{"id":666197,"date":"2026-03-09T10:07:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=666197"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T14:11:25","slug":"sunderlands-fa-cup-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/03\/09\/sunderlands-fa-cup-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of a Plan B Contributes to Sunderland\u2019s FA Cup Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Vale produced an FA Cup giant-killing on Sunday as the League One bottom side beat Premier League Sunderland 1-0 to progress to the quarter-finals. A great day for Port Vale was also one of disappointment and embarrassment for the Black Cats and their fans, as they rarely looked like winning the game despite their superior quality. Plan A wasn\u2019t working, and with an apparent no plan B to fall back on, Sunderland failed in a game they should have won, sending home their 3000 fans who had made the journey on short notice, disappointed to say the least.<\/p>\n

Read More: The Greatest Footballers in History, Part Two: 1918-1939<\/a><\/p>\n

Lack of a Plan B Contributes to Sunderland\u2019s FA Cup Exit<\/h2>\n

The Pitch Played a Part, But is No Excuse<\/h3>\n

The pitch at Vale Park was not one for playing a passing game. It was muddy in large parts, uneven, and the ball would bobble whenever it was played at ground level. Vale are used to this, Sunderland are not, and it showed. The Black Cats had a large percentage of the possession but continued throughout to play a passing game across the defence and through the middle of the pitch. It didn\u2019t work, and it was clear for all to see that it wasn\u2019t working, but it appeared as though head coach Regis Le Bris and his staff had no ideas in how to change things.<\/p>\n

Black Cats Failed to Learn in Game<\/h3>\n

Vale went long many times, causing problems for Sunderland\u2019s defence to limit the effect of the unpredictable pitch; however, the visitors continued to play a game not suited to the surface, but the carpet-like grass they are now used to in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Port Vale knew that their opponents would find it difficult, and it was a big talking point leading up to the game. Sunderland appeared to ignore the warning and made several mistakes that almost cost them dear. They also struggled throughout to make meaningful chances, only really looking a threat from the occasional set piece, but in the end their usual quality was not there.<\/p>\n

Credit must be given to the home side for how they approached the game, and they got the result and plaudits they deserved.<\/p>\n

Hugely Disappointing, but They Can Make Amends<\/h3>\n

The team did not adapt, and their head coach did not adapt his formation or style of play until it was much too late. This was a glorious chance to make it to the latter stages of the cup and another Wembley appearance, and those who watch the next round draw will be thinking about what might have been.<\/p>\n

It was a very disappointing day for Sunderland, and one they must learn from and come out fighting. Their fans will expect a response, and with Brighton at home next weekend and the Tyne Wear Derby against Newcastle coming up, they have a big chance to prove that this was a one-off in what was, until Sunday, an excellent campaign, full of promise and plaudits.<\/p>\n

Captain for the game Luke O’Nien said<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re really disappointed. We all wanted to give our fans a cup run. We didn\u2019t deliver. <\/span>It\u2019s always good to give credit to the winning team. I don\u2019t care what league you\u2019re in. They competed, they fought and they were deserved winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe beat Leeds but we still went back to the drawing board and went and saw what we can deliver. Today, we\u2019ll do the exact same.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big loss but football moves fast. We\u2019ll move on and make sure we are focussed on the league now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Port Vale produced an FA Cup giant-killing on Sunday as the League One bottom side beat Premier League Sunderland 1-0 to progress to the quarter-finals. A great day for Port Vale was also one of disappointment and embarrassment for the Black Cats and their fans, as they rarely looked like winning the game despite their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":666203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,8432,1828,30],"tags":[5783,509,9623],"class_list":["post-666197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunderland","category-fa-cup","category-fixtures","category-news","tag-emirates-fa-cup","tag-port-vale","tag-sunderland-review"],"modified_by":"Barry Dixon, LWOF Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666216,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666197\/revisions\/666216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}