For a club that uses the English League Cup as an exercise in blooding the players of tomorrow, and as little else, Manchester United made a pretty convincing effort at looking interested in winning the thing outright last night. Fielding a side containing the usual mixture of reserves and players returning from injury, United managed to take the ninth-placed team in the Premiership to extra-time on their own turf in front of a supposedly intimidating crowd of 47,500.
Moreover, United did so having to play the final eight minutes of normal time and the half hour of extra-time with 10 men, as Dwight Yorke had been sent off for a nasty lunge at Sunderland centre-half Emerson Thome.
At that point the match had been threatening to boil over for about 10 minutes; Ronnie Wallwork had scrapped with Gavin McCann and referee Mark Halsey had ignored a clear penalty when Thomas Sorensen upended Jonathan Greening in the 78th minute.
Alex Ferguson did boil over then, jumping from the dugout to lambast Halsey, a bombardment that continued as the two sides prepared for the extra period. While Steve McLaren talked to his 10 men, Ferguson strode aggressively into the centre-circle and berated Mr Halsey loudly.
If that was not bad enough, Ferguson then had to watch as the referee gave Sunderland a penalty in the 100th minute when John O'Shea pulled Kevin Phillips back in the area. It was the first serious mistake the 19-year-old Waterford-born player made all night. Phillips punished him conclusively, side-footing the spotkick wide of Raimond van der Gouw.
Even then the United bench had more to endure when Danny Weber hit the Sunderland crossbar with a header, and then David Healy, on as a substitute, slammed it again with an instinctive shot from 18 yards. But it is Sunderland in the quarterfinals where they will meet Crystal Palace.
Long after the final whistle Ferguson had calmed down, a bit. "I thought it was a great cup tie," he said, "I'm pleased with my players. Maybe they regret not taking the chances in the first half.
"But it's a pity that the controversial moments clouded that. On the controversial moments, I think Dwight Yorke did go in high. It's uncharacteristic of him. I think a more capable referee would have handled it better and realised his sort of character. I've seen worse than that recently, Tottenham v Liverpool and City v United.
"On the penalties, I thought ours was stonewall, theirs was soft. But we've all enjoyed it and we've shown our respect for the League Cup."
Uncharacteristic though Yorke's tackle was, he now misses three matches automatically, including, said Ferguson, Liverpool on Sunday week. But there were also pluses for United - "Greening and Wallwork were very, very good," - although Ferguson said of O'Shea: "He did okay. He can play better. He surrendered the space against Phillips. But it was a good one for him tonight against Dichio and Phillips. It will improve him."
O'Shea was involved from the beginning, even if he was not challenging Niall Quinn. That was because Sunderland's attitude to the tournament, while more committed than United's, is less than wholehearted. Thus Quinn was on the bench and Kevin Kilbane did not make it that far.
With both absent, and with the prosaic combination of Alex Rae and Darren Williams in midfield, Sunderland were blunt until well into the second half. They had the bulk of possession, but with the experienced Ronny Johnsen alongside him, O'Shea had few worries subduing Phillips and Quinn's leaden replacement, Danny Dichio.
Dichio was sufficiently frustrated by the 35th minute to catch O'Shea late, and O'Shea's captain for the night, Phil Neville, rebuked the Sunderland man.
By then the home side were one down. Caught pushing forward in numbers, Sunderland were exposed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's pass to Yorke. Yorke's first touch was poor, allowing Jody Craddock to recover the situation temporarily. Greening picked up the loose ball, slid it to Yorke and his shot crashed in off the Sunderland crossbar.
Greening almost made it 2-0 two minutes later by nearly finishing off Chadwick's flourish. Sunderland, meanwhile, continued to labour against opponents defending sternly, but, just before the interval, a Phillips snapshot came back off Van der Gouw's post, and three minutes after the restart Phillips suffered further disappointment when he struck a drive against Van der Gouw's legs when released by Don Hutchison. Dichio fluffed the follow-up.
While struggling in front of goal - this was Phillips' first in eight games - he remains a fine crosser of the ball, and in the 75th minute, with the match and the atmosphere strangely flat, Phillips sent in another from the right and the Argentinian Julio Arca dipped his head to meet the ball on the run and send it beyond the fingertips of Van der Gouw.
Suddenly the night was alive again, and three minutes after the equaliser Greening ran onto Wallwork's exquisite chipped pass and glided past Sorensen close to the byeline. Sorensen clearly brought Greening down but Halsey waved play on. Cue Ferguson tirade, cue ratcheting of tempo, cue Sunderland win.
"We got the breaks," said Peter Reid. Sheepishly.
Sunderland: Sorensen (Macho 90), Makin (McCann 45), Gray, Thome (Varga 87), Craddock, Williams, Arca, Rae, Hutchison, Dichio, Phillips. Subs Not Used: Schwarz, Quinn. Booked: Arca, Dichio, Varga. Goals: Arca 75, Phillips 101 pen.
Man Utd: Van Der Gouw, Clegg, P Neville, Johnsen (Stewart 84), O'Shea, Wallwork (Weber 110), Greening, Fortune, Chadwick (Healy 90), Yorke, Solskjaer. Subs Not Used: Rachubka, Djordjc. Sent Off: Yorke (83). Booked: Fortune, Stewart, Healy. Goals: Yorke 31.
Referee: M Halsey (Welwyn Garden City).
