On this day in 2016, Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland ran out 3-0 winners against Alex Neil’s Norwich City in a vital match in the battle for Premier League survival.
Sunderland started the day in 18th place and Norwich sat in 17th. We were trailing Alex Neil’s side by four points, but with the bonus of a superior goal difference. To Sunderland it was simple, win and their hopes of once again escaping the jaws of the Championship would be well and truly alive due to them also having a game in hand. But to lose or draw could perhaps put the final nail in the coffin on SAFC’s time in the top flight.
Since the 1985 Milk Cup Final, the two clubs have played each other for the ‘Friendship Trophy’ each time they had met. The atmosphere during this game did not reflect this and it was demonstrated when Robbie Brady pushed future Mag DeAndre Yedlin into an advertising board early on in the first half, which resulted in a scuffle between the two sets of players and coaching staff.
Near the end of the first half, Andre Wisdom fouled Fabio Borini in the box and a penalty was awarded. Borini put Sunderland ahead through this and celebrated in front of the Norwich fans, resulting in a barrage of paper clappers from the home end being thrown towards the Italian.
Within 10 minutes following the conclusion of the half time break, Sunderland extended their lead through a Borini cross and a standard Jermain Defoe finish. The win was sealed through Academy of Light product Duncan Watmore in injury time following a pass from Seb Larsson.
To be honest, it would be fair to say that the scoreline did not reflect the course of the game. Norwich themselves hit the post and had calls for a penalty of their own waved away. In terms of shots they dominated (19 vs 8) and they had an astounding 14 corners to our 0. They also had 64% possession. But Norwich were left to rue in their missed chances.
Sunderland did defend well and more often than not, Norwich were forced to shoot from long distances. Mannone was effective and made several saves to preserve Sunderland’s lead and clean sheet.
Going forward, Sunderland mainly used long passing, primarily by Lamine Kone, Yann M'Vila and Jan Kirchhoff, who won the ball to help produce the second goal. Defoe was ever effective and continued his determined mission to use his goalscoring abilities to drag Sunderland out of the bottom three.
After the game, Sam Allardyce was confident that Sunderland could handle the pressure of getting results to remain in the Premier League. Alex Neil said that Norwich were still a point ahead of the drop zone and their position in the relegation scrap had not changed; they still needed to win games to avoid relegation.
Of course, he would be unsuccessful in this goal and Norwich would be relegated. This game was certainly a turning point, the start of a six-game unbeaten run for Big Sam’s Black Cats as we avoided the drop once more.
