BURSLEM, the Potteries town that is home to Port Vale, is the birthplace of both Robbie Williams and Phil Taylor. ‘Let Me Entertain You’ or ‘I’ve Got The Power’? In the end, Sunderland ticked both boxes as they secured a place in the FA Cup second round.

There was plenty of entertainment to be had from the Black Cats’ blistering start, with George Honeyman opening the scoring inside the first 40 seconds and Lynden Gooch doubling the visitors’ lead before the 20-minute mark.

At that stage, Sunderland’s slick passing interplay was cutting their opponents to ribbons, but Tom Pope’s 36th-minute strike changed the complexion of what was to prove a thoroughly-entertaining cup tie, giving Port Vale something to chase in the second half.

Time for Sunderland to prove their power. Not just Max Power, who came off the bench to help steady the ship in the final 20 minutes, but also the defensive strength and resilience that have taken Jack Ross’ side to second position in the League One table.

The visitors dug in impressively as Port Vale threw everything forward late on, making tackles, winning headers and producing important blocks at the heart of their own penalty area. As a result, their name is in the hat for this evening’s second-round draw.

In fairness, it would have been a travesty had they thrown away their early advantage, such was the extent of their dominance in the opening half-hour and the quality of the football they produced. At times, early on, they looked like a side that should have not been playing an FA Cup tie in November.

Yesterday’s game marked Sunderland’s first appearance in the FA Cup first round since they saw off Darlington in 1987, and only the club’s second involvement at the first-round stage since the competition adopted its current format in 1925.

England’s leading cup competition has changed a fair bit in the last century, but the financial and footballing incentives for progressing as far as possible remain, and it was telling that Jack Ross resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes despite his side facing League Two opposition.

Jerome Sinclair replaced Josh Maja in attack, but this was a full-strength Sunderland side determined to give their third cup competition of the season their undivided attention.

Prior to the game, Ross had expressed confidence that his players would arrive at Vale Park with the right attitude, despite taking on a side a league below them in the Football League pyramid. Within 36 seconds of the kick-off, his faith had been fully justified.

Sunderland forced an early throw-in down the right-hand side, and Adam Matthews found Sinclair from the touchline. He shuffled the ball on to Chris Maguire, who in turn teed up Honeyman, who was loitering close to the edge of the box. The Sunderland skipper spied a gap in the right-hand corner, and calmly found it with a crisp low finish.

It was a dream start for the visitors, and sparked an opening half-hour in which Sunderland’s dominance was just about total.

With Maguire pulling the strings as he dropped into a gaping hole between midfield and attack, and Gooch and Aiden McGeady causing havoc as they attacked down their respective flanks, the Black Cats engulfed their opponents early on.

McGeady fired a low shot just wide of the target, and with Port Vale’s five-man defence camped on the edge of their own 18-yard box, Maguire forced a decent save out of Scott Brown with a fierce long-range shot.

The home defence was creaking every time Sunderland poured forward, and it was breached again in the 19th minute as the visitors fashioned a fine team goal.

A slick passing move culminated in McGeady feeding Sinclair inside the area, and despite the attention of two defenders, the striker was able to touch the ball off to Gooch. He swivelled on the edge of the box, before hammering a low finish past Brown’s right hand.

Another first-half goal would have settled things, but Maguire wasted a decent position on the right-hand side as his over-hit cross failed to reach an unmarked Sinclair, and Dylan McGeouch side-footed over with the goal at his mercy after more good work from the effective McGeady.

The misses were piling up, but the extent of Sunderland’s dominance was emphasised by the 30th-minute substitution that saw Port Vale boss Neil Aspin, a native of Gateshead, abandon his five-man defensive formation in order to spare the blushes of left wing-back Theo Vassell.

Vassell, who was bamboozled by Gooch’s link-up play with Matthews, was replaced by Manny Oyeleke, and within six minutes of his introduction, the Port Vale substitute was dragging his side back into the game.

Jon McLaughlin had barely had a touch when Vassell embarked on a mazy dribble in the Sunderland half, but a couple of seconds later, the Sunderland shot-stopper was picking the ball out of the net.

Vassell teed up Pope on the right-hand side of the area, and Vale’s top scorer swept a precise first-time finish into the bottom left-hand corner.

The goal was completely against the run of play, but it sparked a previously agitated home support into life, and ensured Sunderland’s players suddenly found themselves involved in an old-fashioned cup tie.

Gooch fired wide of the target on the stroke of half-time, but Port Vale’s players started the second half with much more purpose and drive than they had displayed before the break.

A scramble in the 18-yard box ended with Tom Flanagan flinging himself in front of a goal-bound shot from Pope, and Ben Whitfield fired into the side-netting after he out-foxed Jack Baldwin and cut in from the right-hand side.

Sunderland had chances of their own – Sinclair prodded a near-post shot wide of the target after Honeyman drove over an inviting cross – but the second half was a much more even affair than the opening 45 minutes, with the action flowing from one end to the other.

Ross would have been unhappy at just how open things became, and the Black Cats boss would also have been breathing a huge sigh of relief shortly after the hour mark as Baldwin slid in to challenge Luke Hannant.

The Port Vale midfielder was adamant he should have had a penalty as he fell to the floor, but referee Anthony Backhouse waved play on despite even some Sunderland defenders appearing to stop in anticipation of a whistle.

Brown prevented the Black Cats from making things safe with ten minutes left, flinging himself to his left to keep out Honeyman’s first-time strike, but despite creating some late pressure, Port Vale were unable to claim an equaliser to force a replay.

They came close with a late goalmouth scramble, but Reece James produced a superb last-ditch tackle to rob Pope of possession just as the home side’s goalscorer was about to shoot from the edge of the six-yard box.