On the opening day of last season we beat Tottenham with a last minute goal but this year the boot’s on the other foot as Robbie Keane struck in injury time to snatch Tottenham a draw at the SOL on Saturday. Kieran Richardson had opened the scoring for the lads inside five minutes but yet again Sunderland can feel hard done by as the officials screwed us again.

There were two changes to the side that lost at Anfield on Tuesday. Djibril Cisse returned up front at the expense of Grant Leadbitter while Ricky was forced to reshuffle the back four as the presumably injured Anton Ferdinand dropped out of the squad. Tal Ben Haim moved into centre half with Phil Bardsley returning at right back.

Sunderland started well and took the lead inside three minutes when good build up play from Malbranque and Cisse allowed Kieran Richardson to burst into the box, round the keeper and slot in. Tottenham hit back with the lively Lennon who flashed a cross into the six yard box which Bent failed to connect with. Spurs had a good spell of possession with everything coming down the right hand side and at times I felt we afforded Lennon too much space.

The game was a bit scrappy and wasn’t help by referee Phil Dowd who blew up for fouls whenever a Tottenham player went down but if it was us he wasn’t interested. He also went a bit card happy and in the first half Bardsley, McCartney, Richardson and Collins were all booked. Some were probably justified but Danny Collins was booked for contesting a header against Robbie Keane while Phil Bardsley cleanly won the ball in a sliding tackle. However, when Palacios nearly maimed Bardsley with a lunge no action was taken.

Though Spurs had a lot of possession in the first half their best effort on goal came from a Darren Bent free kick which Fulop easily dealt with. After the break Djibril Cisse broke the offside trap and raced through one on one with Gomez but the angle didn’t favour Cisse and the Frenchman’s shot hit the side netting.

I think the number of bookings we picked up in the first half affected the second half performance as Tottenham had more time and space as the likes of Richardson and co knew one mistimed tackle would have Dowd reaching for his top pocket. Spurs should have equalised with half an hour to go when Darren Bent, whom we apparently tried to sign in January, latched onto mishit pass from Dean Whitehead to go clean through on goal. Fortunately the striker snatched at the chance and his left foot effort sailed over Fulop and the bar. Bent had another chance soon after down the right hand side but he dragged his shot wide of the post.

Our best chance in the second half fell to Cisse when Reid fired a low cross into the six yard box and the slightest touch would have resulted in a goal but the ball rolled agonisingly wide. Cisse had another chance again created by the left foot of Andy Reid but his header glanced off a Tottenham defender and out for a corner.

The big talking point of the game came in the dying minutes when Kenwyne Jones was wrestled down to the ground by Ledley King about six yards from goal. Neither the linesman nor the referee awarded the penalty and having regained possession Spurs broke and went straight down the other end and scored. Darren Bent got down the right hand side and crossed for Robbie Keane who made no mistake with his half volley. Overall I’m sure Saggy face will reckon they probably deserved the point but he should really thank the referee for turning a blind eye to the stone wall penalty.

Final Score: 1-1

ALS Man of the Match : Kieran Richardson

Aidan Crowe

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