Sunderland 1 Notts County 2

Jan 9 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

WITH three winners’ medals to his name, Steve Bruce knows all about the magic of the FA Cup.

Quite apart from the romance of football’s oldest competition and the prospect of playing in a Wembley final, Bruce realises that – for all but the Premier League elite – a cup run represents the only realistic chance of winning silverware.

So it was a crying shame that the players he sent out against League One Notts County yesterday did not share his respect and enthusiasm for the famous old trophy.

Sunderland were the third round’s biggest casualties, crashing out at the first hurdle on home turf.

The side sitting sixth in the top flight were humbled by a County side 54 ranked places below them, managed by Bruce’s old Manchester United team-mate Paul Ince and coached by ex-Sunderland favourite Alex Rae.

Cup upsets happen. The FA Cup, in particular, is famous for the shocks it has produced down the years.

But the shameful thing about this result from Sunderland’s point of view is that a casual observer would have struggled to tell which side was the Premier League aristocrats and which was the Football League upstarts.

Sure, Sunderland’s side bore little resemblance to the one that started their excellent midweek win at Aston Villa.

A tiring Christmas programme, a mounting injury list and the Wear-Tyne derby looming large next weekend meant Bruce made seven changes.

Only Kieran Richardson, Anton Ferdinand, Steed Malbranque and Darren Bent remained from the eleven that began against Villa.

Andy Reid and Jack Colback returned from their respective loan spells with Sheffield United and Ipswich Town last week and went straight into the side, while Simon Mignolet, Marcos Angeleri, Paulo Da Silva, Cristian Riveros and Asamoah Gyan were also drafted in.

Of the men who made way, Danny Welbeck and David Meyler were both stretchered off at Villa Park and missed out entirely, while Bruce rested Craig Gordon and named Titus Bramble, Phil Bardsley, Ahmed Elmohamady and Jordan Henderson among the substitutes.

Sunderland’s side still contained a a£30m strikeforce in the shape of Bent and Asamoah Gyan, though, as well as two World Cup quarter-finalists in Da Silva and Riveros, three more full internationals and three Under-21 internationals.

Yet they flopped. Badly.