On This Day (1st Dec 1998): Sunderland Ruin Tippy’s Return As The Lads March On In The Cup!

There’s a lot that stands out about the first two years at the Stadium of Light, and one is a big sign of how things have changed in football in the way that side stayed together after defeat on penalties against Charlton Athletic at Wembley.

You would think in the modern day that it would be very difficult to keep hold of the likes of Kevin Phillips, Lee Clark and Allan Johnston just to name a few, because the gulf now financially between the top two divisions would have made the money offered to the club and player too lucrative to turn down.

This meant that Peter Reid was in a position to add just Thomas Sorensen to take over from Lionel Perez in between the sticks, and Paul Butler from Bury to give us a bit more at the back – both signing for around £1m a piece.

With both players making their debuts on the opening day at home to Ray Harford’s QPR, we came flying out of the blocks, and despite significant injuries to Lee Clark and Kevin Phillips, we remained unbeaten for the first 18 games of the season.

We were being chased at the top of the table by the likes of Ipswich Town, Watford, Sheffield United and Bolton Wanderers, but it would be John Hendrie’s Barnsley that inflicted our first defeat of the season, despite having a man sent off five minutes before half-time at the Stadium of Light.

Seven days later, we got on track with a convincing 4-0 win at play-off chasing Sheffield United, which was obviously a good thing, but it also set us up for our League Cup (then the Worthington Cup) quarter-final tie against Lennie Lawrence’s Luton Town.

Our run to the last-8 had already taken six games, two bouts of extra-time, and a penalty shoot-out. York City and Chester City were dispatched without too much fuss in the early rounds, but the third round provided complications when we had to come from behind to beat Grimsby Town 2-1, with a Niall Quinn goal five minutes before the whistle would have signaled a penalty shoot-out.

Next up was a trip to Reid’s old stomping ground when we were drawn to play Walter Smith’s Everton at Goodison. A good performance from the Lads saw John Collins equalize for the home side after Michael Bridges had given us an early lead, and with the absence of a winner in extra-time, it required a 5-4 victory on penalties to proceed to the quarters.

Lennie Lawrence’s Luton were chasing a play-off place in Division Two (League One in new money) and traveled north with cup-glory on their minds, and with former Sunderland striker Phil Gray ready to line up against the Lads, there was a script ready to be written.

But this was made less likely after Mitchell Thomas was sent off on 35 minutes for his second yellow card, with his final act of pulling Niall Quinn down to the floor after the Republic of Ireland striker seemingly spinning the Luton defender and out-pacing him.

Five minutes later, Johnston did his thing on the left and cut inside onto his right foot before putting in a low cross that was first flicked by Andy Melville, but then deflected by defender Marvin Johnson past future Sunderland goalkeeper Kelvin Davis.

Quinn hit the woodwork, but Sunderland didn’t need to get out of second gear and never felt threatened. But it took until the final moments for the home side to put the game out of sight. On 88 minutes, Bridges stepped over the ball a couple of times and from the edge of the box curled the ball perfectly into the bottom corner of the net.

Then, a couple of minutes later, Quinn took the ball on his chest inside the box and expertly lifted the ball over the keeper’s head on the volley to round off a comfortable 3-0 quarter-final win. Next up was Martin O’Neill’s Leicester City, who knocked out Blackburn Rovers in their quarter-final tie.

League Cup – Quarter-Final

Sunderland 3-0 Luton Town

[Johnson (OG) 40’, Bridges 88’, Quinn 90’ – (Thomas sent-off 35)’]

Sunderland: Sorensen, Makin, Melville, Butler, Scott, Summerbee, Ball, Clark, Johnston, Quinn, Bridges Subs Not Used: Marriott, Craddock, Williams, McCann, Dichio

Luton Town: Davis, Alexander, Thomas, Spring, Davis, Johnson, McKinnon (McLaren), Evers, Douglas (Doherty), Gray, McGowan (White) Subs Not Used: Abbey, McIndoe

Attendance: 35,742