Brown on target in fine victory

Sunderland Broom Men’s firsts clinched an excellent 1-0 win against league leaders and promotion favourites Morpeth at Sandhill.

Like the previous week, Sunderland were still sadly missing a few key players but is to the credit of the squad system that there are players who can come in and perform at the high level required.

As is now customary, Sunderland powered out of the blocks really well and put the Morpeth defence under some very early pressure, scoring after just three minutes.

A short corner was well worked and struck firmly home by Chris Brown with an unstoppable shot just inside the post.

Not surprisingly, Morpeth hit back with a number of attacks down the right hand side but Sunderland keeper Andy Wilkinson was in excellent form and made two cracking saves to deprive the visitors.

Veteran Mark Wilkinson, standing in at right back, made some fine tackles and clearances to preserve Sunderland’s lead at half time.

After the break, Sunderland started to take control and had several attacks resulting in a number of short corner opportunities, with Matt Dench missing three scoring chances. Skipper Andy Brown also missed a chance which would have sealed the game.

Sunderland will look to work hard on making the most of short corner opportunities. Nevertheless, they held on to secure a really excellent win against a team which had been relegated from the National league last year.

Full credit must go to Adam Pawley who came in and had an excellent game on the left wing.

However, it was the well-marshalled (by keeper Andy Wilkinson) makeshift Sunderland defence of Mark Wilkinson, Neil Sparrowhawk, Peter Chicken and Chris Brown who marked superbly and tackled tirelessly throughout the game that won the game for the Wearsiders.

Sunderland firsts entertain visitors Redcar next week and the Sunderland Mixed Team travel to Huddersfield on the Sunday in the National Mixed Plate Competition.