ICF's Sunderland report

[It's Character Forming 536]

Our team : 442 with Elmander and Hooper up front. Injury to Howson gave a midfield of Fer and Johnson with Redmond and Sndooy back on the flanks.

Back line was unchanged with Whitts basso Turner and Olsson in front of Ruddy.

A cold and clear day in the north east - shortest day of the year and the sun had almost set as I made my way to the ground past the massed ranks of Sanders coaches, always a welcome sight.

The game opened with some good city possession which led to a corner after which Hooper zipped the ball across the 6 yard box On the floor but no one was close. it was a few minutes before Sunderland even had the ball. The pattern of the half was City having good chances but unable to convert one while Sunderland were limited to shots from range mostly wild. The pick of our chances were a shot by Hooper that the keeper turned on to a post and a near post effort by Redmond that te keeper did well to save. Also at one point Fer was set up for a shot but he opted to place it rather than hit with power and the keeper saved comfortably.

We were playing a mix of short passing and long balls to Elmander and Snoddy which was pretty effective.

At the backk Turner was immense and Fer And BJ in midfield both were looking excellent.

So to the second half and Subderland started with more purpose but still little threat and City continued to have better chances.

As the clock went past 75 minutes I started to feel Sunderland were in the ascendancy for the first time and there were a couple of anxious moments. One was Ruddy come out of the area to his right to close down a through ball, one of those times when he should have stayed put. The attacker was able to cross and in the centre their striker lobbed for the goal defended only by Turner but put it on the roof of the net. And a corner was half cleared but put back in to Brown who was now unmarked but his ball across was well cut out.

Hughton brought on RVW for the tiring Elmander and this redressed the balance. He looked sprightly and had one good shot which the keeper pushed away and almost fell to Hooper. Leroy was pushing forward and looked like he might score a trademark late goal but it wasn''t to be.

There were incidents right at the end with Basso controlling the ball on his chest and Sunderland players vociferous in claiming a pen but the ref waved them away so no repeat of the pen given against Basso in this fixture last year - that was a wrong un, couldn''t tell about the call this time because he was facing away from us but given the bad decisions that gave Sunderland a point against us last year, I wouldn''t care if the ref was right or not.

At the far end Brown was given a second yellow (I think) and was sent off (defo) for a wild challenge that took out RVW, too late to affect the result. Some around me thought we were going for the draw in the dying minutes - ok we sat back a bit but we ended the game on the attack with a corner and more likely to score, but of course it closed scoreless.

The radio summariser said we celebrated the point like a win - utter rubbish, he obviously wasn''t at WBA! A solid away point, we could easily have got 3 and were the better team, with more chances than we had at WBA. But that''s football. 3 games unbeaten and another clean sheet, so no complaints from me.

[It's Character Forming 536]

PS was it a straight red for brown? From the far end it looked wild enough to merit one but I wasn''t sure if he''d been booked before.

[Waveney Canary 0]

Enjoy the illegal stream did you? It was cold at the ground if u wanted to know.still travelling back on cabbage

How did forest do? U plastics disgust me

[kick it off 1,378]

[quote user="Its Character Forming"]PS was it a straight red for brown? From the far end it looked wild enough to merit one but I wasn''t sure if he''d been booked before.[/quote]

He had been booked before but was given a straight red for the tackle.

[It's Character Forming 536]

[quote user="Waveney canary"]Enjoy the illegal stream did you? It was cold at the ground if u wanted to know.still travelling back on cabbage

How did forest do? U plastics disgust me[/quote]

Dunno Waveney. How did your team get on? I listened to 606 on the way home but they didn''t mention 1p5wich while I was listening . As you come on our message board so much maybe you could do something useful and give us a scum match report? Some on here would be interested.

[The Great Mass Debater 336]

Some interesting comments about the game from Gus Poyet. Sounds very much like he thought this fixture was an easy 3 points, just subtle things like ''After winning in the cup you have to win again, Norwich should have been ideal''. Perhaps Im reading too much into what he had to say, but seems like he thought we would roll over. ''We''ve made excuses before because we were playing top teams''. A number of slights on our side?  Id rather have our team than theirs...

[AJ 154]

It''s a motivational thing, and they would have been positive after their win in the week. That''s why it was such a well earned point by us, by the circumstances it wasn''t an easy game and we shut them out

[It's Character Forming 536]

[quote user="The Great Mass Debater"]Some interesting comments about the game from Gus Poyet. Sounds very much like he thought this fixture was an easy 3 points, just subtle things like ''After winning in the cup you have to win again, Norwich should have been ideal''. Perhaps Im reading too much into what he had to say, but seems like he thought we would roll over. ''We''ve made excuses before because we were playing top teams''. A number of slights on our side?  Id rather have our team than theirs...[/quote]

 

Thanks, interesting to hear that.  Also I was irritated by Robbie Savage on 606 talking to a Cardiff fan about protesting against their owner and Savage made the comment something like "but what if you had a vital relegation game say against Norwich, and protesting could undermine the team..." which set my teeth on edge.  Mind you I still remember his slow walk off the pitch for Derby against us when he was substituted, which added enough injury time for Simmo to score the winner...

 

I think we are under-estimated among the mid-table teams, in the same way that Newcastle have had little recognition for their recent run of form.

[The Great Mass Debater 336]

Just to add to the apparent arrogance of Sunderland (you''re bottom guys) comment by Vito Mannone - "we''re better than Norwich, we just werent able to show it". Im hoping that was a misquote or he got his words wrong and meant to say that in the game he thought they were better. But I dont think so. That kind of arrogance is going to see u go down pal

[Buh 0]

Sunderland can say what they want, us getting that point has pretty much sunk them I reckon. That is a game they absolutely needed to win and they didn''t. That''s why we will survive and kick on and they won''t.

[The Great Mass Debater 336]

Did I miss something in the build up to this match? Where did the ''must-win'' statement come and why? Was it sp theyd avoid being bottom at xmas? Do they have a tough run now or was it because they wanted some momentum?

[Buh 0]

With the results they''ve had, and the fixtures they have coming, only getting a point against us at home and being dead last scraping double figures on points just seems terminal.

[It's Character Forming 536]

The logic is that with only 10 points Sunderland must win home games against teams like Norwich if they are to survive.

[ricardo 2,608]

Once you need 1.5 points per game to stay up then it''s over. Sunderland are very close to that mark.

[Waveney Canary 0]

It''s amazing what you can write about when watching a game on an illegal stream

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="Waveney canary"]It''s amazing what you can write about when watching a game on an illegal stream[/quote]It''s amazing how many times you can troll the same point on the same thread.Or are you too dim to realise you''d already trolled this thread?

[It's Character Forming 536]

Waveney would know about writing about a team you don''t go to see!