After our dismal form of late, we needed something to lift the spirits. As has been said so often, three points would do for starters. Typically, our next opponents, for whom we’d prophesised such a long, hard season after our opening-day win, had gone and won a couple.

After all the “no he won’t, yes he will” talk from the club about Steed, Campbell, and Catts, both were in there as we lined up…

Gordon
Hutton Mensah Turner Ferdy
Campbell Cana Catts Steed
Bent Jones

Bolton brought a few more than our last visitors, Fulham, but still not many for a hundred-mile trip. Before most folks had finished their pre-match beef-flavoured beverage, Ferdy’d long cross from the left was cleared only as far as Cana, and as we willed him to dispatch one of those volleys from he edge of the box that he used to score before he joined us, he lobbed the ball to the far post where Campbell was there to knock the ball in. One minute in – that’ll do for me as far as raising spirits goes.

Bolton did get the ball into our net, but it was direct from at throw, and as nearly all referees know, they don’t count. I wouldn’t trust Bennett to get that decision right every time, and as the game progressed he showed why we of a Red and White persuasion don’t rate the useless bugger as an official. With our wide men not quite linking up with their fullbacks, and Steed drifting infield rather than staying wide, Bolton gained a bit of possession and forced a number of corners, but Gordon stayed unemployed thanks to some solid defending against some pretty (poor choice of words) physical play from Davies, in particular, and Elmander. With Wilshire and Lee stretching our Lads at times, it was easy to see where we could have been exposed. Thankfully, we weren’t, and in the first half should have scored a couple more – when Catts won the ball and broke right, his cross to the spot was headed over by Campbell, but Bent should have scored when Steed, warming to the game, broke from a corner and fed Campbell, who hit a fifty-yard call across the field to Bent. Darren chose to turn back inside and his shot rolled past the far post. Another Bent effort lacked power, and Jussi (easier to spell than Jaaskeleinen) saved comfortably. We might not have got the second, but we were creating chances, and when Hutton found himself in the box, he couldn’t work it into a good shooting position, and poked it wide with his right toe when a left foot would have been a bonus.

Hutton, back in defence, seemed to get in a good tackle, but was deemed to have fouled, as the ref began his descent into our bad book. Lucky for him we cleared the free kick, but he had a mad five minutes where he gave soppy free kicks, and missed some naughty stuff. No official could have missed Cana’s moment of madness as he was booked for a clumsy challenge. We thought that might have spoilt our skipper’s night, but it didn’t, as he and Catts showed flashes of what we had back in the autumn with some crisp tackling and neat interplay. What we did lack was the killer pass to Bent or Jones, which was a shame, as big Kenwyne was winning everything in the air and usually finding a teammate. A few less attempted flicks and a few more accurate short passes would surely have brought us a second, but it was Bolton who shot next – thankfully, Zat Knight shot a long, long way from goal. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Steed again carried the ball away from a Bolton corner, and found Jones, who hit a piledriver that was fumbled away for our first corner, then Jones headed to Bent, took the return, and shot just wide. Not bad stuff, and when the whistle went, we could be satisfied with the score –deserved, as, despite their being well ahead in the corner count, Bolton had not forced a save out of Gordon, who had been well protected by a steadfast defence. Turner and Hutton maybe need to work on their relative positions a bit, but it’s early days yet for them.

So, after Stan Anderson (oh that all our defenders could be as calm as Stan) did the half-time draw, we were back at it. Could we hang on for that elusive win, or would we capitulate in the 93 rd minute again? Well, we almost let them in immediately, but managed to clear, then Davies was all over Mensah and Bolton forced Gordon’s first save of the night. Straight down the other end, and a chance looked likely, but Catts produced a poor first touch and it was cleared. Soon after this, though, and he took a pass from Campbell and slid the ball through for Bent, who checked, picked his spot, and it was a typical low, crisp finish for 2-0. Lovely, and relief seemed to spread from the stands to the pitch, and we lifted our game. Depite Cana’s legs being whipped up in the air right under the ref’s nose, there was no card for Bolton, much to our disgust. Catts went down injured, as he seems to do with monotonous regularity, and went straight off, to be replaced by….Bardlsey! Yes, and Phil went straight into central midfield, where he spent several minutes generally putting himself about. A Bolton player went down, and, as we looked to break, Ferdy tapped the ball out of play to allow their physio on. My cry of “if that bugger doesn’t die I’ll be pissed off” was maybe a bit over the top, but the lad was obviously not badly hurt, and we lost the chance of another attack.

Still, it turned even sunnier on 73, when Steed picked out Bent, he broke into the box and was barged over, out came the red card for Ricketts, and there was the ball on the spot. Another nicely struck finish and we were three ahead for the first time since I can’t remember when. What a lovely feeling, knowing that three pints were in the bag. It almost got even better when Steed fed Jones in the box, the big man turned brilliantly and Jaaskeleinen did even better to claw the shot over the bar. Mensah left the field, to be replaced by Zenden. Bardsley seemed perplexed when asked to go to left back as Ferdy moved in to the centre, but he did his job as we took advantage of the numerical advantage by ganging up on the wings to pressure their defence. Jones chipped over the defence to find Bent just offside, then Bent pinged one off the post and Jones put the rebound away – but was given offside.

After a performance that reminded us just why we used to put so many “eeeeeees” in Steeeed, as he provided the creativity in midfield, Malbranque left the field (maybe for a sneaky Galoise out the back?) and Benjani came on for the last six minutes (that turned into eleven). Three up, a man up, we rightly played the final part with four attackers as Benjani and Campbell moving in on goal at every opportunity. Zenden was looking for the through ball every time he looked up, and when he found Campbell on the right, he broke into the box, looked up and produced a pinpoint low cross for Bent to rifle home for his hat-trick – the first by a Sunderland player since Roy O’Donovan for ‘Pools on Saturday. 4-0, bloody marvellous. There was still time for Campbell to shoot when Hutton was well placed to his right, but I’ll take four nil any day.

Not a marvellous performance, but a good one, and there were flashes of what we were producing six months ago, with the availability of players of the quality of Zenden and Benjani from the bench a real bonus. How legal most of Davies’s play is will be the subject of much post-match debate, but we dealt with it, and moving forward we managed to win the midfield battle for large periods of the game. I’ll certainly by wearing my lucky Dutch cap - found in an Amsterdam bar after our victory over Atletico Madrid and worn for the first time at a match tonight - for the rest of the season. And wearing the same jeans, socks, shoes, etc.

Bolton? Well, there’s something intrinsically wrong with a middle-aged man in matching shorts and t-shirt, but when it’s nearly freezing, it’s just wrong. Get yerself some claes, man, Coyle. Bolton are a big side at the back, and at the front, but a bit short in the middle. West Ham must be poor if they were so nicely beaten by them at the weekend.

Man of the Match? Great shift from Jones, lots of hard work by Campbell, cool as ice by Mensah at the back despite a couple of errors, and well battled by Turner. You can’t argue with a hat-trick by Bent (are you watching Fabio?), but the renaissance of Steed (please let it be a permanent thing) means that our little Franco Belgian used his little grey cells to good effect and thus gets my vote.

Keep the Faith.

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