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With the match in injury-time, Jo Tessem then crossed for James Beattie to head into an open goal.The home side produced the only highlight of a dull opening period when, after 11 minutes, they took the lead with a well-worked move that saw Wednesday’s leaky defence – theirs is the third worst of all 92 league clubs – concede yet another goal. Mark Draper, handed a rare start by Glenn Hoddle because of the Moroccan midfielder Hassan Kachloul’s continuing contractual dispute with the club, created it with an incisive run. His pass found Beattie whose cross was inch-perfect for his fellow striker Kevin Davies. Although Kevin Pressman brilliantly parried his first, close-range effort, Davies nodded the rebound home.

It was another half an hour before Davies came close again, but this time Pressman denied him.Paul Jewell’s Wednesday have bigger things on their mind this season, namely a fight to get out of the First Division relegation zone. But with this Cup distraction on their plate they barely showed any appetite to make a contest of it, their constantly changing formation on the pitch being about as far as their imagination stretched.Apart from Kachloul, Hoddle had been forced to make one other change, bringing in Chris Marsden for the Cup-tied Dan Petrescu, but otherwise he opted for an attacking line-up, as Marian Pahars returned from injury to partner Davies behind the foraging Beattie.Meanwhile, Jewell chose to leave out his joint top-scorer, Owen Morrison, as well as the Belgian striker Gilles de Bilde, calling on Gerald Sibon and Booth to try their luck against a Saints defence boasting five clean sheets in their previous six games. Indeed, Southampton had not conceded a goal at The Dell since they let in three against West Ham in late November, a run encompassing five games and more than 500 long minutes before this Cup tie. But that impressive run ended after 66 minutes as Wednesday drew level with what was only their second shot on target all match.Their first came just two minutes after the break when Ian Hendon tested Paul Jones from long range. But the Saints goalkeeper was then found wanting from a basic Wednesday set-piece that brought their equaliser. From a throw-in, Booth flicked a header on to the post and it rebounded off Jones and then over the line.Three minutes earlier, Southampton should have settled the game but Pahars blasted wide. Then came the piece of good fortune that keeps the Saints very much in the hunt..

With little more than a whimper, Ipswich slunk out of the FA Cup at the hands of a solid, workmanlike Sunderland. Despite being a goal behind for 70 minutes, they awoke to the peril of their position with only 120 seconds left, but by then the game was up and Sunderland easily repelled their frantic final thrust. With little more than a whimper, Ipswich slunk out of the FA Cup at the hands of a solid, workmanlike Sunderland. Despite being a goal behind for 70 minutes, they awoke to the peril of their position with only 120 seconds left, but by then the game was up and Sunderland easily repelled their frantic final thrust.
There are more England plots in games these days than in an allotment, and the fate of this tie seemed to lie with two strikers digging out goals to impress Sven Goran Eriksson.Kevin Phillips, who Ipswich tried to sign in 1997 before Sunderland stole him from Watford, is probably ahead of Marcus Stewart in the pecking order and 10 days ago broke his club’s post-war scoring record when he took his tally to 104 goals.

Stewart started the game chasing his club record eighth goal in successive matches.Although Ipswich’s league away record may be second only to that of Manchester United, they arrived on Wearside on the back of two 4-1 away defeats – the first on New Year’s day at the Stadium of Light – and so their manager, George Burley, slung five defenders, including 19-year-old Titus Bramble, in Phillips’ path. SuperKev, though, was without his usual partner, Niall Quinn, whose back injury allowed only substitute duties.Danny Dichio started and soon gained aerial dominance. Glimmers of half chances soon fell from his head as Sunderland’s long balls easily found him. However, Phillips was unable to test Richard Wright and so it fell to Stewart to make the first impression. Behind Stanislav Varga in the 17th minute, he placed the ball wide of Thomas Sorensen but, at full stretch, the Dane just turned it around the post.Two minutes later, Alun Armstrong was in behind Sunderland, tearing on to Jim Magilton’s high pass, but he connected uncertainly with the awkward, bouncing ball.The visitors’ neat approach was paying dividends so the home side forsook the long ball. The principal launcher Varga chose the short option in the 23rd minute, finding Don Hutchison on the right. His first-time cross cleared Bramble and found the head of Dichio who stooped to put Sunderland ahead.In front of a far from full house, the tie was at last alive but, a minute after his goal, Dichio horribly miscued Michael Gray’s deep cross when unmarked on the back post.In the remainder of the half Ipswich fashioned the clearer opportunities.

Armstrong dispossessed Varga and pulled the ball back to Matt Holland, who emulated Dichio with a miscue in front of goal. Then Mark Venus swung a free-kick from the half-way line deep to Holland whose across-goal volley found Armstrong attempting an adventurous bicycle kick. Sadly, he saddled himself only with embarrassment.At half-time both sides re-shaped. Sunderland withdrew Phillips in favour of the winger Kevin Kilbane, while Ipswich reverted to a flat back four with Venus replaced by the midfielder Jamie Clapham. Up front Richard Naylor returned from a two-month injury break to take Armstrong’s place.Kilbane was the first to show, driving through only to be denied by a Bramble tackle. A minute later the young defender inadvisably gave way to a charging Dichio, who reached the ball in front of Wright. He poked it goalwards and Bramble coolly – frighteningly coolly – watched the ball roll on to the post and peter along the goal-line before hoofing it clear.But Ipswich were too cool throughout the second half, mustering just one shot which Holland rifled into Sorensen’s midrift.