Football - Black Cats' nine lives after scare....

11:16am Saturday 16th August 2008

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Kendal Town.....................4 Sunderland XI...................9.

IF LEE Ashcroft's Kendal Town could have borrowed the referee's whistle, they would have blown for full time after 32 minutes and had a story to dine out on, writes Arran Jolly.

At that stage, Town could not have wished for the script to read any better against the Black Cats.

Although rumours that Sunderland boss Roy Keane might put in an appearance proved unfounded, Town's own A-list celebrity, their honorary president Sir Tom Finney, was in attendance to greet both teams before the kick-off.

Then it was down to entertaining a crowd of upwards of a 1,000 - be it sporting red or black stripes - and Town probably thought they were dreaming as they played all the football and raced into an amazing 4-1 lead.

But if Town dominated the first half, Sunderland Reserves showed pride - or maybe it was fear: had Roy rung up at half-time for the score? - with a classy demonstration of possession football and finishing skills to swamp their Unibond League hosts in the second half.

It turned into a goalfest - an astonishing 9-4 final scoreline - in the visitors' favour, of course, that left both camps still able to claim satisfaction.

Town will draw immense comfort from the first half in which their Premiership superiors were run ragged.

Sunderland found themselves pinned back around their own penalty area as Kendal's slick touch football had them back pedalling.

Kendal deservedly found the net after only five minutes when Lee Mulvaney darted on to Alex Taylor's chested-down ball and cut inside to fire into the bottom corner.

Yet Sunderland showed no signs of panic and a Martin Waghorn equaliser arrived three minutes later.

But it was to set the tone for the remainder of the evening as the goals came thick and fast.

Three minutes on again, Town player-manager Lee Ashcroft restored his team's lead after keeper Nick Colgan could only palm Mulvaney's cross into the striker's path.

For a while it seemed every move Kendal created would end in a goal, and in the 14th minute Michael Cole's 25-yard free kick took a deflection that Colgan perhaps could have done more to stop And Kendal fans had to pinch themselves when good work from Carl Osman set up Taylor for a fourth Kendal goal after only 30 minutes.

Despite Swedist international Rade Prica grabbing a goal back on the stroke of half time, few could have predicted just how many the Sunderland team would go on to to score.

Sunderland simply looked a different side after the break, disjointed passing replaced with purposeful raid after raid on the Town goal.

Although Tony Hallam helplessly turned a whipped in cross into his own net on the 49th it was all Sunderland's own handiwork afterwards.

Despite several earlier good saves, Town keeper David Newnes could have done better with Sunderland's fourth and fifth goals as powerful shots beat the Kendal stopper.

Sunderland now looked a different class and scored four times in the space of ten minutes.

Waghorn, the most impressive Sunderland player on view, completed a hat-trick on the hour mark and gave Sunderland a 7-4 lead, while Jordan Henderson grabbed two late goals on the 66th minute and 90th minute as Town just avoid conceding double figures.

Both sets of fans left with smiles on their faces, having witnessed a fantastic evening's entertainment - roll on the start of the season proper with a trip to Ilkeston tomorrow before a return to Parkside to face Marine on Tuesday.

TEAM: (Bush, 77) Williams (Warburton,45) Standley (Wisdom,45) Hallam (Clarke, 63) Melling, Cole, Osman, Lee Ashcroft (Dempsey, 63) Alex Taylor (Hobson, 45) Kilford (Baker, 59) Mulvaney. Att: 1,150.