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Steve Bruce turned to his dugout, mimed an impersonation of a man tossing a coin and shrugged. A few moments later, the manager held out his bunched fists towards Adam Reed and Michael Liddle, his young substitutes, both clamouring to make their debuts for Sunderland, and told them to pick a hand. Liddle clearly won.

Barrow’s FA Cup run concluded with nonchalance. What began with 8,000 non-League supporters bellowing belligerence, ended with the Tannoy announcer informing them that a road across the Pennines had been shut due to the weather. As home fans chanted “How the f*** you getting home?”, deflation settled more heavily than the snow.

For the opening 15 minutes, the non-League club were the more adventurous side. Even after Steed Malbranque opened the scoring with an angled shot, Barrow matched their hosts for feistiness, but as the first-half fizzed to a close Lorik Cana and George McCartney were shown yellow cards for two-footed tackles and Sunderland effectively left their opponents dazed. Darren Sheridan, one of Barrow’s joint managers, expressed surprise. “A couple of the challenges were a bit reckless,” he said. “Usually, if you jump in two-footed you know the consequences, but we can’t moan. They deserved to win.”

Goals from Fraizer Campbell in the 52nd and 58th minutes allowed Bruce’s players to relax. For Campbell, who has started only ten games games after his £3.5 million summer transfer from Manchester United, it was a rare productive Saturday.
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“Fraizer knew when I bought him that he would have to be a little bit patient,” Bruce said of the 22-year-old. “He’s only a boy. He’s waited for his chance and I’ve been a bit unfair to him, playing him out of position, but he’s got a great future.”

Sunderland exhaled and Bruce was able to decide between his two tyros. “They were both itching to get on,” he said. “I put my hands out and got them to pick. I haven’t done that before, so it was a first. I don’t think that makes me a tactical genius; there’s no need for tactics when you’re 3-0 up.”

Sunderland (4-4-2): M Fulop — P Bardsley, L Cana, P da Silva, G McCartney (sub: M Liddle, 82min) — S Malbranque, J Henderson, D Meyler, D Murphy (sub: D Healy, 77) — D Bent (sub: R Noble, 72), F Campbell. Substitutes not used: T Carson, R Anderson, R O’Donovan, A Reed. Booked: Campbell, Cana, McCartney.

Barrow (4-4-2): T Deasy — S Spender, P Bolland, M Pearson, G Jellyman — M Goodfellow (sub: M Boyd, 84), R Hulbert, A Bond, P Rutherford (sub: C Logan, 56) — J Walker, G Blundell (sub: G Rothery, 72). Substitutes not used: P Jones, D Sheridan, D Bayliss, S Tomlinson. Booked: Deasy, Hulbert.

 source-http://www.timesonline.co.uk