Quinn and Kilbane score - January 18, 2001
Sunderland booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup thanks to goals from Irish internationals Niall Quinn and Kevin Kilbane.
But it looked for a long time that they were about to become victims of the Crystal Palace cup form that saw them knocked out of the Worthington Cup.
Palace took a deserved lead in the 24th minute through English/Irishman Clinton Morrison. The young striker, scoring his 17th goal of the season, hit an unstoppable half-volley from the edge of the box to send Selhurst Park into raptures.
Veteran striker Niall Quinn was having a cracking game as the target man but every time he set up one of his teammates they either missed or saw their shots saved.
Kevin Phillips was the worst culprit. Quinn set him up perfectly twice in a couple of minutes but the English international failed to find the back of the net.
Sunderland looked on their way out when a piece of magic from Quinn in the 72nd minute pulled them right back into the game.
Michael Gray floated a high ball into the box and Quinn controlled it on his chest bone before swivelling and dispatching a world class volley into the back of the net.
A minute later the Premiership team took the lead when Phillips ran onto a through ball turned a defender and slotted the ball wide of the magnificent Kolinko in the Palace goal.
The never say die attitude of Palace came to the fore again and after incessant pressure they equalised through Stephen Thompson in the 89th minute to send the game into extra time.
A mistake by former Liverpool defender Neil Ruddock after 13 minutes of extra time allowed Phillips in to make it 3-2 for Sunderland.
And even though they had a man sent off, substitute Kevin Kilbane found all the space in the world to beat the Palace offside trap to advance one on one with Kolinko before coolly slotting home the goal that broke Palace's resolve.