It feels horrible, losing at home, doesn’t it? It’s a feeling that, before this game, Sunderland fans hadn’t experienced so far this season, but, frankly, it feels crap. Both the manner of the defeat and the poor Sunderland display will leave fans bitterly disappointed but with results going our way, it’s not all doom and gloom.
It was with great pleasure that I stood outside the ground listening to roar after roar as the goals at Stamford Bridge flew in but another thing I heard, a more important thing, caused my optimism to drop. In an odd move, McCarthy named a team including a couple of players playing out of position, with, Arca’s suspension forcing McCartney, a natural fullback to start on the left wing with Danny Collins, a natural centre-half, filling in for him at left back. In hindsight, a poor move that was exploited throughout the game.
The first sign of which came just 5 minutes into the game when Carl Fletcher struck the post after getting behind the left side of defence. This was the start of a good, if slightly short spell of early West Ham pressure which also saw Etherington squander a good chance, firing straight at Mhyre. Having overcome this period of pressure, it was Sunderland who then went searching for a goal as the game quickly found a good, even pace. Carter had his fine long-range shot saved before Elliott failed to squeeze the ball past Bywater after being set free by Stewart. Harewood, then, wasted a pair of good chances for the Hammers, prior to Sunderland’s match being summed up in the space of 30 seconds. Lawrence, twice, fired straight into the feet of the wall after getting the chance to re-take his original, shocking free-kick just outside the box. Mirroring this, it was to be a game of Sunderland indecisiveness. Then, just as the game was beginning to further even itself up and quieten down in the run up to half-time, Steven Caldwell tried to wrestle the ball from Chadwick, following a free-kick. As Chadwick dropped to the floor with the ball and just as the referee finally turned round, Caldwell stuck his foot in to try, as it seemed, to “rake the ball out”. This must, to the referee, have appeared as a stamp and Caldwell was therefore dismissed in a sending off that can, at best, be described as controversial and, at worst, as a disgrace. Not only because of the Caldwell’s dismissal but because of the fact that he failed to send off Chadwick, already on a yellow card and holding on the ball, clearly a bookable offence. Whichever way you saw it, it was clear that this ruined what was, at the time, an open and flowing game.
For the five minutes before half time and the rest of the match Sunderland were forced to sit back and defend while West Ham came at them. The substitution of Brown for Elliott, unsurprisingly, failed to do anything for Sunderland’s attacking options and they could only hold out for so long. After Collins twice failed to clear before gifting the ball to Chadwick, Harewood received the ball in yards of space in the box, allowing him to simply stroke the ball into the bottom corner. This caused McCarthy to make the obvious change, bringing Bridges on for Stewart. For a short while, this seemed to excite, not only the fans but the players as they looked brighter than they had done all match. McCartney, on two occasions, created an opening down the left hand side but failed to deliver a decent cross, before Bridges himself had an admittedly poor penalty shout turned downed after finding a yard of space just outside the box. All the while though it was clear Sunderland were fighting an uphill battle. A battle which was well and truly lost a couple of minutes into injury time when substitute Teddy Sherringham fired home after a good West Ham break to bury the Lads undefeated home record.
However, although suffering their first home defeat with a less than average performance, the lads showed good spirit in searching for that equaliser and showed that, in better circumstances and events, the result could have been much different. They remain in third and are still in a promising position leading up to a very important Christmas period.
Matthew Woolston
