One of the major criticisms of The Lads this season is that their football has been, on the whole, fairly boring and slow-paced. It has been said that the midfield is too defensive, that the whole team lacks creativity and that the strikers don’t get enough goals. Today, however, the same side that most of this criticism has been leveled at, at least went some way to dispelling these theories.
And with McCarthy naming the same, apparently defensive side, that carved out a boring 1-1 draw away to Wolves just 8 days ago, it would have been a brave man to predict the outcome of the game. Robinson and Whitley once again took up their places in Midfield and Breen and Caldwell retained theirs in the centre of defence. But, although it was the same side as at Molineux just a week earlier it was an entirely different performance, almost from the very start of the match.
After just 10 minutes, Stewart, already looking bright up front, managed to latch onto a sublime Whitley long ball before seeing his brilliant volley saved by Jones. While this was the first glimmer, in this game, of Stewart’s recent upturn in form, the second, soon afterwards, would prove deadly. This coincided with the first good cross of the game, coming from Stephen Elliott who, after winning the ball down the right, placed the ball perfectly onto Stewart’s head allowing him to finish easily from just a few yards out. The difference between this and many other games this season was highlighted straight after the goal when, instead of sitting back, Sunderland went in search of a second. After a few half chances a fairly innocuous ball was picked up by Mcartney who made his way into the box before being flattened. It was probably one of the easiest penalty decisions referee Bates has ever had to make and one of the easiest ways for Stewart to grab his second goal of the afternoon. With this though, Sunderland did sit back, contributing to a fairly uneventful last quarter of an hour. Arca’s disallowed goal being the only action before the end of the first half.
This period, deficient of chances, was ended soon after half time as what can only be described as a hoof by McCartney looped its way over the flailing Watford keeper before Marcus Stewart sped in ahead of DeMerit to slot home for a well-deserved hat-trick. Much like after the first goal, Sunderland again went on the attack. Elliott and even Stephen Wright missed chances before Stewart’s replacement, Chris Brown got in on the action with 20 minutes to go. Robinson rose at the far post to head Whitehead’s corner back across goal into the path of Brown who tucked the ball home from a couple of yards and whilst this should have been game set and match that wasn’t quite the case. Although never in danger of altering the result of the game two late Watford goals certainly put a dampener on things. Bruce Dyer nabbed two goals in the last 15 minutes, both after lax defending , ensured the remaining Watford fans at least had something to cheer but, unsurprisingly, it wasn’t enough.
Man of the Match: Marcus Stewart, although Elliott must also take a lot of the credit.
Matthew Woolston
