TWO TEAMS striving to get their heads above water in the Premier League, but a day also unashamedly about the FA Cup and one of its heroes as Sunderland lovingly remembered their 1973 final winner Ian Porterfield.

Porterfield’s goal against Leeds United gave Sunderland, then a Second Division team, arguably their finest moment and 10 of his Wembley teammates gathered at the Stadium of Light to join with family and supporters in celebrating the life of the Scot, who died on Tuesday at the age of 61.

The cup itself, carried onto the pitch before the game by Jim Montgomery and Dennis Tueart, was also on show against a backdrop of the commentary which described the right-foot volley that earned Porterfield his place in Sunderland’s history. Such success has proved elusive since, and even the team orchestrated from midfield by Porterfield that won promotion to the top division in 1976 survived for just a year.

Roy Keane’s current side will be hoping to avoid a similar fate and yesterday’s ultimately nervy win over a poor Reading side will help ease any anxieties that may have surfaced after their early-season successes proved to be something of a false start.

Defeats to Wigan, Liverpool and Manchester United had provoked a sense of realism but with Reading unlikely to repeat last season’s remarkable achievements at the top end of the table, this was the kind of victory, inspired by recent arrival Kenwyne Jones, that Sunderland needed to maintain the belief that they belong back in the limelight.

After 10 years of service on Wearside, Porterfield’s subsequent career took him to most corners of the world, including spells in charge of the national teams of Zambia and Armenia, but also, fittingly, spells as both a player and manager of Reading.

His management stint at Reading came when the Royals were in the old Third Division and while they have come a long way since, their early season form had hinted at a struggle to sustain top-flight status.

Sunderland, too, were in need of a tonic after four successive defeats, although with the last of those coming at Manchester United, Keane opted to stick with the same starting lineup for the first time in his 49th game in charge. Injuries may have played a part in that show of loyalty, with Keane’s options reduced by the unavailability of a number of players he would regard as first choice selections, but he was able to give that home debut to Jones. Powerful and aggressive, he uneased Reading’s defence with an early shot that had Marcus Hahnemann scrambling but then also showed a deft touch that allowed him to put the home side ahead after almost half an hour.

Accepting a short pass from Grant Leadbitter, who had also tested out Hahnemann with an early effort, Jones flicked the ball around Ivar Ingimarsson with the outside of his right foot before crashing a low left-foot shot into the bottom corner from 22 yards.

Moments later he almost doubled the advantage but his header flew just wide from Danny Collins’s cross, and conceivably he could have had a hat-trick before half-time as he was guilty of a worse miss five minutes before the break when heading a Ross Wallace cross down into the ground and over the bar from inside the six-yard box. With Sunderland’s defenders quick to close ranks at any sign of danger in their penalty area, Reading were rarely given that kind of sight on goal, although before his side went ahead goalkeeper Craig Gordon, a star of Scotland’s midweek triumph in France, was fortunate to get away with seemingly handling fractionally outside his penalty area from Nyron Nosworthy’s hesitant headed back-pass Given Reading’s current state of frailty they need every break going, and just two minutes into the second half the game already looked beyond them when Wallace scored Sunderland’s second.

Again Jones was involved with a low cross from the right, and even though Michael Chopra failed to make contact at the near post, the ball broke kindly for Wallace to slide in his first goal of the season. Such was his excitement, and poor memory, that for the third time in his Sunderland career he celebrated by removing his shirt and collecting the obligatory yellow card that followed.

An opportunity to show that he had finally learned his lesson presented itself less than 15 minutes later but from an almost identical move, this time Reading full-back Graeme Murty managed to block Wallace’s goalbound shot from almost on the line with Hahnemann beaten.

Substitute Anthony Stokes almost added a third goal and it may have been needed, as Reading belatedly offered some sort of threat. Dave Kitson’s headed goal from a Nicky Shorey free kick had been coming but Sunderland had enough in hand to win for the first time since the opening day. Porterfield would have approved.

Star man: Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland)

Player ratings: Sunderland: Gordon 6, McShane 7, Nosworthy 7, Higginbotham 7, Collins 8, Leadbitter 7, Yorke 8, Etuhu 7, Wallace 8 (Stokes 64min), Jones 8 (Murphy 83min), Chopra 6 (Miller 81min)

Reading: Hahnemann 6, Murty 6, Ingimarsson 5, Bikey 5, Shorey 5, Rosenior 5 (Convey 78min), Harper 5, Gunnarsson 5 (Fae 73min), Hunt 6, Lita 6 (Long 67min), Kitson 6