We all knew we wouldn’t win every game but, today the three points were there for the taking and we should have them on the board. Before the match the buzz around the place was flowing, built up from the two previous games, beating both Derby and Leeds away from home with amazing following yet again. It was odd walking to the ground before kick-off because there were a lot of people queuing to get in, whereas last year the majority of people were trying to get out, or not bothering to turn up and support the lads. It shows how fickle football is, win three straight games add a new, hungry manager to the equation and you get more people wanting to support the lads. Today’s game was Keane’s first home game and I expected to comfortably beat Leicester. A win today and other results going in our favour could have seen us move into fifth place, which would have been fantastic.
The only change from the team that faced Leeds was Brown in for the injured Connolly. Dwight Yorke made the bench alongside, Hysen, Leadbitter, D.Collins and Ward.
We started the match a bit sluggish, which is understandable after three games in a week, considering most of our team hasn’t been playing regular football. We had plenty of the ball but were lacking that cutting edge we were beginning to get used to. Kavanagh, who’d been pulling the strings in the previous two games, seemed a bit off the pace, as most of the team was. There were no real attempts on goal from either team early on and Leicester looked there for the taking, every player behind the ball. Ten minutes into the first half and Daryl Murphy had to be taken off with an injury, it didn’t look too good for the lad. Up stepped Dwight Yorke to make his Sunderland debut, the place went wild when they saw Yorke, maybe it was going to be the spur we needed to get a goal.
After fifteen minutes we started to get into gear and show flashes of the team that had played well the previous two games, on the eighteenth minute mark Whitehead whipped a superb corner in, to which Varga got on the end of, but narrowly missed the target. As usual this attempt was greeted with cheers from the Sunderland faithful, urging the lads on. After that attempt the half then fizzled out into nothing, were we going to witness a typical Sunderland display? Win three off the trot; get some fans back, then take two steps backwards.
Half time score Sunderland 0 – 0 Leicester City.
The second half began with a bit more urgency about the team, passing the ball well, but again there was little end product. Brown was having a terrible game up front; maybe he’s back to his normal self, whereas every time the ball went to Yorke, no matter how hard the pass to him was, the ball simply stuck to him like a magnet. Still early into the second half and Whitehead was caught napping with the ball, Leicester easily got the ball from him and Andy Johnson ran 20-30 yards with the ball, unchallenged and set up Fryatt for Leicester’s first and only goal of the afternoon. It was beginning to look like Sunderland were going to take those two steps back. You’d imagine conceding a goal would get a reaction from the team, it didn’t make too much of an effect, it did however bring us all back down to earth. We continued to have lots of the ball, passing and moving well, the spreading of the play was terrific. However, we were missing that killer pass to unlock their defence and two good centre forwards. Yorke will prove to be crucial this season; however it is going to take another three or four games for him to regain match fitness.
Liam Miller, who’d been missing the whole game, was substituted for Tobias Hysen in the sixty fifth minute which proved to be an inspired choice because Hysen, having only been on the field no more than a minute, came up with a dazzling run and scored a fantastic goal from just outside the box. As with most of the game, after this point the game went back to being flat. We did, at times; look like we wanted to get another goal but heavy legs weren’t going to let us bombard them with attacks. Two weeks ago we’d have been happy with seven points from nine, but today I felt disappointed we didn’t take the game to Leicester and beat them.
In time the players will become better and stronger, but more games are needed to fully gel together. The magic carpet is definitely up and away.
Posted by Rockin’