He may well be a forgotten man on the international scene of late, but Aiden McGeady certainly came to the fore this afternoon at Wembley.
The winger gave Portsmouth goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray little chance with a wonderful arcing free-kick in the 37th minute to give his Sunderland side the lead in the Checkatrade Trophy Final.
Aiden McGeady scores from the free kick to put Sunderland one ahead.
Portsmouth 0-1 Sunderland
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The Black Cats looked on course for victory before Pompey full-back Nathan Thompson popped up at the back post to send the tie to extra-time with an 82nd-minute header.
Jamal Lowe put the south coast side ahead with an audacious effort with six minutes left in extra-time, making an arse out of Sunderland centre-half Jack Baldwin before cheekily dinking the bouncing ball over stranded goalie Jon McLaughlin into an empty net.
But McGeady would take the tie to a nail-biting penalty shootout, finding space inside the Portsmouth box late on and selling a fantastic dummy before slotting past McGillivray to make it 2-2.
Big Sunderland following in Turkey, seemingly.
McGeady would even find the net with the first penalty of the subsequent shootout, but all his heroic efforts would prove in vain at the end.
If McGeady was the hero then Lee Cattermole played the villain in this particular blockbuster, his spot-kick parried by MacGillivray at a comfortable height for the goalie.
Ollie Hawkins converted the fifth and final penalty for Portsmouth, sending half of the 85,000 fans present at the home of English football into rapture, nine years after a Harry Redknapp managed Pompey side collected the FA Cup at the same venue.
Sunderland and McGeady will be hoping that their season will yet end on a high. An unbeaten run in the league stretching back to a defeat at today's conquerors just before Christmas has seen Jack Ross's side cement themselves very much within the League One play-off shake-up.
