United ended the Barclays Premier Reserve League season on a
high note, as second half goals from Lee Martin and Matt James gave
the Reds a hard-fought victory over champions Sunderland at Moss
Lane.
Martin, operating as a makeshift striker once again, won and
converted a penalty with 20 minutes remaining, before James struck
a superb goal in the final minute to seal only the Black Cats’
third defeat of the season.
Although the two sides have both excelled this season, the first
half was a scrappy affair, with United indebted to two fine saves
from goalkeeper Ben Amos.
The Reds’ best effort came from Cameron Stewart, on for the
injured Rodrigo Possebon, as the winger lashed a decent opportunity
wide from just inside the Sunderland area.
Martin also created an opening for himself before firing wide,
but it took two fingertip saves from Amos – one to touch Liam
O’Mahoney’s curling effort just wide, another to tip over Jean-Yves
Mvoto’s header – to keep United in the game going into the
interval.
The Reds were faster out of the traps after the break, however,
and Martin was only inches away from turning in Zoran Tosic’s
viciously curling free-kick, while Stewart stung Trevor Carson’s
palms with a fierce drive from a tight angle.
United lost another key player through injury as Fabio limped
off, but the hosts’ flow was unbroken. Danny Drinkwater fired
narrowly over from a free-kick before Martin won the telling
penalty, going down under Carson’s challenge after the goalkeeper
had parried an effort from Tosic.
Although the Black Cats goalkeeper – the scourge of United on
several previous occasions – dived the right way, he was unable to
get a touch to Martin’s powerful kick. He did partially redeem
himself two minutes later though, rushing from his line to deny
Martin a second.
Sunderland came agonisingly close to snatching a point with
eight minutes remaining as O’Mahoney curled a superb free-kick past
Amos and into the side netting. The final say went to United,
however, as James added a fine second goal.
Having burst forward, the midfielder swapped passes with Nick
Ajose, fashioned space for himself and arced a 20-yard shot right
into Carson’s top corner to round off United’s league season in
style.
United: Amos; Eckersley, Brown, C Evans, Fabio (Dudgeon 56);
Eikrem (Ajose 7
, Possebon
(Stewart 1, James,
Drinkwater, Tosic; Martin.
Subs not used: Devlin, Wootton.