Merry bliddy Christmas, eh? Like many others I woke up yesterday morning and thought, “Yes, we’re playing Leeds tomorrow”. A fixture that, like no other on the list, really excited me. It obviously excited the Sunderland public as well, as 17,000 people came out of the woodwork, sadly making up just under half the 43,253 crowd. Unfortunately, whatever brought them to the SOL will, presumably now, not be bringing them back as the Lads put in a dismal and dispirited display.
McCarthy named a similar team to that which overcame Burnley last week, with the only replacement being Caldwell who returned from injury in place of Neil Collins.
With the atmosphere building up gradually from the start, the lads performance did the same as they looked bright and creative. However, like in many games this season no real chances came from a good spell of possession. Leeds, sensing this, then began to step up their game. To Dirty Leeds though, this meant living up to their name. They hacked, kicked, tugged, tussled, wrestled and elbowed their way, eventually, into the lead. After several horrible tackles, in particular, Kelly’s on Arca, Brian Deane, a thorn in the Sunderland side throughout was given yards of space to nod the ball down to Lennon, who after good work, curled the ball past Myhre. After this, it was already becoming visible it was going to be an uphill struggle for Sunderland. They still weren’t creating and, in stark contrast to the start, were now looking distinctly ragged. They did though, to their credit, find a way back into the game. Whitehead, going nowhere in the box, was brought down and a dubious penalty was given our way. What goes around comes around, remembering the penalty decision at Elland Road earlier this season. Lawrence, as ever, found the bottom corner and we were, somehow, in with a chance.
A chance that was anything but seized upon in the second half as the toughness of the game failed to be matched by the toughness of Sunderland. Lawrence, Arca and, even at times, Breen looked nervous and scared as a combination of tough tackling at the back and strength upfront from that man, Brian Deane undid Sunderland. Deane, of all people, was, clearly, even at this point, Leeds’ man of the match and he didn’t have to wait till the end to get his reward. Just past the hour mark, after Elliott had replaced the wholly ineffective Bridges, he latched onto a David Healy cross to put dirty Leeds back in front. This prompted McCarthy to make his second customary, almost pre-planned substitution. Lawrence, after a poor performance by his standards, was replaced by Stewart. And just like the previous substitution this also didn’t work. Just minutes later Julian Joachim finished Sunderland off, converting Wright’s low cross. With this, many fans voted with their feet and walked out. Missing a 90th minute Julio Arca goal direct from a free kick, I’m sure, was scant consolation, no matter how good it was.
However, contrary to many knee-jerk reactions, all is not lost. It’s one bad performance and, if the earlier half of the season is anything to go by, they will brush it off and come back stronger. If my memory serves me right, we haven’t lost two games in a row this season so with that, I say bring of the rest of the festive fixtures. Defeats for Wigan and Ipswich mean that we’re still well in the promotion race.
Man of the Match: Stephen Wright
Matthew Woolston