Port Vale hero Ben Waine can't hide true feelings after huge Sunderland FA Cup shock

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Newcastle fan Ben Waine dumped Sunderland out of the FA Cup and then admitted it was beyond his wildest dreams.

Port Vale hero Waine, 24, scored the winner to stun Sunderland in the biggest upset of the round and even marked his goal by copying Newcastle great Alan Shearer’s trademark celebration.

Waine was born in New Zealand, his mum Jacque is a Geordie which is why he grew up supporting Newcastle and he enjoyed his greatest day by knocking out the Premier League giants.

New Zealand international Waine said: “It doesn't get better than that. That was something I've never even dreamt of, for it to go that way I think my family will be happy!

“It's unbelievable, look at this place. I've never seen it like this. We dug in so hard, I think we deserved it. We stuck to the game plan - it's as simple as that. Hands down the biggest upset I’ve been involved in, yeah. It's unbelievable.”

Waine says he is dreaming of going to the World Cup with New Zealand but was just disappointed that he cannot play Newcastle after they were knocked out by Manchester City .

“Not to get too ahead of myself, but that's obviously the dream, yeah,” he said. “I was gonna say, Newcastle so honestly, I don't know. Whoever it is will take it to them, hopefully, and be another great game.”

Waine has been Port Vale’s match winner in three FA Cup ties this season as the club rooted to the foot of League One have picked up under new boss Jon Brady who has been in charge for 14 games.

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But Brady admitted the cup run can feel like an unwanted distraction. “It’s a bit of a pain in the bum, to be honest,” said Brady.

“It is really because what it’s doing for us is adding to our fixture list and as you saw we list one of our best centre halves and we haven’t got the size of the squad to cope with the amount of games at the moment.

“I have not got a clue who is left! I saw Arsenal win their game yesterday, saw Chelsea just edge Wrexham and Man City, Liverpool … my God. I wouldn’t have a clue because I’m thinking about Bradford on Wednesday.”

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has a raft of injuries but fielded his strongest available line-up and said: “We went strong with the ambition to win, with the knowledge as well, that it was a tough challenge because of the challenge here, with the crowd, the team fully involved, full credit them.

“The pitch is the pitch. We won't find excuses. It levels everything, technically and tactically. You put in the battle and fighting spirit and they were good at that, the crowd the stadium the event. They deserved on that part of the game to win."

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