Source: Northern_Echo
Sunderland 2 Colchester United 0
Sunderland 2 Colchester United 0[LNB] FIFA'S inspectors will visit the Stadium of Light this morning as they ponder what the World Cup would look like if England won the right to host the tournament in 2018.[LNB] Last night, Colchester goalkeeper Mark Cousins appeared at the ground and performed some World Cup impressions of his own.[LNB] This summer's tournament in South Africa was blighted by some dreadful goalkeeping howlers, but few were as laughable as the errors that smoothed Sunderland's passage into the third round of the Carling Cup.[LNB] Twice Cousins failed to gather routine deliveries from Bolo Zenden; twice Darren Bent profited from his error to score. On an otherwise unremarkable evening, the Black Cats' England international was grateful for some goalkeeping that could have come straight out of a handbook devised by some of Joe Hart's predecessors in the national team.[LNB] The upshot was a comfortable home victory, even if the quality of much of Sunderland's play left plenty to be desired. Sunderland's need for a win to kick-start their season was reflected in the strength of Steve Bruce's starting line-up, and it duly arrived with a minimum of fuss.[LNB] There were some tactical tweaks Kieran Richardson started in midfield, while Danny Welbeck made his first Sunderland start at centreforward rather than on the wing but despite making six changes from the side that lost at West Brom last weekend, Bruce's priority at kick off was clearly efficiency rather than experimentation.[LNB] Consequently, his mood at the final whistle would have been one of grudging satisfaction.[LNB] The Black Cats were far from fluent, but were still handed a two-goal success on a plate.[LNB] Colchester's inability to deal with the high ball was apparent early on, with Bent and Welbeck both wasting decent opportunities after their opponents failed to deal with corners from Zenden.[LNB] Cousins looked far from comfortable on each occasion, but his evening would rapidly get worse. Rarely can a keeper have committed two such calamitous howlers in the space of 17 minutes. The only thing missing was the England shirt on his back.[LNB] The first enabled Bent to open the scoring in the 20th minute, and came when Cousins inexplicably raced to the edge of his penalty area in an attempt to gather in a hopeful long ball from Zenden.[LNB] He was never going to make it, and Bent nonchalantly stole in front of the last Colchester defender to loop a simple header over the stranded shotstopper and into an unguarded net.[LNB] It was a goal out of nothing, and with Sunderland's midfield struggling to generate any kind of fluency despite the creative presence of Richardson, it was gratefully received.[LNB] It was nothing, however, compared to what was to follow.[LNB] Cousins left his line again to collect a floated Zenden free-kick eight minutes before the break, and while the hapless shot-stopper at least got his hands on the ball on this occasion, it quickly slipped out of his grasp and fell to the floor. Bent reacted quickest, sweeping in his third goal of the season from no more than four yards out.[LNB] The gifts helped disguise the paucity of much of Sunderland's passing play, but the hosts were still grateful for the reflexes of Simon Mignolet, with the Belgian turning Anthony Wordsworth's closerange header against the crossbar shortly before the interval.[LNB] The same players were at it again three minutes after the break this time the Sunderland shot-stopper held on to the midfielder's header and with Colchester enjoying their best spell of the game at the start of the second half, Mignolet was twice forced to block goal-bound efforts from the lively David Perkins.[LNB] Sunderland rarely looked like adding to their two-goal lead, although substitute Martyn Waghorn almost brought the house down with a fierce 25-yard effort that rattled against the top of the crossbar with quarter-of-an-hour left.[LNB] Matchfacts Goals: Bent (20, 1-0; 37, 2-0) Bookings: Henderson (39mins, foul) Referee: Scott Mathieson (Stockport) 6 Attendance: 13,532 Entertainment: [LNB] SUNDERLAND (4-4-2): MIGNOLET 7; Ferdinand 6, Turner 7, Bramble 6, Bardsley 5; Campbell 5, Cattermole 6, Richardson 6, Zenden 7 (Reid 67mins, 5); Welbeck 5 (Waghorn 67mins, 5), Bent 6 (Colback 82mins). Subs (not used): Carson (gk), Malbranque, Henderson, Elmohamady.[LNB] COLCHESTER (4-5-1): Cousins 3; Wilson 5, Baldwin 5, Okuonghae 6, White 4; Henderson 6 (Elito 77mins), James 5, Izzet 5 (Beevers 50mins, 5), PERKINS 7 (Vincent 66mins, 4), Wordsworth 6; Odejayi 5. Subs (not used): Pentney (gk), Bond, Mooney, Heath.[LNB] MAN OF THE MATCH SIMON Mignolet - None of the goalkeeper's three or four saves were exceptional, but together they amounted to an impressive evening's work.[LNB]
