Sheaf Saint

Awesome - it worked. I went for a shit and come back to find we've scored. The live table looks rather lovely right now!

70% possession so far according to BBC. Seems like more than that to me.

Lovely little build-up play there from Lallana.

Well we've got through the first minute without conceding, so that's an improvement on last week.

http://www.stadium-live.com/Channel11.html

I'm beginning to wonder if he will ever feature for the first team again.

If there was any common sense in the world, the club would use some of the away fans fund to reimburse those fans that have already paid for travel/accommodation.

I'm sure his beard wasn't grey when he joined us in January. Has the stress got to him already?

But that was surely the point of the exercise, no? To play some of the fringe players in a competitive match against a half-decent standard of opposition, rather than U21 games or pointless friendlies. I don't see it as 'assuming they would be good enough', rather a case of 'wanting to find out if they are good enough' because ultimately the result didn't matter. It's obvious Poch din't place any priority on the league cup otherwise he would have fielded a stronger team. He clearly saw it as more of an educational experience, and he will have come away from this match with some valuable insights into the capabilities of his reserve players.

Lallana on for Davis

Yep. Shame we didn't take this game a little more seriously, but considering it's our reserve team against a near-full-strength Sunderland side who are already looking a lot better under Poyet, we have given a decent account of ourselves. Def should have ben a pen there though. Defender had hold of Chambers arm and dragged him over.

Good vision from Cork to set up Gaston there. Always gonna be a tricky angle to score from though.

All a bit sloppy in possession at the moment. Not really got our game going.

Actually, Germany generates more electricity from solar than any other country in the world, and although their own photovoltaic manufacturing industry has taken a massive hit from foreign competitors, they are still on schedule to hit their target of producing 35% of all electricity from renewables by 2020.

It's only a 3-point gap between 8th and 9th, but it also separates the teams with positive GD from those with equal or negative GD (with the exception of Swansea), and that's telling. After our fine start, a few people said they would reserve judgement on whether or not we can keep it up until after at least 10 games. Well we have reached that point now, and we sit only one point off second place with the best defensive record in the division. How do those people see our chances now? IMO, the big test will be the back to back away games at Arsenal and Chelsea in the coming weeks. If we can hold our own in those games, avoid defeat and maybe even snatch a win in one of them then I will be confident we can go on to great things this season.

Oh FFS MOTD! Didn't even show the much more obvious penalty appeal.

But you look deadly serious in your profile picture

Definitely would have taken a point before the game. Thought we could have won the game and were it not for a one-in-a-million freak incident we would have. Played the much better football. Looked calm and composed in most areas, but still lacking that little bit of quality needed to really unlock a defence. As for the penalty shouts? First one would have been harsh cos the defender clearly fell backwards onto the ball and couldn't have avoided it. Second one was nailed-on though. Stoke got their second big slice of luck with that. Aside from the freak goal we looked comfortable at the back and Boruc had very little to do. Made one great save in the second half. Wanyama was absolutely everywhere today and is my MOTM. Every time the ball fell loose in midfield you just knew he would be there to mop up, and I don't remember him giving the ball away like he has been prone to. Still only a point off second place after Chelsea lost. And we are over a quarter of the way through the season now.

Lambert looks knackered.

J Rod

Our qualty is really showing through now. Wanyama having a great game and winning the midfield battle at the moment.

FK in a really dangerous position. Right call on the handball before it I think - the guy was falling over. Decent effort from JWP.

Handed off J Rod just as he was about to run all the way around the outside of him.

Boruc has redeemed himself there. Excellent save.

Dirty git Walters.