Regardless of who they played, if Sunderland were at home, I was always going to go to their second round FA Youth Cup game. As there isn’t a great deal of choice for games that are in an FA competition, I saw this as a good opportunity to get more work published on the FA website as part of the FA Young Reports Scheme. As soon as I knew who Sunderland were playing, I asked to cover this game for the FA and everything was sorted out. Before this morning, I was actually thinking that I would get a new team in Oldham U18s. But then I remembered that I watched them in Durham against Hartlepool in April. There aren’t many under-18 sides from outside of the north east that I’ve seen, but I’ve now seen Oldham under-18s twice! One thing I’l mention from the game tonight was the “teamsheets” Sunderland gave out. People were complaining about it and rightly so really. I went in as press and even then I was still given a teamsheet that only had the Sunderland team on. The section of the sheet for Oldham was just totally blank! And, to make it even worse, the teamsheet was incorrect for the Sunderland substitutes numbers!

Match report:

Sunderland book FA Youth Cup third round spot with victory over Oldham

Sunderland U18s booked a spot in the third round of the FA Youth Cup with a 4-1 win over Oldham Athletic at Eppleton CW on Thursday night.

Connor Slack put Sunderland ahead in the 19th minute, and Dan Neil’s strike made it 2-0 less than 60 seconds later.

An own goal gave Oldham hope 10 minutes into the second half, but Ryan Leonard regained Sunderland’s two goal cushion.

Slack’s second wrapped up a good night’s work for Sunderland.

Sunderland looked bright from the off and a good save prevented Slack in the 11th minute. 

Eight minutes later though, Sunderland were to take the lead. A quick triangle on the edge of the penalty area resulted with Neil playing in Slack and he finished well.

Less than 60 seconds later, Sunderland doubled their lead. This time, Neil was on the end of the move as he latched onto a Ryan Gooch through ball before finishing well.

Although they weren’t creating much, Oldham were playing some good football at times. Just after the half hour mark, Declan Baldwin, Max Norman, Ryan Scholes-Beard and Jack Williams linked up well on the edge of the penalty area, but Williams’s final ball just say evaded Norman.

Baldwin then forced an easy save from Adam Cameron, before Ryan Ord’s effort at the other end was saved by Ellis Allen.

It was a physical start to the second half, with tackles flying in from both sides.

Just shy of 10 minutes into the second half, Oldham halved the deficit. Cameron could only punch Baldwin’s dangerous corner into his own net while under pressure from Harry Harris and the Latics had a lifeline.

However, it was only 10 minutes later when Sunderland regained their two goal cushion.

Leonard drove down the wing and cut in before beating Allen in what was a fine individual goal.

Slack forced a good save from Allen in the 71st minute, but there was nothing Allen could do about Sunderland’s next chance as they sealed the win. Tom Scothern’s superb all found Leonard and he pulled the ball back to Slack who had a simple finish.

Harrison Devine was denied late on, before Slack could have secured his hat-trick with a penalty in added time. After being fouled by Javid Swarby-Nevin, Slack dusted himself down to take the penalty, but Allen did well to save.

It counted for little though as Sunderland still comfortably booked their spot in the third round where they’ll travel to Everton.

Full-time: Sunderland U18s 4-1 Oldham Athletic U18s

Next up for me is Thornaby vs Easington Colliery on Saturday.

Sunderland U18s: Cameron, Evans, Edmundsson, Ord (Derbali, 80’), Howard, Scothern, Neil (c), Best (Bell, 58’), Slack, Leonard, Gooch (Devine, 85’)

Unused subs: Basey, Lilley

Oldham Athletic U18s: Allen, Swarby-Nevin, Hackett (Leech, 79’), Gaskell (Pickford, 69’), Norris (c), Grundy, Baldwin, Sherrif (Amankwaa, 46’), Norman, Scholes-Beard, Williams

Unused subs: Wych, Jones

Admission: £3 adults, £1 concessions

Programme: No

Attendance: About 170

Teamsheet (albeit fairly useless): Free

Referee: David Pill