An old premiership match now being played in the Championship. Can Saints get another point or three on the road way up in the Northeast? I hope so because we really need it after last Saturday's abismal display. With that said, here is the Saints' XI: Davis Makin-Claus-Baird-Bale Licka-Pele-Wright-Skacel Jones-Dyer Subs: Rasiak, BWP, Surman, Sarmiento, Bart (GK)
Well the first 10 minutes have been up and down the pitch, but no real good chances so far. Still 0-0.
Sunderland with a nice shot on net that thankfully goes just over the bar. Too bad the defence decided not to pick up the Sunderland player even though he wandered in for about 15 yards with no problems before shooting.
Sunderland have really picked it up the past 10 minutes or so and had several chances which have just gone wide of the net. Still after 20 minutes or so it is 0-0.
Finally a bit of a threat by Saints with back-to-back cornerkicks followed by a freekick. Skacel does poorly with the freekick as it floats easily directly to the keeper.
Man it is really end-to-end stuff at the moment. Jones gets by the Sunderland defence but can't beat the keeper. Sunderland immediately come right back down the other end and Davis makes a nice save for Saints. Still 0-0 at nearly the 45' mark.
Sunderland 0 Saints 0 HT Not a bad half so far. End-to-end action with a few possible goal scoring chances for both sides, but nothing really develops in the end. Saints, though, had the better half of the two sides.
No changes at HT for either team. Saints have started out brightly by keeping Sunderland stuck in its own end. Unfortunately still 0-0 after the 60' minute.
That's the forth or fifth handball appeal by the Sunderland fans that the ref has flatly refused to call. I just hope that he doesn't decide to change his mind towards the end of the match and give them a PK. However, ref did call the foul by Skacel which results in a freekick 25 yards out.
DDDDAAAAMMMMMNNNNN!!!! Sunderland score directly from a 25 yard freekick!!! That's their first shot directly on net all day!! Sunderland 1 Saints 0
Rasiak puts a brilliant shot on net which Ward somehow saves by putting the ball onto the bottom of the crossbar and somehow doesn't cross the line on the way down. Rather unlucky there.
YYYYEEEEESSSSS!!!!!! Bale strikes a shot which is deflected into the net!!!!! On the 90' minute Saints finally get a bit of luck. 1-1 with five minutes of extra time left. COYR!!!!!!
Sunderland 1 Saints 1 FT Well we haven't lost at the Stadium of Light since 1999. If it weren't for Ward this would have easily been a 3 or 4-1 win by Saints. They certainly out played and out hustled Sunderland, but they didn't really take their chances. Thankfully we still got a point, but we really missed a chance to miove up to 8th place. As it currently stands we are sitting in 12th.
1/3 of the season gone and you're worried about places. It doesn't mean much now. Things are tight. Some teams are playing better than they're really capable of over the course fo the season and messing things up. 2 wins seperate Sunderland in 19th and West Brom in 6th. And so far the ones in the automatic places are doign well but unlike the last few years no one seems to be completely running away with it. For example, last year Reading only lost twice. Look at it the other way, Saints are 1/2 way to get the 50 points for safety in the fizzypop.