When we played Sunderland at the beginning of the season, they were floundering near the bottom of the league and were just about to appoint Roy Keane as their new manager. Buoyed by that imminent announcement, the Black Cats dealt us a 2-0 defeat, a score that does not begin to suggest how good they were and how poor Albion were on the day. Since then, Keano has had them playing good stuff and Sunderland now sit just three points behind us. There is no margin for error now. With less than a dozen games left in the season and a tight group at the top of the table, we might as easily fall out of the play-off places as we might win the league. We cannot hit a bad patch at this stage of the season. We must somehow find a way to rise above the pack; we might do just that if we can earn results in five tough matches during the month of March. Hopefully the lads have rested a bit from Tuesday's exhausting Cup loss and will be ready for Saturday's challenge. Other than Nathan Ellington - who will miss three for his straight red earned against Boro - we should otherwise have no selection problems for the match.
West Bromwich Albion 1 Sunderland 2 A dissapointing loss which has, for the moment, robbed us of our momentum. (To be fair, however, we've not been playing that well of late.) The first half goal from Dwight Yorke pretty much ensured that we would be fighting an uphill battle, and the second ensured that we wouldn't get three points on th day. We did have a good spell late on when Carter pulled one back, but it always felt too little too late. We have to get back on track next week in the Black Country Derby, and I don't think that match will be as easy as our previous two against W***es. They've had good form of late (including a late fight-back against Luton this afternoon) and are in the thick of the hunt for promotion, making next week a true six-pointer. Oh yeah, and they will be quite eager to avenge the two three-nil thrashings we've dealt them this season.