Northern Ireland defender Trai Hume scored his first Premier League goal for Sunderland at the weekend as the Black Cats lost 4-3 to Aston Villa in a thrilling encounter at Villa Park.
With four minutes of the contest remaining, the visitors were trailing 3-1 until the former Linfield player, who came on as a second-half substitute, fired into the top corner from an acute angle to pull one back.
Within a minute, Sunderland had made the game all square through Wilson Isidor, however, Villa’s Tammy Abraham broke Sunderland hearts with a stoppage time winner for the hosts.
Meanwhile, there was a welcome return for Hume’s international colleague Daniel Ballard, who made his return to the Sunderland team as a 63rd minute substitute after missing their previous two games with a hamstring injury.
In-form Shea Charles was also on target over the weekend as he chalked up his fifth goal of the campaign after heading home Southampton’s opener in the 2-1 Championship victory at Swansea City.
After the game, Saints boss Toda Eckert, whose side has now gone 15 league matches unbeaten, was full of praise for 22-year-old Charles, who is apparently on the radar of a number of Premier League clubs.
“I think that Shea is maturing a lot at the very moment, and it’s nice to see,” he told the Daily Echo. “He’s in the middle of a very, very good development, not just him but also other players.
“He’s had some key moments now for us in the season. It just speaks for him how much of a goal threat he can be higher up the pitch.”
In League One, Eoin Toal found the net in Bolton Wanderers 3-3 draw at home to Huddersfield Town and striker Jamie Reid recorded his 14th of the season as Stevenage were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Lincoln City.
Elsewhere, Portsmouth’s ‘Player of the Year’, Terry Devlin, could have played his last game of the season, according to his boss John Mousinho, after the former Dungannon Swifts and Glentoran player was subbed just 17 minutes into Pompey’s 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Leicester City, with a suspected hamstring injury.
“I wouldn't be too optimistic for the rest of the season,” declared Mousinho. “When you're two weeks to go, yeah, very, very difficult to turn that around.”
In the semi-final of the Scottish Cup, defender Shea Kearney was part of the Dunfermline Athletic team which beat Falkirk 4-2 on penalties to reach the final of the competition for the sixth time in their history, and for the first time since 2007.
Following the victory, Pars boss and former Northern Ireland international Neil Lennon said: “There was a lot of nerves, a lot of tension, and that’s totally understandable for a semi-final.
“I’ve been involved in many as a player and a manager now. But the overriding emotion is a huge amount of pride in the club, in the players, in the support.”
However, in the other semi-final, there was disappointment for St Mirren duo Liam Donnelly and Conor McMenamin after the Saints lost 6-2 to Celtic after extra time at Hampden Park.
Eighteen-year-old Braiden Graham was back among the goals after hitting four for Everton’s U21 side who finished their league campaign with an astonishing 8-4 victory over Ipswich Town.
Graham’s four-goal haul brought his tally of league goals for the U21’s this season to 12, making him the third highest scorer in the division, just two behind Liverpool’s Kieran Morrison who is on 14.
Finally, in the U18 Premier League, Matthew Burns scored in Sunderland’s 5-1 win against Leeds United, while it was a bittersweet day for Calum Anderson, who found the net for Southampton against reading before being red-carded in the closing stages of the 3-1 victory.
