With Wearside relying on large amounts of grit to maintain order on the city’s streets in turn Sunderland needed a gritty performance to overcome a stubborn Stoke City side on Saturday. Goals from Kenwyne Jones and David Healy sealed a two nil win and three points for the lads in arctic conditions. The game was far from memorable and at one point threatened to be overshadowed by Mr Rob Styles who must be one of the worst referees of all time.

There were five changes from the midweek FA Cup defeat with Sbragia fielding what can’t be far off being the strongest eleven. Despite Craig Gordon’s man of the match display on Wednesday he was replaced by Fulop who played behind a back four of Bardo, Ferdinand, Collins and McCartney. In midfield we had Malbranque, Whitehead, Richardson and Reid. Up front both Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cisse returned. New signings Davenport and Ben Haim had to make do with a place on the bench.

The lad’s first effort on goal came inside ten minutes when Kenwyne Jones did well to find space on the edge of the box before unleashing a powerful left foot effort which Sorenson did well to parry. The rebound fell to Reid who blasted his shot well over.

Stoke had a chance soon after when one of their long punts into the box fell dropped for Creswell whose overhead kick flew wide of the post. With Stoke playing so robustly and directly Sunderland found it hard going and it wasn’t pretty to watch. City had to make a couple of early changes due to injuries which wasn’t surprising considering the way they play.

We almost took the lead from a short corner when Richardson’s cross found Danny Collins in the box but the defenders diving header flew over the bar. The biggest talking point of the first half came soon after when Andy Reid battled his way into the box and crossing to the back post. Steed Malbranque headed goalwards only for the ball to be cleared by Pugh off the line with his arm. A blatant penalty if ever you’ve seen one, but Rob Styles pointed only for a goal kick. If this wasn’t bad enough according to people who’ve seen replays of the incident the ball had crossed the line.

Half time saw Styles jeered by both sets of fans which was totally justified as some of the official’s decisions were horrendous. While we were the biggest victims with the penalty incident the first half was littered with decisions going both ways which were wrong.

After the interval Stoke continued where they let off by putting all their men behind the ball and looking to hit us on the break. On one break away they were reduced to ten men after Etherington clashed with Collins. The winger appeared to lash out at Danny after the defender had checked his run and Styles immediately produced the red card and gave Collins a yellow. From the resulting free kick Stoke almost took the lead after the hoof into the box caused a scramble in the box which Sunderland somehow managed to clear.

Stoke’s negativity forced Sbragia into a change with Edwards replacing Steed Malbranque. Sunderland did well getting into good positions down both flanks but our crosses were meat and drink for their defence. Cisse came close to scoring when he volleyed just wide from a seemingly impossible angle and soon after Edwards also went close with a volley.

With Stoke down to ten men we were camped in there half and finally broke the deadlock thanks to Kenwyne Jones. He rose highest at the back post to nod in Andy Reid's deep cross.

As we looked to see the game out snow started lashing down on the pitch and I worried whether Styles would look to gain more publicity by abandoning the match, he didn’t though. We doubled our lead deep onto injury time when Kenwyne Jones did well to cross for Healy who on as a late sub had the easiest of finishes.

It wasn’t pretty and the freezing temperature didn’t help but in the end we got the three points our endeavour deserved.

Final Score: Sunderland 2 Stoke City 0

ALS Man of the Match: Kenwyne Jones

Aidan Crowe

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