Story of the night as Sunderland win at Lincoln to begin Papa John's Trophy title defence after Dan Neil and Stephen Wearne goals

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.

Under-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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