When Steve Bruce reflects back on his time at Sunderland, 2 abiding memories will haunt him. Selling Darren Bent without a replacement and that last game against Wigan Athletic.
When Martin O' Neill reflects back on his Sunderland career (in quite a few years time one hopes), perhaps he too will reflect on 2 abiding memories as well. David Vaughan's 25 yard absolute thunderbolt and Seb Larsson's clinical, precision guided missile.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, we were 1-0 down and O'Neill was heading for a first defeat in his opening fixture with any club he has managed. Despite dominating possession, I honestly couldn't see us scoring against the man mountains of Dann and especially Samba - who was immense all afternoon. What would you give to have him in our defense?
Then, as if it were written in the stars, up popped David 'Zico' Vaughan with the kind of shot and goal you score once in a career and then Seb Larsson with a text book (and trademark) free kick we have seen more than once already this campaign. 2-1 in a blistering, season changing 6 minutes of football. Season changing because it gives a massive shot in the arm for confidence and self belief.
Is MoN a good manager? Who knows. Is he a Lucky manager? Who cares. He's a winning manager and thats all that counts tonight imo. In his must win game Bruce couldn't deliver. In his first and also must win game, MoN did and thats what history will write, despite the perilous nature with which it was actually delivered.
Of the players I cant faulty any tonight. Some were better than others granted but then this is not a time for me to pick those out apart from 2 names.
McClean and Colback.
Colback has come in for some criticism on some posts here tonight but I'm not allowing that to go unchallenged. Zinedine Zidane coined the phrase 'water carrier' for Didier Deschamps in the World Cup winning team and by that he meant one who does all the work. With the likes of Wickham, Richardson, Sessegnon, Larsson and Vaughan all forward thinking players, someone had to stay home to watch the kids and I thought the work-rate and tackles that kid put in were incredible. If the OPTA stats can be found somewhere, I'd be interested to know if anyone pot in as many tackles or covered more ground or indeed offered himself for the easy pass as many times as he did. Unsung heroes will always be sung out loud for me and I had him down as mine today and he got my motm award personally.
The other, McClean changed the game imo for us when he came on. His very first ever touch took him past 2 defenders and he whipped in the kind of ball that ignited the crowd in an instance. From that very moment, the crowd erupted and spurred in the whole team. His energy and desire to beat the man and attack the box gave new belief to all the other players and imo, was crucial to the end result. Bruce and Black would have played Elmo at that point and we would have lost the game no doubts in my mind.
Well done to the team and especially to the manager for having some balls to try something different and having it pay off. Fine lines maybe but with massive outcomes.
Roll on the Spuds & QPR and then the last 2 home games of the year v Everton and Man City and to the transfer window and a full half season to build on this momentous victory today.
When Martin O' Neill reflects back on his Sunderland career (in quite a few years time one hopes), perhaps he too will reflect on 2 abiding memories as well. David Vaughan's 25 yard absolute thunderbolt and Seb Larsson's clinical, precision guided missile.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, we were 1-0 down and O'Neill was heading for a first defeat in his opening fixture with any club he has managed. Despite dominating possession, I honestly couldn't see us scoring against the man mountains of Dann and especially Samba - who was immense all afternoon. What would you give to have him in our defense?
Then, as if it were written in the stars, up popped David 'Zico' Vaughan with the kind of shot and goal you score once in a career and then Seb Larsson with a text book (and trademark) free kick we have seen more than once already this campaign. 2-1 in a blistering, season changing 6 minutes of football. Season changing because it gives a massive shot in the arm for confidence and self belief.
Is MoN a good manager? Who knows. Is he a Lucky manager? Who cares. He's a winning manager and thats all that counts tonight imo. In his must win game Bruce couldn't deliver. In his first and also must win game, MoN did and thats what history will write, despite the perilous nature with which it was actually delivered.
Of the players I cant faulty any tonight. Some were better than others granted but then this is not a time for me to pick those out apart from 2 names.
McClean and Colback.
Colback has come in for some criticism on some posts here tonight but I'm not allowing that to go unchallenged. Zinedine Zidane coined the phrase 'water carrier' for Didier Deschamps in the World Cup winning team and by that he meant one who does all the work. With the likes of Wickham, Richardson, Sessegnon, Larsson and Vaughan all forward thinking players, someone had to stay home to watch the kids and I thought the work-rate and tackles that kid put in were incredible. If the OPTA stats can be found somewhere, I'd be interested to know if anyone pot in as many tackles or covered more ground or indeed offered himself for the easy pass as many times as he did. Unsung heroes will always be sung out loud for me and I had him down as mine today and he got my motm award personally.
The other, McClean changed the game imo for us when he came on. His very first ever touch took him past 2 defenders and he whipped in the kind of ball that ignited the crowd in an instance. From that very moment, the crowd erupted and spurred in the whole team. His energy and desire to beat the man and attack the box gave new belief to all the other players and imo, was crucial to the end result. Bruce and Black would have played Elmo at that point and we would have lost the game no doubts in my mind.
Well done to the team and especially to the manager for having some balls to try something different and having it pay off. Fine lines maybe but with massive outcomes.
Roll on the Spuds & QPR and then the last 2 home games of the year v Everton and Man City and to the transfer window and a full half season to build on this momentous victory today.
