Habib Diarra on the spot as Sunderland ease past toothless Oxford

Precipitation not perspiration was the order of the day here, as the rain hammered down on the banks of a bloated river Thames and Sunderland made it to the FA Cup fifth round without having to break a sweat.

Habib Diarra’s first‑half penalty provided only a narrow margin of victory for Régis Le Bris’s visitors, but the margin flattered Oxford. With two teams of reserves con­testing a tie in a competition that is priority for neither club, this was a drab match in sodden surrounds. There was little in the way of the magic of the Cup, but to their credit 9,879 spectators created a decent atmosphere all the same.

“We lost 2-0 last season when we played here so we expected a tough game,” said Le Bris, who argued his side had approached the contest with “real ambition”.

Oxford’s physical strengths made defending long balls to the edge of the box “an important part of the game”, Le Bris said: “One we dealt with better in the second half, but we scored which is always important and the game was well managed.”

Matt Bloomfield, the Oxford mana­ger, made nine changes from the team handily beaten by their Championship relegation rivals Norwich in midweek, and called the performance “remarkably improved”.

There was a home debut for Jamie Donley, lining up alongside fellow Tottenham loanee Will Lankshear, 20. Despite their relative youth, both players shared the same physical quality as their teammates: a broad‑shouldered profile that allowed Oxford to effectively contest the physical duels and gave the team a foothold in the match. This was made easier still by the ­willingness of a scratch Sunderland side to play at a soporific tempo after Le Bris himself made six changes from the defeat at home against Liverpool.

Donley had the game’s ­opening chance in the 18th minute, and the opportunity was served up by ­Lankshear. Making connection with one of the many long balls aimed over the top of Sunderland’s improvised defensive pairing of Luke O’Nien and Nordi Mukiele, ­Lankshear held possession and teed up Donley who found the space to hit a left‑foot effort that Robin Roefs could only punch clear.

With no more threat ­forthcoming from the home side, however, Sunderland opened the scoring on the half-hour with one of their first forays upfield. A bundling challenge by Christ Makosso on Denis Cirkin sent the Sunderland man to the floor in the box and with no video assistant referee there was no chance to pick over a foul that seemed rather soft when watching in the ground. The referee, Thomas Kirk, was immediate in his decision and Diarra rolled a bobbling penalty into the right hand corner of Matthew Ingram’s net. “One-nil to the referee”, sang the home fans almost straight away, the sense of any hope for this match already draining away.

Oxford created another decent chance for themselves before half-time and it came from another direct approach, this time a Will Vaulks long throw. After winning the first contact in the box, the ball sprung out to Makosso who was in enough space to time his effort but could only steer a header wide of Roefs’s far post.

Those hoping for an injection of energy to proceedings after half-time were to be disappointed. The tempo remained gentle and the play slow, so no surprise perhaps to see Sunderland take a tight grip on the game. Around the hour mark the visitors should have at least doubled their lead, with Romaine Mundle, Chemsdine Talbi, Trai Hume and Mukiele all ­forcing Ingram into instinctive saves in consecutive minutes.

The goal did not come, however, and Jamie McDonnell, on as an Oxford substitute, could have upset the applecart, but he shot over when well placed in the box following another long throw. There was one final Vaulks projectile as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes, but it came off the unfortunate Makosso’s toe.

Bloomfield said his side had lacked the rub of the green, lamenting not only the penalty but a Lankshear break that was pulled up for a marginal offside. “We’re not getting these decisions at the minute, I’ve been told we’ve been getting a lot of decisions against us,” he said. “But when we come in on Tuesday we’re going to work hard because we want to repeat this label of performance.

“For us it’s about finding con­sis­tency, we have to do that between now and the end of the season to get the results we know we’re capable of.”