Our Under-21s kicked off the new Premier League 2 season with victory in an eight-goal thriller at Sunderland on Monday night.
Two goals from Oliver Irow and a further strike from Dante Cassanova had us 3-0 up inside 25 minutes as we capitalised on the hosts’ early frailties at the back to surge into an advantageous position, but Sunderland didn’t lay down and kept coming back at us, Trey Ogunsuyi bagging a hat-trick as our lead was reduced to 3-1 and then 4-3 after Luca Williams-Barnett’s goal early in the second period had extended our side of the scoreline.
In truth, both sides could have netted more in a rip-roaring contest but while the hosts found themselves denied by our defence and the offside flag on numerous occasions, we maintained our composure and finally killed the game off through substitute Rio Kyerematen’s fine strike into the bottom corner with five minutes of normal time remaining.
Goalkeeper Luca Gunter and defender Pele Arganese-McDermott made key interventions in the closing stages to prevent any late rally from the hosts, who finished with 10 men following a second yellow card shown to Jaydon Jones deep into stoppage time. The final whistle moments later brought the curtain down on an entertaining, deserved 5-3 win, albeit one that could and perhaps should have been secured earlier in the night.
Coach Wayne Burnett named a young side at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground with four Under-18s players in the starting line-up, including two 16-year-olds in Williams-Barnett and Jun’ai Byfield and two 17-year-olds in Malachi Hardy and Tynan Thompson. A fifth youth team starlet, 17-year-old Reiss Elliott-Parris, was a lively influence off the bench in the last quarter-of-an-hour as all put in impressive shifts at this level.
Williams-Barnett flashed an early shot across goal and wide but it didn’t take long for us to hit the front, Irow turning home Thompson’s low cross from the left in the middle of the box after 10 minutes before doubling his tally from the spot three minutes later after Callum Olusesi was brought down by goalkeeper Isaac Allan. We kept forcing Sunderland into mistakes at the back with our high press and on 25 minutes it was 3-0 as skipper Reiss Russell-Denny pulled down a high ball in the box with a great touch before setting up Cassanova to drill home through a crowd of bodies.
The Black Cats started to get forward more as the first half went on and kept the impressive Luca Gunter busy for the remainder of the game, Jack Whittaker and Ben Middlemas testing him before Ogunsuyi latched onto a precise forward pass from Ian Poveda to get his side off the mark three minutes before the break.
Allan denied Thompson and Williams-Barnett shortly afterwards but was beaten by the latter 11 minutes into the second half as the youngster deftly knocked Yusuf Akhamrich’s right-sided cross inside the near post. The home side wouldn’t relent, though, and Gunter made a superb flying save away to his left to deny Ogunsuyi, but the striker did manage to find the net again on 62 minutes after he caught Byfield in possession and blasted home one-on-one with the keeper.
Sunderland were evidently frustrated at the sheer amount of times their attackers were flagged offside as our defence held their line diligently but after Akhamrich’s deflected low shot hit the base of the far post at the other end, the Black Cats broke through again, making it 4-3 in the 77th minute when Ogunsuyi cut in from the right and finished well on his left foot.
Game on… until Russell-Denny outfoxed the Sunderland defence with a clever low free-kick to find Black, who in turn thumped a superb shot low into the net to register our fifth goal with 85 minutes on the watch. That proved to be enough, although with eight additional minutes going up on the board, Sunderland had a couple of stoppage-time attempts, our substitute centre-half Arganese-McDermott making an incredible last-ditch block in front of goal to send Ogunsuyi’s swiped effort creeping just wide. Jones was then given his marching orders to add to the hosts’ woes as we secured three hard-earned points to begin 2025/26.
‘Overall, you have to be pleased’
Coach Wayne was impressed with the team’s performance in the first 45 minutes but felt the second-half display saw a drop in intensity: “I thought we played very well in the first half, created some really good chances and were in control of the game, but the second half wasn’t quite at the same intensity and we conceded some goals unnecessarily,” he said. “Overall, to come away, win and score five goals, you have to be pleased. There were some good individual performances and we were good as a collective, we’re just disappointed that we’ve conceded three goals.”
Wayne praised the Under-18s players in the side for the way they made an impact on the game: “I thought they acquitted themselves excellently,” he said. “They showed real intent, they played with energy, enthusiasm and they certainly had an influence and an impact on the game. For some of those players, it’s the first competitive Under-21s game that they’ve played and it’s a different type of game – it’s quicker, physical, they’re playing under the lights so there’s an element of pressure there for them, but I felt they acquitted themselves superbly and I was really pleased at how well they performed.”
