With promotion all but secured with wins at QPR and Wigan, Sunderland could stroll through today’s game with the greatest of ease, trouncing another team on their way to early promotion celebrations. That’s how many people saw this match, yet reality, unsurprisingly, was an entirely different matter.
However, on the basis of the first half, fans could have been forgiven for thinking that the earlier scenario could have come to fruition. McCarthy named the same side that he put out at the JJB Stadium just four days previously and in the early exchanges, at least, this seemed to pay off. Sunderland, frankly dominated in the opening 45 minutes but just failed to either put in that final ball or, if something was indeed created, to finish it off. Marcus Hahnemann was forced to pull off two good, scrambling saves, both from Arca shots and this story of missed opportunities was to be repeated throughout the first half. Hahnemann again saved, this time from Whitehead and this to be the last real action in a particularly uneventful finish to the first half.
This was in stark contrast to the start of the second half which began with the shock substitution of Myhre, sidelined by a back injury, for the fairly inexperienced Ingham . This seemed to immediately unnerve not only the fans but the players as well yet, although the defence were already beginning to sit back, the midfield still pushed on and were rewarded for this when Arca latched on to a floated cross from Stewart to head past the hapless ‘keeper. However, instead of having a positive effect, this goal just seemed to make things worse. Whether it was through complacency or simply just nerves Sunderland proceeded to sit back on their lead and began to give the ball away too many times. For these two reasons combined, Reading saw their opportunity to get back in the game and seized it with both hands. After he had failed to convert a couple of earlier chances, Dave Kitson made the most of a defensive mix-up to scramble in Reading’s equaliser. With this, they seemed to sense that they could snatch more than just a draw out of the game and they did just that. A long, searching ball from their defence found its way behind the defence and into the path of Sidwell who, having made his way into the box and towards goal, was brought down by the seemingly unnecessary substitute, Whitley. Kitson blasted home to pick up his second of the match and condemn Sunderland to their first dropped points in nine games.
So whilst it all may seem like doom and gloom now, the Lads had to be defeated at some point and any worries or doubts that may arise because of this defeat only come from negative speculation about the forthcoming games. Nobody can predict what will happen in the next few weeks so for the moment just look at the table and see that Sunderland are still five points above Wigan and the fate of the team is still in their own hands.
Man of the Match: Julio Arca
Matthew Woolston
