It seems from now until the end of the season every game is going to be described as a must win, so in that case Birmingham City at home was a must, must win. Our recent performances have given us all hope for the remainder of the season, though Birmingham shouldn’t be underestimated after some good performances against Chelsea and Arsenal.
Phil Bardsley came straight into the team to make his debut but another new signing, Rade Prica, would have to settle for a place on the bench. Youngster Martyn Waghorn was back in the squad and on the bench.
Kenwyne Jones could have scored what would no doubt have been goal of the season in the opening minute. The ball bounced up nicely for Jones 25-yards from goal; however his left foot volley went horribly wrong and wide. The game was quite scrappy in the early exchanges, with both teams trying to stamp their authority on the game. Somewhat surprisingly we went ahead quite early in the game with a beautifully worked goal. Bardsley’s free-kick, just over the half way line, was headed down by Kenwyne Jones and coolly volleyed home from Daryl Murphy, who had started the game up front with Jones.
We had some good passages of play after the goal, generally involving Anthony Stokes who has been terrific in the last few weeks; unfortunately we were lacking the killer pass. Birmingham could have equalised just before half time when Cameron Jerome was put through one-on-one with Gordon, however Gordon make a fantastic save to deny him. Other than the aforementioned effort Birmingham never really looked like they would trouble Gordon and a great deal of praise has to go to the defence who were comfortable under pressure and didn’t allow Birmingham’s forward players to get going.
Half Time: 1-0
The second half saw the introduction of Rade Prica who replaced Yorke who had been below par in the first half; though it appears Yorke was substituted due to an injury. The game became very scrappy in the second half and we had to battle for everything we got. Some of the challenges Birmingham players were putting in were disgraceful, elbowing players and shockingly late tackles apparently don’t warrant any punishment. Prica was on hand to put to bed any nerves which were beginning to creep into the minds of fans 15 minutes into his debut. After gambling on Ridgewell’s short back-pass Prica got in just before the keeper and knocked it over him and into the empty net. A terrific way to introduce himself to the Sunderland faithful, to top it off he ran into the crowd to celebrate!
Birmingham didn’t have enough to pull two goals back and to be honest it wouldn’t be deserved; the lads worked their socks off for everything. It was pleasing to see that we could comfortably beat one of the teams around us while not playing to our potential; the lads had to dig in and got their rewards. As a spectacle the match was awful, no doubt Sky are kicking themselves for picking this game.
Full Time: 2-0
MOTM – Liam Miller, Miller has been superb in recent weeks and tonight was no different, a quality footballer.
