All sweetness at the Stadium of Light

IT’S been a long time since cup fever hit Wearside, but where the first team is failing, it looks like the kids are alright.

Although the senior side’s performances in the cups were inept, our youths are paying back the millions we began investing in our academy in 2003.

Whilst it might have slipped under the radar in the rest of Britain and indeed Ireland, SAFC’s U18s knocked out Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup in a 5-3 thriller last week.

Roy Keane’s buys in the transfer market have been very hit and miss, so it’s reassuring we may have a generation of superstars coming through the ranks.

Liverpool knocked out tournament favourites Arsenal before they faced us and with Plymouth, Chelsea and either Swindon or Charlton left, we must be amongst the favourites to lift the silverware.

Top of the kiddie pops is Martyn Waghorn, who has scored goals galore at both youth and reserve level.

The 17-year-old has even progressed through to the first team this season, when making his debut as a shock starter in the St Stephen’s Day fixture against Manchester United.

The gaffer admitted: “This club believes in the kids and if I feel they are good enough they will be thrown in, it doesn’t matter what age they are.” Keane himself played with the products of successful FA Youth Cup sides: Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Butt and the Nevilles.

It would be nice to think we could produce a similar crop in forthcoming years.

Life is looking relatively rosy in the Stadium of Light garden all of a sudden. Our first team are one place and two points behind Newcastle United, which is a position most Sunderland fans would have been fairly happy to be in at the beginning of the term.

However, whilst the Magpies are sinking, we need to focus on the league instead of rivalry.

We’ve proven that our home form is good enough to keep us in the Premier League by winning our last four games at the Stadium of Light — but with matches against Derby County, Fulham and Bolton on the road — it’s vital we start to pick up away points which we haven’t won this season.

Wins against those three would see us just about home and dry in terms of survival, with a victory away to Newcastle also achievable and the potential icing on the cake.

If we stay up by beating the teams below us and finish ahead of Newcastle, Keane’s season will go from having been questionable to a major success.

I predicted in this column before a ball was even kicked that Wigan, Fulham and Derby would all go down and I’m sticking to my guns.

Our January buys are settling in now and if Ireland playmaker Andy Reid — who arrived from Charlton — can drop the pounds and transfer his 20-minute debut into 90-minute matches we’ll have the creative spark we’ve so badly missed.

Meanwhile, Phil Bardsley was nobody’s first choice to fill the right full back slot, but he’s already a crowd favourite after a few full-blooded performances.

Summer buy Craig Gordon is at last beginning to come good now he has a settled central defence around him. Whilst managers talk about strikers just needing a goal to go in off their backside to get their confidence going, it seems all our keeper needed to do was have a haircut, according to the gaffer anyway!

Shawn of his locks, he looks more confident and made a couple of excellent stops against Wigan and is looking a little more authoritative dealing with crosses.

The central defence is now looking pretty settled with the January addition of Jonny Evans coupled with the return from injury of Nyron Nosworthy.

Gone are the days of looking accident prone with Higginbotham and McShane in the middle and thankfully the clean sheets are starting to tally up.

It’s just in midfield that we’re waiting for the likes of Kieran Richardson and Carlos Edwards to stay fit for more than a couple of games.

Half Term Report: Keep up the hard work Royston and you’ll be at the top of the class come the summer break.