Sunderland Reserves 1 Manchester United Reserves 0
Scorer: Harte (82m pen)
Hetton Centre, Hetton
Attendance: 1,032
Wednesday March 12, 2008

A late penalty from Ian Harte handed Sunderland Reserves a win over Manchester United, in a game that saw Carlos Edwards make his return from injury.

On top of the returning winger, Sunderland's second string included the likes of Marton Fulop and the former United pair of Liam Miller and Paul McShane, but very few chances were created by both teams at a windswept Hetton Centre.

Shortly before the half hour mark, Roy O'Donovan robbed Gerald Pique of the ball in the box, only for the attack to be blown dead for an apparent foul from the Irishman. We had to wait a few more minutes before United got their first effort on goal, with Daniel Welbeck beating McShane, before blasting the ball over Fulop's bar on 38 minutes.

However, Sunderland closed the first half on top, and came closest to scoring when Pique again lost the ball to O'Donovan, who then released it for Carlos Edwards to bend a shot just wide of Tomasz Kuszczak's post.

United did manage to get the first goalscoring chance in the second half, when Gary Neville really should have done better when Chris Eagle's free kick found the returning United defender, following a foul from Stephen Wright.

Kuszczak had to be alert to deny Ian Harte when his free kick was deflected goalbound on 68 minutes, before Eagles had to hack a McShane header off the line from substitute Jake Richardson's corner.

Just as the game looked set to finish goalless, United subsitute David Gray gave away a needless penalty. The spot kick came after Jamie Chandler's shot was saved by Kuszczak, only for the ball to pop out for Jordan Cook to head into what should have been an empty net, where Gray put a hand out to poke the ball over the bar.

It was an obvious handball and a straight red card for the substitute, which just left Ian Harte to take the spot kick and hand us a win against the Red Devils.

Sunderland Reserves: Fulop, Wright, M'voto, McShane, Harte, Edwards (sub 60, J Richardson), Weir (sub 73, Brown), Miller, Chandler, Dennehy, O'Donovan (sub 60, Cook). Subs: Carson, Pelter.

Manchester United Reserves: Kuszczak, Neville (sub 73, Gray - OFF 82), Simpson, Chester, Pique, Cleverley, Eagles, Possebon, Welbeck, Hewson, S Evans (sub 80, Barnes). Subs: Lea, Zieler, Fagan.