No disgrace

As reported by Joan Dawson last night, Sunderland’s Under 18s found Man City too tough a hurdle in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup semi-finals, losing 2-0 before a decent crowd at the Stadium of Light. Pete Sixsmith was there for Salut! Sunderland, and of course for himself, and is likely to offer his thoughts on the game later. In the meantime, let us hear what other SAFC fans made of it at the Blackcats forum

Ian Todd

Lost 2-0 in front of 4191 crowd. Seemingly lots of pressure but couldn’t score. Now where have we seen that before?


Mike Hillam

Man City were the better side overall but we pretty much equalled them on chances and could easily have had a couple second half. Sufficiently impressed that heads did not go down and we continued to try and have a go.
Crowd quoted only includes paying spectators as gates were opened around ten past seven with at least another three or four thousand then piling into the ground pretty much filling the west stand and into the corners.

Gordon Taylor

Good side, though, City, especially the 2 lads playing upfront with Sturridge, who I think was their only 1st team player. Having said that, they didn’t manage a goal between them and were gifted both goals by sloppy, 1st team style defending, not hoofing the ball away for the first and leaving the runner unmarked for the second (same full back) – many will have seen the goals on SSN. We did have them worried several times when we ran the ball into the box but didn’t have any luck at the vital moments. Colback smacked a beauty against the inside of the post when I think it was still 0-1 but ……I’d considered a trip down for the 2nd leg if we looked to have a decent chance but I think they will overwhelm us at home.
I did wonder about the crowd and whether they had made some kind of estimate to include the late entries (myself included). Does anyone know how many the West stand holds? Although the main sections were quite full at first glance, there was a lot of slack in there. It might have been easier to judge from inside when the crowd flooded in but I thought there were nearer 1000 still queuing when they opened the gates.

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