Sunderland 2-1 Leicester
After the Reading game, forecasting the outcome for the rest of the season was all about ifs and buts yet now, there is no uncertainty involved. It’s official, we’re going up. A narrow, if quite convincing victory, coupled with Ipswich’s solitary point at Leeds was enough to ensure Sunderland’s place amongst the elite for next season at least and meant that any doubt that remained was lifted right off the shoulders of many a Sunderland fan.
And this was all done with what looked like, on paper a comparatively poor side. With Myhre still sidelined, teenager, Ben Alnwick was granted his first team debut and the injury to McCartney forced McCarthy to reshuffle the left hand side, with Arca taking Ringo’s place at left back and Andy Welsh slotting in on the wing. So for a while, this took some time getting used to and it showed. Even after an early Stewart chance, Leicester took the upper hand and made Sunderland pay when, just 5 minutes into the match, Maybury got in behind Wright far too easily and curled his shot past Alnwick. Whilst this certainly went against the script for the day, it wasn’t, by any means, against the run of play and Leicester continued their early spell of pressure after the goal. Within two minutes, Alnwick was forced to pull off two great saves, the first from a Connoly shot before somehow managing to turn Marc De Vries’s ambling, deflected shot over the bar with his feet. This seemed to act as a wake-up call to a struggling Sunderland side who then began to create chances for themselves. Lawrence and Wright both called Walker into action and then Stewart, running onto to a stunning through ball from Brown, fired a low shot into the bottom corner to snatch an unlikely equalizer. After this, the pace of the game finally eased off a bit and the only real action of the rest of the half came from a spectacular saving tackle from Wright to prevent an almost certain Leicester goal.
Because the Lads have consistently shown throughout the season and that they are a second half side and, bearing in mind what was at stake, it came as no surprise that they came out fighting. Stewart looked to have granted Sunderland the lead but Walker managed to scoop his header away from goal. The striker then seemed to have won a penalty as the ball hit the Leicester defenders hand but any appeals were waved away. However, from the resulting corner Caldwell rose like a salmon and headed, with the power of a very powerful thing, into the roof of the net. It was the type of header that deserved to seal promotion and , as it turned out, it did. Although there were several nervous moments in the final half an hour, they mostly came from those listening to the match at Elland Road as both Leicester and Sunderland failed to create anything of note. The nerves created by waiting for news from Leeds continued on even after the final whistle but when the PA announcer verified that it was full time and was, indeed, 1-1 the sheer joy and amazement around the SOL was there for all to see.
It really was a testament to the Lads and in particular, to Mick McCarthy and his management team who have taken the club from the depths of despair to the dizzy heights of the premiership once again. Now is the time, not to look forward to what might happen next year, but to enjoy the celebrations while we can as we, all things being well, wrap up the championship. Happy Days
Man of the Match: Ben Alnwick
Matthew Woolston
