A windy, miserable day on Wearside meant it was going to be a tough challenge for the lads; it also had an impact on the attendance which dropped to 27,604. The much talked about Anthony Stokes went straight into the team to partner David Connolly upfront. Nosworthy was back from injury and partnered Jonny Evans in the heart of the defence. As the inform Liam Miller was suspended for the game, Dwight Yorke partnered Leadbitter in midfield.
For the first 20-25 minutes we looked the most threatening team, though it wasn’t relentless pressure. The lads’ hard work and persistence paid off in the twelfth minute. Carlos Edwards picked up the ball mid way in the Ipswich half and picked out Anthony Stokes who was on the right wing. Stokes created enough space to whip in a fantastic ball to the six yard box for the waiting David Connolly to comfortably slot home. Once we’d scored the first half became a rather drab affair. A pattern is beginning to form during home games where we play well for 20-25 minutes and then seem to become lacklustre for the remainder of the half and today followed this.
Usually we play better in the second half of games, not today though. Despite finally playing with two wingers we still seemed lopsided. Tobias Hysen, who was playing left wing, was very poor and never got involved in the game which subsequently left Ross Wallace to be both the left back and left midfielder, two roles which the Scotsman was unable to carry out. Ipswich began to build momentum and had a large amount of possession; it seemed only a matter of time until they’d score.
Ipswich threw on all of their substitutes and one, Danny Haynes, almost paid off. The Ipswich attacker broke through our defence thanks to his unbelievable speed and saw his effort blocked from Ward. The ball was heading towards the goal and Alan Lee for an easy tap in but Jonny Evans had also followed the ball in and did fantastic to clear the ball off the line. The Sunderland of late are beginning to show a lot of determination to hold onto leads and in the past Ipswich would have no doubt scored. We went on to create a few chances but nothing clear cut. In the awful conditions we needed to dig out and a win and thankfully we did that today. The performance wasn’t the best though that’s what would be expected in a horrific wind.
The new lads worked very hard and looked good, although it is hard to know just how good they are from one match and in very difficult conditions. Jonny Evans looked a little bit nervous in the first half and his distribution let him down a bit. However, he was superb in the second half and between himself and Nosworthy kept Alan Lee in their pockets. Both Carlos Edwards and Anthony Stokes didn’t see too much of the ball, though when they did they made good use of it and looked threatening.
It’s becoming more difficult to single one player out for man of the match as there are many players who are playing very well at the moment. So this week I’m scrapping man of the match and it’s now men of the match. Firstly, David Connolly who does an unbelievable amount of work for the team and received his reward for it with a well worked goal. Second choice is Nyron Nosworthy, he gets a lot of stick from me but today I thought he was superb and was a rock in defence along with my third and final person Jonny Evans. Despite a bit of a rocky start his class showed through and it looks like we’ve got a very good player for the rest of the season.
