Young Sunderland Under-18 side crash to 7-0 defeat to Manchester City

A very young Sunderland Under-18 side crashed to a heavy 7-0 defeat by league leaders Manchester City at the Academy on Saturday, writes Neville Pilkington.
The Academy of Light.The Academy of Light.
The Academy of Light.

Sunderland coach Paul Bryson said: "They were streets ahead - they absolutely murdered us in the second half.”

For the first 28 minutes, the game was goalless but then a little bit of magic by leading City goal scorer Cole Palmer saw them take the lead.

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The same player doubled the advantage a few minutes later and it was still 2-0 at the interval.

Sunderland made two changes at the break giving two U-16s their debuts - defender Stephen Bolam and midfielder Aiden Dickson. This meant the side played with four U-16 players for 45 minutes and they were simply overwhelmed.

City took over with some excellent play.

The intensity was relentless.

The rampant Blues rained in shots from every angle and distance, giving no respite whatsoever in a 4-3-3 formation. Palmer went on to complete his hat-trick and Alex Robertson had also claimed a hat-trick by 71 minutes.

Wright-Phillips got the seventh as they never let up.

Bryson summed up the debacle: "It was not a level playing field.

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“Our young side was up against a very expensively assembled team including Oscar Bobb, signed from Norway for half a million pounds.

“But we must now regroup and prepare for our FA Youth Cup tie against Birmingham next Thursday at Eppleton kick-off 7pm when we will have a much stronger side available.”

Sunderland: Newman, Smith, Armstrong, Ord (Dixon 46), Foster, Watts, Miller (Bolam 46), Wombwell Pye, Kiernan, Hugill.