Match date: Saturday 18 January 2014.
Final Score: Sunderland 2 – 2 Southampton
Reflection…
Anyone who knows me will know that I am forever the optimist (It may be one of my failings!?), therefore let me start with the positives we can take from the game!
Ultimately, I found it extremely heartening to see my beloved club dig themselves out of a situation that they shouldn’t – in all honesty – have found themselves in to begin with. To be two-nil down, then to find away back to two-two has to be evidence of the heart, passion and dogged fighting spirit we demand.
However…
This begs the question: What on earth was going on with the Sunderland players in the first-half?!
In all my many, many years of supporting the greatest club in the land, I’m struggling to recall a worse first-half display of football on Sunderland’s part… If it isn’t actually the worst, then it’s certainly up there with the worst of them that’s for certain.
To say that the Saints started the brighter of the two teams is a massive understatement let me tell you! Simply put, we couldn’t get near the ball for the at least the first twenty-five minutes. Even following Fabio Borini’s goal just after the half-hour mark, we looked second best in every position which was worrying to say the least.
Before the game I had actually expected Southampton to rock up at the SOL in a state of turmoil given their recent much publicised off-field issues.
How wrong was I..!
Southampton were quite impressive actually. Or maybe it was simply a case of Sunderland being shockingly poor… I don’t know!
A far better performance overall in the second-half, but given how simply shocking we were first-half, it wouldn’t have been difficult to better it.
For me, probably the big turning point came just after the hour mark when Gus changed things around with the introduction of Gardner and Colback. This seemed to inject a bit of urgency to our play which had previously been badly lacking.
If the truth be told, Southampton should have had at least four on the day, and had it not been for Mannone in goal, it very well could have been.
Did we deserve a share of the points? Possibly just about… The frustrating thing is that somehow – given how badly we began – we could have gone on to win the game near the end.
I had mentioned previously that today, Saturday 18th January 2014, could very well be a pivotal day in the season for the Mighty Mackems. With a lunchtime kick-off, I felt that we had a great opportunity to gain a psychological advantage over those around us at the wrong end of the table… Unfortunately it was opportunity missed.
Never mind… One point gained.
On to the next one.
We are still in there fighting and, fingers crossed, we will see some quality players come to the club, with some of the dead-wood being shipped out.
My Man Of The Match: Johnson and Borini were both effective, but for me it has to be Vito Mannone – Had it not been for him, we would have likely lost the game heavily.
Next up in the Premier League it’s Stoke at the SOL, but before that we have the small matter of the Capital One Cup semi-final, second-leg clash with United at Old Trafford… Bring it on!
😉
Chris
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