By David Lee Wheatley
Sunderland
youngsters denied
Sunderland’s U21 side were denied victory by a late
stunner from Everton’s Francisco Junior at a freezing cold Hetton Centre last
night.
The young development squad dominated large periods of
the game, but were made to pay for some wayward finishing when Everton
equalised in the last moments of the match.
It was the home side that made all the running in the
first half and they were getting a lot of joy down the right flank in particular
during the early stages.
A jinking Adam Mitchell crossed from the right-hand
side in the 6th minute, evading the stretching Mandron but finding
the head of striker Ryan Noble at the far post, who put it just over.
The visitor’s only opportunity of note in the first
half came on 18 minutes when Harrison handballed on the edge of the area and up
stepped Everton left-back Luke Garbutt to send a free-kick just wide of the
left-hand post.
There was sustained pressure from Sunderland midway
through the first half when Noble fired over the bar and moments later Mandron
turned smartly and shot just over, too. French forward Mandron, who looked
lively all evening, got clean through again on 31 minutes, but screwed his
right-foot shot wide. The procession continued, as Noble got clear only to
strike his shot straight at the opposing goalkeeper.
Both sides went in even at half-time, but Sunderland
were easily on top and were unlucky not be ahead at the break.
Sunderland finally made the breakthrough three minutes
after the restart when the dangerous Mikael Mandron turned his man 25 yards out
before expertly guiding a sweet strike into the top left-hand corner of the
net.
It was two after 59 minutes when winger Lynch played a
neat ball through to Noble, who evaded the offside trap before being caught up
by Everton defender Browning. The two players tangled for the ball as they ran
alongside one another, before the unfortunate centre-back prodded the ball into
his own goal.
The game began to get stretched from the hour mark and
Everton started to trouble the home side with a couple of efforts on goal, one
of which was well saved by Ben Wilson from striker Conor McAleny on 66 minutes.
A minute later, McAleny was through again and this time he fired across the
keeper and into the bottom corner to bring the visitors back into the contest.
Sunderland’s Alex Gorrin had a powerful strike blocked
on 70 minutes and the resultant corner came to the edge of the area to the same
player, who fired narrowly over the crossbar. Six minutes later, Adam Mitchell,
who had switched wings to the left in the second half, cut inside the area on
to his right foot and was unlucky to see his shot go just too high.
With nine minutes remaining, Portuguese Francisco
Junior hit a corker with his right foot from 20 yards out that sailed over the
despairing dive of Ben Wilson and into the top corner of the net. It was a body
blow for the home team, as they had dominated for an hour and should have been
out of sight by the time Everton struck their equalising goal.
It almost got worse, too, as Grant flashed a shot just
wide which could have given Everton an unlikely victory.
Coach Kevin Ball was pleased with the performance of
his Sunderland side in the aftermath and felt the defence could do very little
to prevent the fabulous strike from Junior that levelled the game.
My man of the
match: Mikael Mandron (Sunderland)
Line-ups: Sunderland – Wilson; Marrs, Harrison,
Mangane, Ferguson; Mitchell, Laidler, Gorrin, Lynch; Mandron, Noble.
Everton – Springthorpe; Stones, Browning, Pennington,
Garbutt; Kennedy, Junior, Molyneux (Long, 56), Hope; Grant, McAleny.Follow me on Twitter: @davewh1980
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