Beating Carlisle in the league cup, or what is now correctly called the Caraboa Cup (what, you may ask but I looked it up and they produce ‘energy drinks’), has a sting in the tail. We did our bit, winning 2-1. But you have to get up at some idiotic hour on Thursday morning to find out who Sunderland will play in the third round.
The second round took us to Brunton Park, where supporters of both sides joined in one minute of applause for Bill Green, the Newcastle-born former captain of Carlisle United and scorer of their first goal in the 2-0 win at Chelsea that was followed by two more victories putting them briefly top of the First Division (sad to relate, they went down in bottom place!).
Pete Sixsmith drove west for this one. He was not greatly impressed, spotting more missed chances for Carlisle than us and feeling Lynden Gooch’s winner – a finish he described as ‘classy’, to Gooch’s delight (he ‘liked’ the relevant tweet) – effectively ‘got us out of the s***’.
August 22 League Cup: Carlisle United (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 2 Classy finish by Gooch masks scrappy performance
August 19 SAFC 0 (0) Leeds United 2 (1) Weaknesses exposed by a solid Leeds team
August 16 Sheffield Wednesday (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 1 Looked tired in second half. Decent point
August 13 Norwich City 1 (0) Sunderland 3 (1) Very well organised and three cracking goals
August 8 League Cup: Bury 0 (0) Sunderland (0) 1 Hardly convincing but a win’s a win
August 4 2017 Sunderland (1) 1 Derby County (1) 1 Encouraging second half. Something to build on
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