IAN Greaves’ Wanderers had gone 20 games without a win, were rock bottom of the First Division while Sunderland were going great guns in the Second Division and heading for promotion.

They also had the advantage of an emotion-charged Roker Park crowd behind them and the knowledge that the Bolton players had been given an early wake-up call when they were evacuated from their hotel in a fire scare.

But, as goalkeeper Jim McDonagh said confidently in the build-up: “They might be the best in their league, but we are still the First Division side and that counts for a lot.”

It did, too, as Wanderers produced a performance of courage and class to suggest all was not lost on the relegation front.

It wasn’t a classic but, as a cup-tie, it had everything.

Neil Whatmore won it with a superb 21st minute strike, beating his old Burnden Park team-mate Barry Siddall in the Sunderland goal, but the hero of the day was Peter Reid.

He’d been out of the game for a year with a knee injury and Greaves only decided to play him after checking out the state of the Roker pitch.

It was a calculated gamble but one that paid off handsomely.

Reid’s return in midfield brought the best out of record signing, Len Cantello, whose defence-splitting pass set up Whatmore’s winner.

Sunderland didn’t go down without a fight but, for all their second-half pressure, they found the Wanderers back four of Dave Clement, Sam Allardyce, Mike Walsh and Peter Nicholson in magnificent form.

The win earned Wanderers a home tie against Fourth Division giant-killers Halifax Town, who knocked out Manchester City in the shock of the third round But 48 hours after they had beaten the Shaymen 2-0 at Burnden to book a tasty fifth round clash at home to Arsenal, Greaves was sacked – the price of failure on the league front.

Sunderland: Siddall, Whitworth, Bolton, Clark, Elliott, Buckley, Arnott, Marangoni, Hawley, Robson, Cummins. Sub: Rowell.

Wanderers: McDonagh, Clement, Nicholson, Greaves, Allardyce, Walsh, Morgan, Whatmore, Gowling, Cantello, Reid. Sub: Carter.