Owls crush Black Cats in cup thriller

Wednesday progressed to the 3rd Round of the Worthington League Cup after downing Premier League opposition Sunderland 4-2, after extra-time was forced with the sides locked at 2-2 after 90 minutes. A minute's silence was held before the proceedings in memory of the horrific terrorist attacks on the United States. With such events having occured just days before, it was doubted whether games around the country would go ahead.

Peter Shreeves was without Carlton Palmer and Derek Geary, Palmer being cup-tied and Geary forced to fly back to Ireland for family commitments. Owen Morrison slipped into midfield in Carlton's absence, whilst Leigh Bromby was switched to left-back with Steven Haslam on the right hand side of defence. Peter Reid had opted to field a slightly weaker side for the cup tie, he felt he needed to rest one or two players and utilise his squad. The Sunderland boss came under fire, along with many other managers, for playing down the competition.

The game started brightly, with good scoring chances falling to both sides early on. England forward Kevin Phillips fired straight at Kevin Pressman from 15 yards out in the opening minutes. Then in the 19th minute Tommy Johnson just failed to connect to an Alan Quinn cross. Both Paul McLaren and Owen Morrison tested Michael Ingham in the Sunderland goal early on, but to no avail.

However, in the 29th minute the Owls were ahead. Sunderland failed to clear the ball properly, and Efan Ekoku wasted no time in slamming the ball home with his left foot from just 10 yards out. It was the Nigerian's second goal of the season, and certainly silenced his critics for the mean time.

The game had settled down midway through the first half, as the Owls looked set to go into the break one goal to the good. But with just three minutes before the break Sunderland grabbed an equaliser out of nothing. Kevin Kilbane centred the ball, and danger man Phillips was on hand to scoop the ball past Kevin Pressman. 1-1.

But then right on the stroke of half-time Wednesday won themselves a penalty. Tommy Johnson's pass set up Ekoku who was in turn brought down in the penalty area by Black Cats' keeper Ingham. The referee saw the challenge as a foul, and awarded the spot-kick. Suprisingly, Ingham escaped without punishment. Owen Morrison stepped up to smash the ball home, and send the Owls back into the lead.

Half-time: Owls 2-1 Sunderland

Just seven minutes into the second half and the referee made yet another howler of a call. He awarded the visitor's a penalty after Kevin Kilbane went down in the box, with a challenge that seemed to have minimal contact. This time, however, Pressman was able to stop Phillips as the Geordie saw his spot-kick saved by the veteran keeper. The save kept the Owls in the lead and gave the whole team a big boost.

Italian striker Michele Di Piedi came on as a substitute, and in the 73rd minute came close to making it 3-1 after out muscling his marker before Ingham tipped his effort wide. A minute later Sunderland were level. For the second time in the game Peter Reid's men scored seemingly out of nothing. Kilbane was again involved, this time his cross was met by the French forward Laslandes who headed in easily from 8 yards.

The game seemed destined for extra-time, and maybe even penalties. Shreeves threw on Argentinian Pablo Bonvin for Efan Ekoku, and the striker's clever dummy and quick thinking pass opened the door for Matthew Hamshaw, but his shot was again well saved by the young Sunderland shot stopper. Neither side could score the elusive winner within the 90 minutes, so the game was to go into 30 minutes of extra-time.

Just two minutes into extra-time and Wednesday were 3-2 up, thanks to a goal by Di Piedi that may well go down as one of the goals of the season. The Italian received the ball at his feet and at first seemed to have mis-controlled the ball. But out of nothing the youngster acrobatically bicycle-kicked the ball past a hopeless Ingham from 25 yards out.

In the 100th minute of the match Lilian Laslandes found himself one on one with Kevin Pressman, only to see his shot hit the underside of the crossbar and bounce out. It seemed it just wouldn't be Sunderland's night.

The game was wrapped up with a fourth Wednesday goal, and a first in Wednesday colours for Pablo Bonvin. The Boca Juniors man fired home a rocket of a shot from the edge of the box, after the Owls had taken a short corner to Sunderland's suprise.

Peter Shreeves was delighted to see his side put one over Premier League opposition, and in particular praised the two substitutes in Di Piedi and Bonvin for their match winning strikes in extra time. "We've seen it all before with Michele, he is capable of doing these sorts of things. And Pablo more than caught the eye for us tonight. He kept the ball extremely well."