|
Bruce made one change to the team that failed to break down 10 man Fulham, with Morrison returning to the side for the suspended Geoff Horsfield. Robbie Savage and Stern John also overcame injury fears to make the starting eleven at the Stadium Of Light.
Blues started the game very impressively against a disjointed and lifeless Sunderland. Despite their recent run of 5 games unbeaten, Sunderland looked to be Blues' poorest Premiership opponents thus far. Jurgen Macho in the Black Cats goal was busy again, following his magnificent performance at Anfield a week ago, being forced to make a couple of saves from Paul Devlin. Stan Lazaridis, on the opposite flank to Devlin, was also a thorn in Sunderland's side, with Stephen Wright being unable to cope with the Australian's directness and pace.
Despite dominating possession and the shot-count in the first half, Blues went into the interval level at 0-0. The only fear was that Sunderland couldn't possibly play as badly in the second half as they did in the first. However, after the break, such fears were allayed as Sunderland did indeed play as badly, and Blues continued to dominate.
Lazaridis carried on where he had left off in the first half by terrorising former Liverpool right back Wright, whilst Savage and Aliou Cisse took control of the midfield with ease, over-powering and outplaying former England internationals Michael Gray and Gavin McCann. The home side's only real threat from any individual came when they brought on French teenager David Bellion, who was able to cause Jeff Kenna problems down the Sunderland right.
The first real flash point of the second half, however, occured on the hour mark. Savage made a rash challenge on McCann, and was immediately substituted by Bruce who replaced the Welshman with Darryl Powell. Savage was far from happy with the decision, and didn't keep such grumblings to himself, shaking his head, kicking the bench, and then throwing his training top around. That was all to be forgotten later though.
|
However, rather than sitting back and settling for the draw after such luck, Blues surged forward in search of their second away win of the season, and they were justly rewarded with such with just a minute of normal time remaining. Fittingly, it was the excellent Lazaridis who played a ball through to Morrison. Jody Craddock struggled to clear the ball, and following a bobble, Morrison was left with just Macho to beat from around 10 yards out in a penaltyesque situation. The Irish striker composed himself, and duly sent the Austrian 'keeper the wrong way to send the travelling fans wild.
Blues held on for 3 minutes of injury time to record a crucial away victory. Whilst Sunderland were desperate, take nothing away from a hugely impressive Blues performance. Every player played well, with Lazaridis looking like a new man, and Devlin and Cisse turning in good performances following dips in form of their own. Blues are continuing to perform well against the sides in their own 'mini-league' with victories over Villa, West Ham, Bolton and Sunderland, plus the draw against Albion. More importantly though, this put some breathing space between Blues and the bottom three, and put a lot of smiles back on faces following last week's disappointment against Jean Tigana's men.
Sunderland: Match Photos