Sunderland prospect proving his worth during loan stint with non-league neighbours Hebburn Town
Sunderland academy goalkeeper Isaac Allan joined National League North club Hebburn Town on loan last month.
Sunderland youngster Isaac Allan has been hailed for playing a key role in Hebburn Town’s latest impressive performance and result in their first ever season in the National League North.
The Black Cats academy goalkeeper enjoyed a fruitful loan spell with the Hornets during the second half of last season as he helped Daniel Moore’s side see off the challenges of Hednesford Town and FC United of Manchester to be crowned as Northern Premier League champions for the first time in their history.
That ensured they are now competing alongside the likes of South Shields, Morecambe and Darlington in non-league football’s second tier - and Allan has returned to the club for a second loan spell. After losing just one of their first six games of the season, there was a challenging away day in midweek as the Hornets suffered a 5-1 defeat at Radcliffe. However, they bounced back in fine style with a deserved 2-1 home win against former NPL title rivals Hednesford on Saturday as Allan and his defence produced a solid display on a blustery day at the Trustmark Group Stadium.
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Manager Moore believes the Sunderland youngster’s performance shows why he was soon keen to secure his services and praised the stopper for showing his ‘presence’ during difficult moments.
Speaking after Saturday’s home win, the Hornets boss told The Echo: “The back four has been brilliant and we had to take our skipper, Aidan Heywood, out of there and put Joe Oliver in. To be fair to the five of them, including Isaac, they’ve been top draw. It’s been difficult for them because we’ve had to rotate a bit but they’ve just gone on and got the job done. Isaac showed why we got him. He showed that presence in the box and just calmed everyone down. He was unlucky with the penalty, I thought it wasn’t a penalty, but he did well to save it and I’m just happy it didn’t really impact on the end result. Tuesday, we were all over the place, but today, we were back to our best with distances from back to front and we were really hard to break down.”
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