Pete Sixsmith talked at half time about lots of huff and puff without clear chances, save for the superb Khazri cross that Defoe should have reached and nodded one. Then Sunderland carved out numerous reasonable chances after the break but poor luck, wasteful finishing and safe goalkeeping from Ben Foster kept us out. Norwich’s late win made it, on balance, a worrying day. We played quite well, especially second half, but the lack of killer instinct may well prove our undoing. Yet two more points wasted and time is running out, along with the obviously winnable games …
April 2 2016 Sunderland (0) 0 West Bromwich Albion (0) 0 Much to like, but not quite enough
March 20 2016 Newcastle United (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 1 Great result for Norwich, dispapointing for us
March 5 2016 Southampton (0) 1 Sunderland (0) 1 Oddly a bigger disappointment than losing 8-0
March 1 2016 Sunderland (1) 2 Crystal Palace (0) 2 Borini thunderbolt salvages a scarcely deserved point
Feb 27 2016 West ham United 1 (1) Sunderland (0) 0 Hugely disappointing. Points there for the taking
Feb 13 2016 Sunderland (1) 2 Man Utd (1) 1 Sam’s new boys make all the difference
Feb 6 2016 Liverpool (0) 2 Sunderland (0) 2
1) Could this be the season’s turning point? and
2) *The window’s shut but so’s the trapdoor
Feb 2 2016 Sunderland (0) 0 Manchester City (1) 1 One point was the least we deserved
Jan 23 2016 Sunderland (1) 1 AFC Bournemouth (1) 1 Suppose one point is better than none
Jan 16 2016 Tottenham Hotspur 4 (1) Sunderland 1 (1) Poor decision making on field and benchJan 13 2016
Swansea (2) 2 Sunderland (1) 4 Much improved second half after dismal first and a second texted 7 came in shortly afterwards – Always good to win away in Europe!
Jan 9 2016 Arsenal (1) 3 Sunderland (1) 1 Had chances but they have better players
Jan 2 2016 Sunderland (1) 3 Aston Villa (1) 1 The old hands pulled us through this
Dec 30 2015 Sunderland 0 (0) Liverpool 1 (0): Better performance but the inexorable slide continues
Dec 26 2015 Man City 4 (3) Sunderland 1 (0): Drew second half; shame about the first
Dec 19 2015 Chelsea 3 (2) SAFC 1 (0) *Fought like tigers. Undone by woeful start
Dec 12 2015 SAFC 0 (0) Watford (1) 1 * Disappointingly insipid and cannot complain about result
Dec 5 2015 *Arsenal (1) 3 SAFC (1) 1: Deserved better but couldn’t take our chances
Nov 28 2015 SAFC (0) 2 Stoke City (0) 0 Totally unrecognisable from the last home game
Nov 23 2015 *Crystal Palace (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 1: Winning ugly but winning. Sam’s the Man*
Nov 7 2015: SAFC (0) 0 Southampton (0) 1 A truly dismal display that heralds relegation
Nov 1 2015: Everton (2) 6 SAFC (1) 2 The usual post-derby anti-climax knocks us flat or Quite clear why Advocaat decamped to Holland or The defending was like Halloween: absolutely frightening
Oct 25 2015: SAFC (1) 3 Newcastle United (0) 0 Nothing better than the joy of six
Oct 17 2015: West Bromwich Albion (0) 1 SAFC (0) 0 * At least the pies were good quality to which Sixer adds Another Pantilimon error means still no win
Oct 3 2015: SAFC (2) 2 West Ham United (1) 2 Dick can be proud of his (?) players
September 26 2015: Manchester United (1) 3 SAFC (0) 0 Routine for United thanks to defensive errors
September 22 2015: League Cup: SAFC (0) 1 Manchester City (4) City’s brilliance aided by pathetic Sunderland defending or Defence horribly exposed by a rampant City or Not on the same planet as City
September 19 2015: AFC Bournemouth (2) 2 SAFC (0) 0 Couldn’t recover from a truly abysmal start
September 13 2015: SAFC (0) 0 Tottenham Hotpsur (0) 1 Vastly improved performance not reflected by result
August 29 2015: Aston Villa (2) 2 SAFC (1) 2 * M’Vila and Lens snatch a shaky point
August 25 2015: League Cup 2nd round: SAFC (3) 6 Exeter City (3) 3 Young hearts run free in second half
August 22 2015: SAFC (0) 1 Swansea City (1) 1 Gloom lifting after a more determined performance
August 15 2015: SAFC (0) 1 Norwich City (2) 3 I’ve seen some shockers in my time …
August 8 2015: Leicester City (3) 4 SAFC (0) 2 No encouragement to take from this shocker
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I was listening to the commentary and it just felt like one of those days when we weren’t going to score, despite all the chances and near misses/good saves. Disappointing to hear that Newcastle didn’t hold out for the draw.
Surely Norwich’s outrageous good fortune can’t continue nor our not getting what we deserve. It’s ironic that this is the best team we’ve had for years but could go down and then the merry-go-round begins again.I’m getting too old for this but still keeping the faith.
My thoughts exactly . This is a decent team that’s a win away from clicking into gear . We’ve a good no nonsense manager also and I fear if we go down we could lose our better players and if rumours going round are correct Big Sam.
You could argue that the mags are down now barring a great escape, if we don’t beat Norwich we are aswell .That was as huge a win for the canaries as it was a frustrating afternoon for us . We were never going to score I felt and WBA got exactly what they came for . We’re ” going down with the Villa ” apparantly , its looking like that at the moment .
Cattermole, M’Vila and Kirchhoff all had good games but none of them is a natural attacker. Borini and Khazri also played well but mostly out wide. Defoe ran a lone furrow. Rodwell, Larsson or even Toivonen in the starting line up might just have given us the edge in the attacking third as none of the three starting midfielders got up there quickly and don’t always have an eye for a shooting opportunity.
Just shows how differently games look. Malcolm was there, I was following a (good) internet stream. I thought M’Vila was anonymous, not a patch on the pre-Christmas M’Vila. At ESPN – http://www.espnfc.com/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2842483/younes-kaboul-the-top-performer-for-sunderland-in-west-brom – I made Kabul my best player because despite WBA’s limited threat, he was always there to snuff it out (except once) and popped up in dangerous forward positions too. But the “once” was when Kirchhoff put in that magnificent tackle on Rondon and, on reflection, helped along by some pertinent tweets from Shaun (https://twitter.com/Shaun_XL5), he should have got my vote.
But as Malcolm always says, being there gives you a much better idea of what people do, off there ball as well as on it. I faulted Kirchhoff for his miss, but maybe I missed more than him and Jermain put together!
I think part of the reason you think M’Vila isn’t playing as well as he did earlier in the season is that he doesn’t have to. Since Kirchhoff has come into the side he has had less to do defensively and Kirchhoff is also good with his distribution. Therefore M’Vila can be more of a holding player. Khazri too is doing a better job on the left flank than Graham and Watmore were, which again means M’Vila appears less obvious. He’s a bit like Larsson in that his positional sense means he closes off channels which makes the opposition go elsewhere. It’s not always what a player does with the ball that makes them effective.
Cripes! If only Sam had started the season. Norwich away is a must win game.