Story of the night as Sunderland win at Lincoln to begin Papa John's Trophy title defence after Dan Neil and Stephen Wearne goals
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Lee Johnson made ten changes to his starting XI following Saturday’s defeat at Portsmouth, with promotion from League One clearly the priority this season.
In a squad which had a mixture of first-team and under-23 players, Denver Hume made his first competitive start of the season after recovering from a hamstring injury, while Dan Neil captained the side.
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Hide AdUnder-23s players Kenton Richardson, Oliver Younger, Ellis Taylor, Harrison Sonha and Will Harris got a chance to impress.
Goals from Neil and substitute Stephen Wearne saw the Cats claim all three points in Northern Group F, ahead of a meeting with Manchester United Under-21s at the Stadium of Light next week.
The only negative was that Sunderland midfielder Luke O’Nien was forced off with an injury in the second half.
Here’s how the game played out at the LNER Stadium:
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RECAP: Lincoln 1 (Montsma, 90+3) Sunderland 2 (Neil, 2) (Wearne, 72)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Burge, Richardson, Alves, Younger, Hume, Neil, Sonha, Pritchard, O’Brien, Taylor (Wearne, 62), Harris (O’Nien, 74) (Embleton, 81).
- Subs: Carirney, Almond, O’Nien, Newall, Kachosa, Wearne, Embleton
- Lincoln XI: Long, Poole, Montsma, Sanders, Robson, Sorensen, Walsh (Eyoma, 46), Longdon (Bramall, 69), Adelakun, Maguire (Nlundulu, 69), Scully
- Subs: Boylan, Bramall, Eyoma, Nlundulu
14’ Chances at both ends
Neil is clearly full of confidence after that goal.
He registered another effort there after Harris knocked the ball back to him but this shot was straight at the goalkeeper.
Moments later, Lincoln produced their best moment of the match which ended with Adelakun shooting straight at Burge.
9’ Lincoln seeing more of the ball
Sunderland were pressing Lincoln high up the pitch from the start but have just dropped off a little.
Looks like the hosts will see more of the ball but Sunderland have held a good shape so far.
2’ GOAL!!!!! NEIL!!!
What a strike!
Neil received the ball from O’Brien on the left and fired his shot straight into the top corner of the net.
Long couldn’t reach it and Sunderland lead.