The buzz is beginning to ebb back into Sunderland, something which hasn’t been around for a long, long time and it’s great to see. A crowd of 33,576 watched today’s game; hopefully the numbers will keep growing after a very promising run of late. Keano dropped Dwight Yorke to the bench, for a rest, and replaced him with Liam Miller who’d been in fine form before his unfortunate injury.
The lads started the game with a quick tempo, as they’ve done for the majority of the home games. The difference for today’s game was that we got an early goal within the opening four minutes. Carlos Edwards broke well down the right and after getting a few lucky rebounds in his favour, found himself right down towards the by-line. After coolly waiting until the right time he picked out David Connolly with a fantastic low cross and left Connolly with an easy tap in. 1-0 up so early was a definite boost for everyone in the ground. Though we didn’t rest on our laurels and almost scored a second seven minutes later, unfortunately though Stern John’s header, from a Whitehead cross, came back off the woodwork. However, three minutes later we did get that important second goal. Connolly picked the ball up just over the half way line and instinctively looped a ball over his right shoulder to the on running Tobias Hysen. Hysen skipped past his marker and placed a fantastic shot past the ‘keeper. 2-0 and we were in control and never looked threatened by a substandard Southend.
The lads seemed to take their foot off the pedal a little as the half went on and began to relax. We created a few more chances and should probably have went into half time three or four nil up however, it wasn’t to be despite some excellent play from every player on the pitch, not just a few.
We started the second half well, though not as quickly as the first. We were very relaxed and spread the ball over the park well. What seems to be becoming a massive talking point amongst Sunderland fans is the fact that we haven’t been awarded a penalty for roughly 64 games, and as in other games there was a big shout for one today. Liam Miller broke into the box and had his legs taken from under him from a Southend defender. The ‘referee’ waved appeals away, which was quite frankly a disgraceful decision which infuriated everyone. Within the same passage of play Connolly was hacked down right on the edge of the box and we were awarded a free kick, following this decision was a bit of a scuffle between both sets of players and resulted in Dean Whitehead receiving his fifth booking of the season. After this prolonged break in play we finally got down to the free kick, which the inept referee had decided to move back 5 yards. Miller unleashed a fantastic right foot shot which unfortunately came back off the post.
A carnival atmosphere began to build within the stadium and the fans were in good voice, to top it off a Mexican wave started. It’s likely that back in August no fan could have imagined such events happening this season and such a turn around that has followed, although nothing has been achieved yet. It was a fantastic sight to witness after so much darkness.
After a good one-two between Whitehead and Connolly, Whitehead broke into the box and saw his well struck shot come back off the base of the post, though thanks to Stern John the move didn’t go to waste and the striker was in the right place at the right place to slot home his first goal of the season. John wasn’t finished though and one minute later, after some fantastic work from Liam Miller, John fired home his second and our fourth of the afternoon. Miller had broke down the right wing and then, turning onto his left foot, picked out Stern John who’d pulled back onto the back post and unleashed a fantastic strike home. Three points in the bag and we can now look forward to Birmingham.
It’s no exaggeration to state that every player on the pitch was outstanding today and that it was our best home performance thus far. The downside of this is that it makes it harder for me to single one player out as man of the match.
MOTM – Carlos Edwards who ran up and down the right wing all afternoon. He made some fantastic crosses and was involved in everything going forward. Edwards was very impressive and hopefully there’ll be more to come.