Battering Bolton sent storm clouds away
CRISIS? What crisis? Sunderland's win last night – their biggest of the season – not only hoists them three places up the Premier League to a more acceptable 13th, but leaves them on 30 points with a full 10 games remaining.
Suddenly, everything feels that much safer. Deservedly so, if performances like this can be replicated.
From the moment Fraizer Campbell put his side in front in the very first minute of the match, the Black Cats barely looked back.
And the impressive tempo, physicality and desire shown throughout the side ensured this was not a match where the jitters of recent months were allowed to return.
True, Sunderland can't claim to be looking up the table, rather than down it, just yet.
But significantly, the improved goal difference effectively leaves Steve Bruce's men seven points clear of the bottom three, with breathing space freshly regained.
When Manchester City arrive at the Stadium of Light this Sunday, the dread hand of fear will no longer grip the vitals of Black Cats fans.
In fact, long before the final whistle last night, the change in mood on terrace and pitch was so dramatic, so palpable, that you almost expected the sun to peek out of the night sky to herald a new dawn.
Those who might have come to bury Bruce ended up praising him.
"Steve Bruce's red and white army" and "Brucie, Brucie, give us a wave" would not have been pre-match favourites when it came to guessing the terrace chants at the end of it.
But after a purposeful, free-flowing performance was rewarded with a flurry of home goals, the tensions that have been reining in the spirits of Sunderland fans were finally released.
And perhaps the most telling moment came at the end of the 90 minutes when five minutes time added on was flashed up on the touchline: fans cheered rather than jeered; fear of an equaliser being replaced by hopes of a fifth goal for the Wearsiders. What a difference 90 minutes can make.
It had been different at the start of the game when both teams had reasons to be cheerful – Bolton because of their back-to-back wins going into the game; Sunderland because they were able to call upon key man Lee Cattermole despite fears that a hamstring strain would rule him out.
It meant that Sunderland made only once change to the side which drew 0-0 with Fulham in its last outing – Steed Malbranque replacing Kieran Richardson on the left wing – while Bolton also made a solitary swap – Ricardo Gardner replacing suspended Tamir Cohen.
Malbranque was to have an outstanding game but he played no part in the opening goal.
Centre-half Sam Ricketts headed out an Anton Ferdinand cross from the left but only as far as Lorik Cana, who controlled and chipped in a hopeful high cross from the left to the far post and Campbell nipped in to shank a shot home from just inside the six-yard box.
It was an ugly duckling of a goal, but at 41 seconds it was the fastest in the Premier League this season, and priceless for the mood of the home crowd.
It would be easy to say that the goal gave Sunderland confidence but they looked so purposeful, so focused in that first half anyway, that that might have been doing them a disservice.
Bolton looked for a quick way back into the game but found none.
And apart from a hopeful drive from midfielder Chung-Yong Lee in the 12th minute which flashed over Craig Gordon's crossbar, they barely produced a shot of note before the break.
In contrast, Sunderland had several excellent chances to advance their lead.
In the 22nd minute Sunderland broke away from a Bolton corner, with Campbell sprinting up the right-wing before cutting inside and curling an exquisite diagonal ball forward to Bent, who controlled but flashed a shot a yard wide from left of goal.
In the 35th minute Sunderland got their first corner when Malbranque's great touch and run released Jones, whose driven shot was well parried by Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Jones went close again in the 38th minute, winning a header from Gordon's goal-kick, receiving the ball back from Bent and driving a rising shot narrowly over.
And just before half-time another good move by Sunderland saw Cattermole and Jones combine to put in a great ball to Alan Hutton, wide on the right, who cut inside, only to drive a shot with the outside of his right boot wide of the target.
The second half began with Bolton applying early pressure and things might have got interesting had the visitors been able to capitalise on opportunities which saw Gordon forced to make a couple of smart saves before the hour – one in particular, a fine block from a powerful Johan Elmander shot in the 56th minute.
Sunderland rarely looked seriously troubled though and in the 63rd minute came the pivotal moment of the game when the Black Cats doubled their lead through a wonderfully worked goal.
After holding onto possession under pressure from an impatient crowd, Sunderland got the ball out to Malbranque on the left who passed inside to Cattermole, Cattermole's perfectly weighted ball forward played in Bent and the striker swept a low shot under Jaaskelainen from 18 yards out.
It was the slickest move of the game, and at last gave Sunderland a cushion.
There was still time for Bolton to get back into the game, but substitute Ivan Klasnic curled a rising shot wide in the 68th minute, and six minutes later the goal was over as a contest when Sam Ricketts was sent off and Bent scored from the penalty spot.
The two incidents were entirely related – Malbranque's visionary pass putting Bent ahead of the Bolton defence and Ricketts' shove on the striker earning him a second yellow card and reducing the visitors to 10 men.
Bent stepped up to the spot and drove a low shot just to Jaaskelainen's left as the keeper moved right.
Malbranque was provider again in the 79th minute for Jones to turn instantly in the box and lift a shot goalwards which Jaaskelainen spectacularly palmed over.
And then Bent hit the post in the 84th minute, Jones putting the rebound away, only to be flagged offside.
Three goals looked like being a fine reward for Sunderland on the night, but there was a fourth in the 88th minute when Campbell pulled the ball back from the right goal-line and Bent sidefooted home from 15 yards for his hat-trick.
There might have even been a fifth, but Campbell was denied in the fifth minute of time added on by another fine save from Jaaskelainen.
It completed a night only of pluses for Sunderland – Campbell producing the fastest Premier League goal of the season, Bent the first league hat-trick by a Sunderland player at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland recording their first win of 2010, and the Black Cats collecting their second clean sheet in a row.
It didn't make up for a run of more than 15 weeks without a win, for a failure to win in 14 games, for a slide down the table to the very edge of the relegation trapdoor, for the anguish their fans had been through over a long, cold winter. But it's a start.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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