This season is sharp becoming fairly predictable. It’s now obvious that Chelsea are going to win the league, the Mags are once again going to win nowt and, unfortunately, Sunderland are looking increasingly likely to go down as, once again, despite their best efforts, the Lads ended up on the wrong side of another defeat. It’s a common feature of this season’s matches and, to be perfectly honest I’m getting quite sick of writing about it, but it seems that no matter how well the Lads play, they can’t seem to get anything deserved out of the game.
This game was no different to any other this season as, once again, the Lads came out fighting, knocking the ball about a ferocious pace, but, once again, however much they tried, they couldn’t break the dead-lock. For all of Man United’s supposed difference in quality, Sunderland really controlled both the tempo and the possession. Gary Breen saw his powerful header turned onto the angle of the crossbar by Van der Sar who, only a few minutes later, got out well to snatch the ball from the feet of Andy Welsh just as he turned to shoot. However, it seems that it is this inability to put the ball in the back of the net this season that is going to cost us this season and it certainly did in this game as, not for the first time, the opposition did to us what we had plenty opportunities to do to them. As soon as Rooney picked up the ball on the halfway line it was clear he was going to score, a marked difference to any of our strikers at the moment. With incredible pace, for a fat lad anyway, he stole away from our defence, calmly took the ball around the flailing grasp of the reluctant and lethargic Davis, before placing the ball underneath Hoyte and into the back of the net. This was a crushing blow to the Lads who struggled to regain any stranglehold on the match, either before half time or after it.
Man United took the upper-hand and, after the goal looked a completely different side, a completely different class to us. They knocked the ball round our mid-field like they weren’t even there and were unlucky not to go two up as Breen was forced to clear Park’s shot off the line. However, this was really the only chance in the match that they failed to convert as minutes later Van Nistelrooy found himself in space behind the defence and, like his strike-partner, never looked like missing as he fired brilliantly past Davis right into the bottom corner. However, this seemed to have the opposite effect to the first goal as the Lads again went in search of that elusive goal. And it finally came from a piece of individual brilliance. Elliott picked up the ball on the edge of the box and, deciding to take it upon himself to create something, fired brilliantly over Van der Sar and into the top corner. This gave the fans hope of snatching a point which looked as if it might have came to fruition when Le Tallec curled a free-kick through the wall, but Van der Sar once again saved United’s blushes, palming the ball out to relative safety as Elliott failed to put in the rebound. It was another missed opportunity that was yet again punished as Rossi went down the other end, cut inside and fired the ball, with the help of a deflection, into the net to crush any hopes off a miraculous come-back.
So, this game should serve as another lesson in Premiership football. No matter how much you create, no matter how well you play, if you can’t score, you won’t win. The Lads need to improve their confidence, practice their technique, anything they can do to better themselves when it comes to finishing their chances. And they need to do this immediately as it goes without saying that the game next Sunday against one of the top 8 clubs in the world is obviously going to be our toughest test yet.
Man of the Match: Justin Hoyte
Matthew Woolston