ACCRINGTON STANLEY - 1

SUNDERLAND - 3

ACCRINGTON Stanley have been knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the first hurdle after falling to a narrow 3-1 defeat against Sunderland.

It was Stanley's first home game of the season and it started well before Marc McNulty put the visitors in front. Colby Bishop drew Stanley level with a second half penalty.

Aiden McGeady and Charlie Wyke were summoned from the substitutes bench and they fired the Mackems through to round two of the cup.

The first chance of the game fell to Sunderland's Alim Ozturk following a corner that Stanley has failed to clear. The centre half was waiting at the back post as the ball fell to him and his effort was saved by the toe of Dimitar Evtimov in goal.

John Coleman's side fell behind in the 17th minute as McNulty scored his first goal for the Mackems. The ball was played in to the penalty are area by Lyndon Gooch and it then fell to McNulty who made no mistake when slotting across goal beyond Evtimov.

Seven minutes later a glorious opportunity slipped by Stanley and Bishop. Debutant Courtney Baker-Richardson squared for his strike partner, but Bishop tripped before making contact with the ball - should have scored.

Will Grigg nearly doubled Sunderland's lead after he met a cross from Luke O'Nien, but the Northern Ireland striker could only glance his header wide of the far post.

Yet another goalscoring chance fell the way of the Mackems - this time from a brilliantly worked move.

Max Power found Gooch with a fine pass over Joe Maguire, his low cross was met by Grigg's backheel before Evtimov managed to turn it wide.

Stanley went in behind at the break, but they produced some fine spells of possession and should have scored their first of the season with Bishop's chance.

The second half started as a fiery affair with O'Nien and Sean McConville having a bit of a kicking match early on.

On the hour mark, Jordan Clark raced through on goal, but was brought down by Conor McLaughlin before referee Darren Drysdale pointed to the spot.

Up stepped Bishop as he slotted home his first competitive goal for the club in front of the singing Clayton End.

Stanley were in the ascendency following the equaliser as Clark toyed, at times, with the Sunderland defence - this prompted Sunderland boss Jack Ross to introduce Aiden McGeady to the action.

The Mackems almost re-took the lead and McNulty very nearly doubled his tally for the night, but his effort rattled the crossbar.

McGeady showed his class with 10 minutes to play after he intercepted Ben Barclay's pass before surging towards goal, he got inside the box and powered the ball in to the far corner.

Charlie Wyke added a third late on to solidify Sunderland's place in the draw for the second round.

Stanley XI: Evtimov; Johnson, Sykes, Hughes, Maguire; Clark, Finley, Barclay (90' Carvalho), McConville; Bishop, Baker-Richardson (78' Pritchard)

Unused subs: Burski, Edwards, Sherif, Francis-Angol, Conneely

Sunderland XI: Burge, McLaughlin, Willis, Ozturk, Power (85' Dobson), Maguire (77' Wyke), McNulty, Gooch, O'Nien, Grigg (69' McGeady), Leadbitter

Unused subs: McLaughlin, Flanagan, Baldwin, Embleton