The game was played in awful, windy conditions but the main thing is that three points were won and the teams ahead of us are now beginning to look over their shoulders. Only one point from play-offs and it is now only a matter of time before we get into the top six and push on from there. Everything about the performance was encouraging as we stuck in and battled out a good victory with certain individuals having excellent games such as Evans and Nosworthy in the defence.
The only negative thing about today was the Sunderland fans, only 27,604 managed to get themselves out of bed to see this victory. With three players making their home debuts and speculation all week of seeing maybe 35k+ it was a disappointment to only see the regulars who go week in week out. If fans do not want to go to the SoL and help Quinny and Keane out we may as well resign ourselves to seeing this each week. I have now heard enough excuses as to why people don’t bother. The atmosphere today even in the SWC was pathetic and is a real shame to welcome these new players to such a morgue like stadium…. whinge over!
Anyway the reason we went today was to watch Sunderland in a game of football and with a few changes we seen Nos alongside Evans with Wallace and Deano on the sides of them in defence. Edwards started in his position on right wing with Leadbitter and Yorke in the middle and the poor Hysen on the left. Upfront we got the chance to see the new partnership of Stokes and Connolly. In my opinion this is probably the best team he could have played considering injuries and suspensions at the moment.
Stokes and Connolly seemed to gel together from the opening whistle with Stokes teeing up Connolly who took too long and his low effort was easily saved by their keeper. Minutes later a move from defence saw Edwards thread through to the lively Stokes who spotted na na na na na David Connolly excellently free in the middle to tap home for the eventual winning goal. Stokes vision was something we have missed and produced an early Sunderland lead, something we are not used to seeing at the SoL.
Some of the football we played in the first half was very good and even in the awful conditions looked to be in complete control. The curse of the penalty continued to grow as Edwards whipped a low ball into the box to see Connolly hauled down by the Ipswich centre back, this would be the 1st of three penalty shouts, but as you know we would never be awarded one.
The 1st half in terms of excitement and entertainment was few and far between but the overall play was impressive and the defence seemed to look as strong as it has all season. The only thing that annoyed me was Yorke trying to pass simply but failing on a few occasions; he did improve in the second half with some well timed tackles and kept the ball going in the right direction.
Second half saw no changes and the performance was as annoying as the litter that swept around Sir Keano’s feet, for only 27,000 people we didn’t half make some mess on the pitch! The chances that we did create, and it wasn’t many was either just offside or bad running from the front two but thinking back to the second half Ipswich created the better chances.
The most anxious moment of the game was when Nosworthy got skinned on the right side (from where I look) and Ward pulled off a fantastic save to see Super-Jonny clear the ball off the line. In all honesty Ipswich deserved an equaliser as we failed to make advantage of our home advantage. Sunderland for some reason decided to sit back most of the second half and invite pressure but with some good defending we managed to override the pressure they threw at us.
So another home win to the list makes for an exciting trip to Hillsborough next week to see if we can finally reach the promise land of the top six. A quick word on the debutants…. Stokes played well and managed to set the goal up with a great cross to show his new fans he can also help set up goals as well as bang them in. Carlos Edwards was the poorest out of the three new boys but we shouldn’t jump on his back after a total of 110 mins on the pitch, he needs time to settle and it will come, hopefully. But with two games under his belt the MoM has to go to Evans who simply looks superb in defence. Long may his spell continue alongside any one of Nos, Caldwell, Cunningham, Varga or Collins.
Another whinge I have was a bet I had on was Connolly 1st goal, Sunderland win 2-0, well you can’t have it all can you?
MOM -Evans
Gary Johnson
aka – Clancey_Wiggum