Sunderland went down to another away day defeat this time at the hands of Manchester City but this game makes you wonder when oh when will we actually have a competent official to referee our matches? A single goal from City defender Micah Richards extended Sunderland’s winless run to five in the Premiership. Despite a decent performance the lads failed to capitalise on a number of opportunities however Mr Steve Tanner take a bow for a truly inspiring refereeing performance.

Ricky Sbragia made changes to the side that played Wigan opting for a 4-5-1 formation with Daryl Murphy playing on the left of midfield, Anton Ferdinand replacing the ineligible Ben Haim and Kenwyne Jones playing as the lone striker. Right from the go Man City were dominant peppering the Sunderland goal with Shaun Wright-Phillips wasting the best opportunity shooting narrowly wide after being put through by Elano. It wasn’t long before Mr Tanner decided to make this game just a little more difficult for us by sending off George McCartney for a fairly innocuous challenge after fifteen minutes. Bojinov blazed the resulting free-kick into the Sunderland following. We were now down to ten men although Mr Tanner had only just started with his string of ludicrous decisions and only minutes later awarded Moneybags City a penalty. Justice was seemingly served when £32 million pounds worth of Robinho took a penalty that even Jeff Whitely would cringe at and passed it to £2.5 million pounds worth of Marton Fulop. This seemed like a respite for Sunderland.

Despite being buoyed by Fulop’s penalty heroics Sunderland still couldn’t find the killer touch up front. The nearest they came was from a deflected Grant Leadbitter free-kick which ex-Mag Shay Given calmly collected. The sides went in level at half time at 0-0.

Sunderland started the second half brightly and tested Given before Mr Tanner again made a name for himself by booking Calum Davenport for diving when he was hauled to the ground in the penalty area by a Man City defender. The challenge looked highly similar to the one that McCartney had been sent off for but I’ll be buried in the cold ground before we ever get a crucial decision away from home. With Man City let off the hook they pressed to make their extra man advantage count and it eventually did. After yet another innocuous challenge Kenwyne Jones was penalised for cleanly tackling a City player and Micah Richards nodded in the following free-kick. “1-0 to the referee” cried out amongst the 3,000 highly frustrated travelling Wearsiders.

Sbragia felt a change needed to be made and replaced the largely ineffective Jones and Malbranque with Cisse and Reid respectively. The change seemed to work as Cisse was hassling players more than Jones had done in the entire first half. Sunderland looked determined and willing to salvage something out of the game. Another stone wall penalty was waved away when Richards seemed to clearly handle the ball in the penalty area. From then on in Marton Fulop continued his goalkeeping heroics pulling off a fine string of saves from Robinho, Bellamy and Wright-Phillips and Mr Tanner continued to produce diabolical refereeing decisions. Every challenge Sunderland made seemed to end in a foul and a booking whereas the City seemed to get away with the same offences scot-free.

At the final whistle the Sunderland players looked dejected but they should take heart in the fact that they produced a fine display with ten men. It may sound like a broken record but why referees seem to have a grudge against us I’ll never know but something needs to be done about it. Steve Tanner’s performance today was truly diabolical; I’ll be surprised if he referees another Sunderland match. Very surprised.

Final Score: 0-1

ALS Man of the Match: Marton Fulop, he pulled off a string of fine saves keeping City’s multi-million pound strike force at bay and he also saved a penalty from the most expensive player in the world. Maintaining the standpoint: Why shop in Harrods when there’s some great bargains in Aldi?

Tom Walsh

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