Sunderland appeared to be suffering from Boxing Day hangover, with a dreadful 3-0 defeat away at Sheffield Utd. A scrappy first-half strike and two quick-fire goals in the second period were more than enough to put drowsy Sunderland to bed. A real shame for the 2,213 travelling fans who made the journey.
Having missed our only home win in 2017 due to moving in with my girlfriend (cheers Rebecca), it was frustrating to see Sunderland fail to capitalise on their extra man against Birmingham. Ironically, we looked more likely to win the game playing against eleven men than we did against ten.
Nevertheless, Coleman’s Sunderland is a team enjoying positive momentum, which made today’s fixture against Sheffield Utd more than winnable.
Ruiter,
Matthews, Browning, O’Shea, Wilson, Oviedo,
Gooch, Gibson, Honeyman,
McGeady
Vaughan
Reinvigorated Darron Gibson was looking to continue to fine form under Coleman, seemingly having benefitted from Cattermole’s exclusion from the side. Lewis Grabban was omitted from the squad with an apparent thigh injury. With Grabban having a recall clause in his loan agreement, many suspected he could be heading back down South for an eventual return to Bournemouth come January — horrific news for Sunderland given his goal scoring exploits this campaign.
The Blades wasted the first chance of the game after Clayton Donaldson failed to stab the ball home from eight yards. It would have topped off their strong start to the game nicely, after finally breaching the Sunderland defence following some energetic ball movement. This was the story for the first 25 minutes, with Sheffield Utd dominating proceedings.
Sunderland were looking desperately poor in possession, showing shades of the Grayson era. At one point George Honeyman sent a 5-yard pass straight out of play, to the bemusement of everyone. The home crowd were enjoying Sunderland’s incompetence, but then their side wasn’t looking too capable either, doing little to capitalise on our sudden crisis of confidence. He said…
GOAL – Sheffield Utd – Lundstram – 36 mins
After moving the ball around unchallenged, Sheffield Utd finally had something to show from their dominance. A ball was slid into the box, finding Lundstram who coolly slotted it through a crowd of bodies and past the scrambling Robin Ruiter. Really poor stuff from Sunderland, but typical of their first half performance.
Sunderland’s attacks were sparse and ineffective, while the home side always looked like doubling their lead. When the half-time whistle came, Sheff Utd would probably have been disappointed to go in with just a goal for it, while Sunderland would be grateful. Chris Coleman won’t have been grateful, however, after looking furious throughout the majority of the first 45 minutes.
Sunderland were unchanged at the restart, and so was their performance. After little cohesion from defence to midfield in the first half, Marc Wilson appeared to be playing in a more advanced defensive midfield position, which was about as successful as you would imagine. He can’t pass a ball, which is kind of important if you’re an anchor man.
Sunderland won a free kick around 10 minutes into the second half, but McGeady’s inaccurate delivery was cleared after Vaughan failed to control. It was already bad, but it started to become terrible.
GOAL – Sheffield Utd – Stearman - 58 mins
The Blades won a free kick two thirds into the game, which was delivered beautifully by Mark Duffy. Richard Stearman broke free of the Sunderland defence and was left to head the ball past Ruiter with yards of space around him. The ball cannoned in off the post to make it 2-0. Pretty embarrassing stuff, but the worst was yet to come.
GOAL – Sheffield Utd – Baldock – 61 mins
Another cross, another header, another goal. This time, George Baldock headed home a cross from the left while Sunderland were still reeling from the second goal. It was a sucker punch to concede two on the bounce like that, but we could have no complaints after inviting pressure for so long in the game. 3-0.
To Coleman’s credit, he resisted the urge to shut up shop and mitigate losses, bringing on Asoro for Gooch, but young Asoro could have little impact on what was an all-around piss-weak performance from Sunderland. Utd could have made it four on 76 minutes, if not for a great save from Ruiter to deny Donaldson from close range.
It’s disappointing. After two games where Coleman’s game plan looked spot on save for a couple of stupid red cards, and then positive draws and victories, today was a complete regression. If the ‘new manager bounce’ is actually a thing, then our bounce has certainly lost its momentum, as that was appalling.
At the same time, it’s only one game. We have another one later this week, and I hope that Coleman has them in for double training to work off those pigs in blankets.
Garbage.
Final Score: Sheffield Utd 3-0 Sunderland
ALS Man of the Match: The 2,213 Sunderland fans who made the journey on Boxing Day.
Chris Thompson
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