Sunderland 3 Barrow 0

Jan 3 2010 By James Hunter, Sunday Sun

WHO says the romance of the FA Cup is dead? Non-league Barrow drawn away at Premier League Sunderland; 98 league places separating the sides; an incredible 7,000 fans making the journey from Cumbria to Wearside; and treacherous weather making playing conditions a lottery.

In one of those ‘only in the FA Cup’ twists, Barrow chairman Brian Keen is even a lifelong Sunderland fan who was at Wembley in 1973 to see the Wearsiders lift the famous old trophy! So the stage was set for a giantkilling, but the fairytale ending never materialised for Barrow.

No, Sunderland made sure that there were no slip-ups in the snow as they saw off their Blue Square Premier opponents and booked their place in the fourth round.

A first-half strike from Steed Malbranque and two goals from Fraizer Campbell made this a comfortable victory for the Black Cats, and only the heroics of Barrow keeper Tim Deasy – who only played because regular No 1 Stuart Tomlinson was suffering from a bug – spared the visitors a heavier defeat.

Barrow were appearing in the third round of the competition for the 12th time in their history, but they have never made it past this stage.

But the Bluebirds deserve huge credit for their performance – they made life tough for Sunderland, particularly in the first half – and it was not until Campell headed two goals in six minutes just before the hour that the game drifted away from them.

As for Sunderland, they will be pleased to have started 2010 with a victory, ending their seven-game wait for a win and for a clean sheet.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce promised to field the strongest side he had available – and given that his options were severely limited by a spate of injuries and Michael Turner’s suspension, he had little alternative!

Malbranque was the only one of the eight first-teamers who missed the Bank Holiday Monday draw at Blackburn through injury to recover in time to play, but his return was offset by a knee injury to centre-back Nyron Nosworthy. That was the only change to the side which started at Ewood Park, with skipper Lorik Cana dropping back from central midfield to fill the gap left by Nosworthy and Malbranque coming in on the right side of midfield, which released Jordan Henderson to move into the space vacated by Cana.

Sunderland took control right from the off and Malbranque had Deasy scrambling with an early shot which went just wide of the left-hand post.

Then Deasy had to be quickly off his line to put off Phil Bardsley as the right-back burst into the box down the right in the seventh minute, and he clipped his shot over the keeper but wide of the near post.

The first on-target effort came in the ninth minute but Márton Fülöp was down smartly to his left to push away Andy Bond’s 25-yard free-kick.

But Sunderland went in front on the quarter-hour with a well-worked move down the left flank.