Andy Thorn once likened coaching Coventry to swimming the Channel with an oven on his back. When Charis Mavrias shot Sunderland into a very early lead, Kidderminster’s manager must have feared his current players were facing a similarly arduous task – but, by the end, he will have been slightly disappointed not to have forced a replay against extremely disappointing opponents.

As part of Wimbledon’s 1988 FA Cup-winning team, Thorn knows all about upsets and, momentarily, must have thought his new team were set to create a minor one when, in the dying minutes, Kidderminster substitute Freddie Lapado shot fractionally – tantalisingly – wide.

As the ball whizzed just the wrong side of the far post, the visiting manager sank his head into his hands. Within minutes, Sunderland had scraped into the fifth round, but Gus Poyet will expect much more from his League Cup finalists when their Premier League relegation struggle is renewed against Stoke City here on Wednesday.

Only four minutes had passed when Jozy Altidore flicked on, Josh Gowling erred and Mavrias scored. As Sunderland’s Greece winger directed a right-foot shot beyond Danny Lewis, Kidderminster’s biggest game for 20 years threatened to turn into a painful visiting experience for the near 5,000-strong contingent of away fans.

Not that Thorn’s side were about to fold. Instead, they responded to such early adversity by almost equalising. Pouncing on Emanuele Giaccherini’s mistake, Michael Gash, Kidderminster’s leading scorer, tested Oscar Ustari with a tricky shot, but the Argentinian goalkeeper – making his debut only days after arriving from Spain’s Almería – proved equal to it, saving at the second attempt.

With Santiago Vergini, a defender newly acquired from Estudiantes, another Argentinian debutant – and Poyet having made 10 changes from the side that reached the League Cup final at Manchester United’s expense on Wednesday – this was an unfamiliar Sunderland starting XI.

Watching these second stringers turn a little slapdash and worryingly low tempo after that bright beginning, Poyet must have been disappointed a few players were not making more of a rare chance to strut their stuff.

Casual and complacent, Sunderland increasingly allowed their guests – 79 places beneath the Wearside team in football’s pyramid – back into the game, offering the Skrill Conference Premier side a glimmer of unexpected hope.

Having been “only two or three hours” away from administration as recently as November, Kidderminster are instinctively reluctant to label any cause “lost”. Two months ago, the generosity of fans digging deep into pockets helped save the day, but out on the Stadium of Light’s pitch, set pieces seemed to offer Thorn’s side their best hope of scoring.

If they rarely threatened from open play, then neither did a strangely one-paced, anything-but-authoritative, Sunderland, for whom Giaccherini frequently looked anything but an £8m Italy international.

With a crowd of around 20,000 not even half-filling the 49,000-capacity stadium, the atmosphere was slightly strange and, presumably fearful of his side sleepwalking into trouble, Poyet introduced Fabio Borini and Craig Gardner in place of Giaccherini and the ineffective El-Hadji Ba.

It made little difference and Sunderland did just enough to squeeze through.

• FA Cup
• Sunderland
• Kidderminster Harriers

Louise Taylor

theguardian.com