A City team including Andreas Isaksson, Nery Castillo, Geovanni, Felipe Caicedo and Valeri Bojinov were well matched by a Sunderland side which included at least six players with Premier League experience.
After a goal on his return to action against Liverpool’s reserves last week, Bojinov couldn’t repeat that this time out, but Sven-Goran Eriksson will have been encouraged by the sight of the Bulgarian striker playing for an hour.
The game itself was a tight affair until the last 15 minutes when City upped the ante and created a couple of chances, although it took until the 88th minute for the winner to come.
Ashley Grimes, Bojinov’s replacement, slipped a good ball in from the right for Nery Castillo to take on and dispatch into the net from about 10-yards out.
Afterwards reserve team coach Ian Miller told us: “It was good for Valeri to come through another hour of competitive football and it certainly was a competitive and evenly balanced game until late on.
“Maybe we could have won it by more than just the one in the end, but we’ll take a 1-0 win every time.
“Obviously the attitude and application of the four other senior players for us pleased me, but I was very impressed with our young back four unit tonight, especially with Karl Moore playing out of position for me at left back. He did really well.”
City:
Isaksson, Obeng, Williamson, Marshall, McDonald, Clayton, Castillo, Geovanni, Caicedo, Bojinov (Grimes 60), Moore.
unused subs: Martin, M Daly, Breen, Cunningham.
Sunderland:
Fulop, Wright, Harte, Leadbitter, M’Voto, Higginbotham, Richardson, Chandler (Cook 65), Stokes, Dennehy, Wallace (Donoghue 60).
unused subs: Hunter, Pelter, Reed
