March 08, (THEWILL) — League One’s bottom club, Port Vale, produced one of the FA Cup’s most startling upsets in years on Sunday, beating English Premier League’s Sunderland 1-0 at Vale Park to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since the 1953/1954 campaign.
Ben Waine’s looping header in the 28th minute, converted from Ethon Archer’s cross after poor defensive marking, was the only goal across a largely competitive contest. The 56-place gulf between the clubs counted for very little on the day.
Sunderland had the better of the opening exchanges and struck the post through Eliezer Mayenda inside five minutes. Goalkeeper Melker Ellborg survived two scares of his own, and though Mayenda and Enzo Le Fée threatened late on, Regis Le Bris’s side never found the quality to trouble Jon Brady’s disciplined hosts.
Brady, a 50-year-old Australian appointed in January, has built his career across the lower tiers of non-league and Football League football. “It was tremendous from the boys — we had to suffer at times,” he said after the final whistle, before admitting he had mistakenly told his children Vale were in the last 32 rather than the last 16. Waine, the match-winner, is a boyhood supporter of Sunderland’s fiercest rivals, Newcastle United.
The result delighted club president Robbie Williams, the pop star who grew up in nearby Burslem. Vale now join Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool in the quarter-finals, proof, if any were needed, that the FA Cup’s capacity for disruption remains fully intact.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
