Not really sure what happened there. For about 70 minutes of what was a grim League Cup tie at St. Andrews, Sunderland looked lost for ideas, were unable to string two passes together and showed all the wit and invention of Michael Chopra at a Gamblers Anonymous meeting.
The best moment in the history of football. That's the only way to describe it. The single greatest moment ever. To complete four in a row against them, at their place, with a last minute goal. Insanity. Sheer insanity.
A stunning sixteen minute spell in the second half saw Manchester City edge today’s clash at the Etihad, but Sunderland can consider themselves unlucky after briefly coming from two down to level things.
As part of our build up to the big match, we thought we would bring you a proper old school classic match for SAFC against Newcastle United. Here, we wind the clock all the way back to 1956 in an FA Cup Sixth Round tie at St James' Park which saw Sunderland march on to the semi finals. Unfortunately, we were trounced by Birmingham City 3-0 at that stage. This is the official match report courtesy of the Sunderland Antiquarian Society.
Manchester City buried a unique sequence of four 1-0 defeats at the Stadium of Light with a slick 4-1 win against Sunderland. The gap between the two teams was the cutting edge shown by last season's star-studded Premier League champions against the tired legs of the home side four days after holding the current runaway leaders to a highly impressively draw.
Brave, committed and disciplined are three of the words that describe Sunderland's performance to become only the third team this season to take points away from the run-away league leaders Chelsea.
Well. That wasn’t a very good advertisement for the Premier League, was it? Basically, this dour 0-0 draw can be best summed up as two sides who aren’t good enough to defend properly but also aren’t good enough to take advantage of poor defending.
Put it into perspective. In the last two games Sunderland have turned their season back around and put it again on course to survive in the Premier League, and possibly comfortably. Another gritty point against a much better Everton side was well-earned even if they were so close and could have sneaked a win.
SAFC take three points from Selhurst Park for the first time since 1995 and ensure that we can all stop bleating on about Mondays. In typical Sunderland fashion, own goal and all, we move back out of the bottom three led by one player’s particularly brilliant performance. Steven Fletcher netted his second brace of the season to cement himself as our best striker.
We’re not talking about anything too strenuous here. Whether you’re expecting it of a League Two substitute or Champions League winner, the simple things are surely a given. Ensuring you apply a force which exceeds the power of a one-legged mallard to a back-pass, clearing you’re lines in possession as you’re near the six-yard box with the opposition closing in or controlling the ball and not tackling yourself as you swing to clear it would all constitute as the simple things that should be a given. Of course, we’re Sunderland, nothing is a given.
