Tuesday 6th October 2009

Sunderland Reserves 2 v Manchester City Reserves 3

(Ball 55 & 93 Mins, Poole 82 Mins)

 

City reserves made their furthest journey of the season to Sunderland; now that the two Manchester and Liverpool clubs are the most Southerly in our league. Fortunately the long journey was very fruitful as City played their part in a very entertaining encounter at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground; the home of Hetton Town and where Ched Evans scored a fine hat-trick to win the game three one; two season's ago. City's goals came from James Poole and a brace from our reserve player of the month David Ball who led the line superbly last night.

 

Probably the major surprise about the game was that given that Michael Johnson clearly needs match fitness why perhaps he was excluded from the squad. So both sides lined up with under twenty one teams that were clearly hungry to impress; especially the Sunderland players as the big boss, Steve Bruce was watching from the sidelines.

 

We knew we were in for an exciting game as within the first five minutes Sunderland's captain and fullback Michael Kay go forward into the box and had a shot that hit the crossbar. Just a few minutes later a surging run from left back Greg Cunningham whilst playing a one two with Ball got himself free as he entered the area but the defender stayed close and did enough to put Greg off as he shot wide.

 

Ryan Noble's pace up front was causing City a few problems and Reece Wabara had to slide in with a tackle to stop him running free; but he was a little late and had to be booked. The resulting free kick was not fully cleared and it eventually fell to Conor Hourihane who's shot was saved well by Tobias Johansen.

 

That desperate defending seemed to liven City up as they had a ten or fifteen minute spell where they really put pressure on the Sunderland goal. The first chance in that spell came with the ball being moved down the right and into Ball who created space before playing Poole in who's shot was straight at Ben Wilson in the Sunderland goal. The second was when Abdi Ibrahim moved from midfield with the defence backing off and Poole, Ball and Robbie Mak making the angles but Abdi decided to use the space to shoot from twenty five yards; but he shot just over the crossbar.

 

City came out in the second half applying similar pressure on Sunderland and that paid off in the fifty fifth minute when Robbie Mak was brought down to win a free kick; Scott Kay played the ball into the area and Wabara rose best to head the ball on where Ibrahim attempted a bicycle kick but missed and deflected the ball on where Ball reacted quickest as he had a looping shot over his shoulder and into the far corner of the goal.

 

City then had a mad five minutes as they saw that lead completely reversed when the ever lively Ryan Noble had the pace to get to a rather loose ball before Dedryck Boyata and Johansen and he flicked it over Johansen and into the far corner of the goal. The game was stopped for over a minute while Boyata was treated and eventually replaced by Tom Smith as he was too badly injured to continue The second Sunderland goal came almost immediately after the restart in the sixtieth minute; when again Noble's pace allowed him to get beyond the City defence in a close off side call and fire the ball low and hard into the near post of the goal.

 

With nearly twenty minutes remaining City made the attacking changes of Omar Elabdellaoui coming on for Scott Kay and Jeremy Helan coming on for Karl Moore. That really made a difference and City looked the more likely to get the next goal. It came in the eighty second minute when Cunningham was his usual forward thinking self as he made a run into the box before laying the ball back for Ball who steadied himself and fired low and hard into the near post; but Wilson got down well but he could not hold onto the ball and the rebound fell kindly to Poole who confidently slotted the ball into the back of the goal.

 

With just over two minutes remaining of the game Sunderland's Liam Noble was injured in a challenge and his treatment and substitution took just over two minutes and so there was no surprise that there was a few minutes of stoppage time; I was expecting four minutes but the fourth official raised his board with a big five on it and this drove City on again.

 

So in the ninety third minute Poole had forced the defence to back of until the edge of the area but Ball had peeled off slightly wide and when he received the ball he was able to turn sharply but appeared to slip as he shot at goal and maybe that deceived Wilson as the ball went passed him and into the back of the goal.

 

City moved back up the league to second; just behind Manchester United on goal difference after the disappointment of the defeat last week to Liverpool. I was very impressed yet again with David Ball and the way that he is able to bring the talents of Poole and Mak into the game as he has greatly improved his strength to hold the ball up. City next game is at home where they will revert to playing back at the Regional Athletics Arena after the bonus of playing in the main stadium for the last two games.

 

Teams:

Sunderland

Wilson, Kay, Brown, Reed, Madden(Egan 81), Cornforth,Wood(O'Mahoney), L Noble(Adams 90),R Noble, Hourihane,Luscombe

Subs: Pickford(GK),Hubbuck

Manchester City

T Johansen, Vidal, Cunningham,Wabara, Boyata(Smith 58) ,Kay(Elabdellaoui 73), Mak, Ibrahim, Ball, Poole, Moore(Helen 73)

Subs: E Johansen(GK), Redshaw

 

ATT: 556