night rooted to the bottom of the league.

Just before the mid way point of the half Nathan Luscombe, who was lively all night, forced a good save from Oxley, who dived low to his right, after Nath had cut in from the left to the edge of the box and shot. Nath worked another good position a minute later but his effort this time was to the keeper’s right hand post and was too weak to beat Oxley.

Shortly before the half hour mark Kav nearly embarrassed the otherwise excellent Oxley, hitting a thunderous shot inches past he post with the keeper not just rooted to the spot but stranded on the wrong side of his goal. I can only assume he hadn’t even seen Kav shoot, even by the time it thundered against the hoardings behind the goal.

The Lads nearly paid the price of their profligacy as the Tigers counter-attacked and one of their young strikers threw himself to the ground looking for a penalty. There may have been the merest of contact from Colgan but the lad took another two steps a la Gary McAllister (only even worse) before he realised he wasn’t going to get a good enough angle and pt Greg Louganis to shame as he hit the ground. If he regretted the decision immediately for its utter foolishness, he was reminded in no uncertain terms of its egregious nature as he was utterly slaughtered by the massed ranks of the Hetton posse behind the goal.

Five minutes later and the Lads took the lead after Meyler had played a good ball out wide to Luscombe and he took one good touch to play it sweetly into his stride and then flashed a cross straight into the valley of uncertainty and this time there was nothing Oxley could do as Dowse slid in to convert.

Michael ‘Lids’ Liddle broke again down the left and hit a lovely rising shot to the far side of goal but it just went the wrong side of the far apex.

Oxley then did well to prevent Luscombe from scoring with a header and the follow up by McArdle was blocked, after an excellent dead ball from Jordan Henderson.

The last effort of the half, on target, came against the run of play when Hull broke and Featherstone turned inside Lids and tried to cut his shot short to the front post but saw it go narrowly wide.

H/T The Lads 1-0 Hull City

Lids started and finished the first good move of the second half when he broke from his own half, drove forward at pace and after Dowse had momentarily held the ball up, he allowed the over lapping Lids to take over and cut in towards goal. The young Irish full back then turned inside beautifully but perhaps his preference for his left foot saw him snatch at a shot to the near post when, despite a lack of support, playing it across the keeper may have been a better option.

Jordan Henderson who hadn’t been fed enough ball in the first half received better service in the second and started to exert more influence on the game. His sublime ball into Colback saw the latter set up Dowse but the keeper somehow just got some part of his torso to it to take the sting out of the shot before it was cleared by a covering defender.

Colgan who had had little to do in the half then sold Pistols Pete Hartley short and when Welsh intercepted and struck the ball first time it looked like they would equalise, however, Colgan atoned for his mistake and blocked the goal bound shot and collected the ball at the second attempt. A close call.

Oxley then saved a Kav free kick although like his opposite number, he needed to collect it at the second attempt. Yet more close calls followed as Jack put a ball right on Meyler’s head only for Meyler to decide he didn’t fancy it and so pulled out, and then Luscombe’s glanced header lacked the power to beat the keeper.

A fantastic break from Kav emanating in his own half, saw Jordan cut in from the right but Oxley pulled off yet another good block. Lids broke well again down the left and at full stretch just managed to scoop the ball into the centre to see the on rushing captain Jack make contact. I felt that Oxley made yet another good save for a goal kick, forcing the ball over the crossbar but the ref thought otherwise. What do I know?

Luscombe was then booked for his reaction to a strong challenge by Welsh and was soon substituted perhaps to keep him from getting into further trouble. His all round play was very good again tonight and whilst not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm he may need to learn when to let the ref deal with things, when to stay down and how not to be drawn into handbags to maximise his potential. That shouldn’t, however, take away from what was nearly a man of the match performance.

With 12 minutes to go, Colgan bravely dived at the feet or should I say studs of a Hull forward and minutes later the lads doubled their advantage when Kav followed up after Dowson’s shot had been well saved by Oxley, to arrow home from ten yards.

Mart Poom’s lovechild then came on under the assumed name of Darragh Sattelle (you gotta see his face, spitting image), and then seconds after Sir Royston got up to leave, Hartley gave away a ridiculous penalty. Pistols wasn’t even looking at the ball which had gone in behind him as he went ‘american football’ and simply shoved Sattelle to the ground deep inside the box. Stonewall I believe is the in-phrase. The whinging number six, Doyle, who screamed ‘Ref’ at every opportunity sent Colgan the wrong way.

Having got that decision right, the ref then blew for a foul when Prica looked clean through and was taken down by the last defender, Deagle. Had he felt that the defender had clipped the Swede accidentally as they crossed each others paths at speed and he hadn’t given anything I wouldn’t have been too upset but he did what all refs do and ballsed it up completely by giving a foul but only a yellow card to Deagle. It was either a red or ‘a benefit of the doubt and it’s the last minute of the match nothing’ but never a yellow.

Prica was again involved in the only other note worthy moment of the match when Bruce Lee slipped unnoticed on to the pitch to play centre back for Hull and tried to break Rada’s legs with a crude kung fu style stamp and as the crowd bayed and Prica looked round at the ref with arms outstretched in a ‘surely you’re gonna do something about that’ gesture, the ref did what refs do and bottled and blew for time, not knowing how to deal with it. Pathetic.

The ressies now head to Jersey for a friendly at the weekend. Boss, any chance of an all expenses paid trip?

Full Time: Sunderland Reserves 2-1 Hull City Reserves

Sunderland: Colgan, Kay, McArdle, Hartley, Liddle, Meyler (Chandler), Kavanagh, Colback, Luscombe (Cook), Henderson, Dowson (Prica)

Subs unused: Misiewicz, Brown, Madden

Man of the Match: Lids for being comfortably the best defender and for numerous excellent bursts deep into Hull’s half.

Attendance: 1086, good effort

Dov