Sunderland hosted Spurs in the late kick off on Saturday evening in a game built up by many as pivotal to the remainder of the season. Having lost two games in a row; at home against Chelsea and last weekend’s robbery at Stoke, two difficult trips to Everton and Arsenal were on the horizon which presented a danger of the infamous mid-season slump.

Sunderland handed a home debut to Sulley Muntari while other January signing Stephane Sessegnon kept his place in midfield. Malbranque came in for Anton Ferdinand and Gyan remained alone up-top. Spurs were without their players of the season Rafael Van Der Vart and Gareth Bale.

But this game brought no relief and none of the moral boosting points we needed. Sunderland were deservedly beaten after a truly woeful second half performance which left me with some massive questions. Namely – why the hell have we still not signed a player who can take set pieces? Why the hell can we still not defend set pieces? When will a referee have a decent game? When will Steve Bruce learn that giving a player 15 minutes or even 5 minutes to change a game is simply not long enough? When will we learn how to hold a lead? And when the hell are our injured strikers back fit?

Sunderland were by far the better side in the first half and this proved with a great goal from Asamoha Gyan. It started at the back; Gordon rolled it to Bardo, Bardo found Rico, Rico found Gyan who produced a great touch and finish to fire it past Gomez. Mint goal, 1-0.

We continued to press with our midfield and Gyan looking dangerous all the time, Sandro who was playing in the middle for Spurs really struggled to keep pace with Rico and instead decided just to kick him quite a lot, incredibly without being booked. We looked likely to double our lead and had plenty of set pieces which were of course all wasted and failed to beat the first man. Typical Sunderland.

Spurs edged their way back into it with 10 to go, Pavlyunchenko had a chance and every time Spurs appealed for a free-kick they were given it. Mensah and Bramble were however in total control… for now.

With a minute of normal time left in the half Spurs won a corner. In it came, up went Dawson, completely unchallenged by the spectating Titus, he headed it down; Gordon let it go through his legs. Equaliser. Now I’m not one to have a go at my own players, now or ever… but if I had been a goalkeeper at fault for not clearing up my six yard box last weekend (costing my side three goals almost single handed) I am pretty sure that I would be on my guard the following week whenever a corner came in. Just saying.

Half time and it was 1-1 even though we had dominated thus far.

The Sunderland side who emerged for the second half were totally different to those who had left the pitch. Sloppy, lazy and half-hearted would be a few words I would like to use to describe the performance. Spurs on the other hand seemed to turn it on; the two sides had swapped roles.

The half started with a flurry, Spuds had one off the line, we had a few straight at Gomez and that was about it for a while. Spurs kept most of the ball, we chased around after it, almost like upper sixth playing against year 9 at lunch time.

On 57 minutes Jenas ran clear down the line, crossed it in, Mensah headed it only as far as Krancjar on the edge of the box who smashed in a great volley to give Tottenham the lead. No less than they deserved.

What followed was half an hour I would rather forget. We seemed to give up, sluggish and tired. The game was calling out for Elmohamady but Bruce left that until it was too late. A series of free kicks were wasted as usual and the referee seemed to again give Spurs everything they asked for. He even booked Rico because Corluka started on him.

A deflected Rico shot did hit the bar late on, but it would have been unfair on Spurs who let the clock run down despite a few half efforts from ourselves.

Final Score: 1-2.

Man of the Match: Dunno, anyone who had gained any credit in the first certainly lost it all in the second. Probably Sessegnon or Onuoha, I’ll let you lot decide.

Adam Capper

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