Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Everton FC - Monday 3rd November 2025 - KO 20:00

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Back in from the match, so my thoughts on it.

A "strange" game, overall we deserved to win it. We were the better team, created more chances, more possession, more shots and should have had a penalty. But, we could easily have lost it. We started slowly and seemed a bit disjointed in midfield. They had a shot narrowly wide after about 12 seconds and for the first 30 minutes or so we were at sea. Whether it was the wind or just being caught cold, I don't know, but we were sloppy with the ball and invited pressure onto us. I thought Sadiki had a poor half, he seemed of the wavelength. He'd taken a knock off Le Fee (a symptom of our disjointed play at the time) early on and seemed to struggle for a while afterwards, he was definitely limping a bit and looked uncomfortable for a few minutes afterwards. It was a few minutes after this that they scored, I do think it was a foul in the build up (I've not seen it again since, though), but I think he made a meal of it, which might be why it wasn't given. Reinildo did something similar late on in the half near the North Stand where he was pushed but went down holding his face. It's frustrating if our players are doing it, but almost understandable as nearly every 50-50 went in their favour. With Sadiki down our defence and midfield were caught out and stretched and couldn't close their player out resulting in the goal. For the next 10 minutes or so we were at sea, Grealish hit the post about 5 minutes after they scored and about 5 minutes after that they missed a sitter to make it 2-0. Sadiki was booked for a foul committed out of frustration for not being awarded a free kick after being fouled himself seconds earlier and Mukiele was booked for dissent for frustration about Sadiki not being awarded a free kick himself. After about 30 minutes we began to get a foothold in the game and created a few half chances, without testing Pickford, the best being Ballard's header which was scrambled away.

Second half we were much better, scoring inside a minute of the restart and nearly taking the lead 2 minutes after that, both with deflected shots. Top quality save from Pickford for the second, shows why he's England's no 1 keeper. For most of the half we had Everton pinned back in their half, Isidor had a shot from a tight angle wide, Mukiele headed over and we should have had a penalty for handball, Sadiki was much better, more like himself and Xhaka bosses the half, deserved MOTM in my opinion. I'll give a shout out to Traore, I thought he looked decent throughout and grew into the game more as the second half wore on. We looked dangerous when we got forward and the long throws and corners caused them problems, but we just couldn't grab a winner.

It was almost the classic game of 2 halves. I won't say a draw was a fair result, we were the better team for over an hour so probably deserved to edge it for a win. But we could have been out of it inside 30 minutes.

Personally, though I thought the referee was awful. It felt like every 50-50 went their way, while we only got free kicks if it was obvious. The late free kick for a foul of Brobbey for a perfectly timed tackle summed him up. It also felt as though any time, especially late in the first half, where we could put them under pressure he'd give a foul against us to ease the pressure on them. It wasn't Jarred Gillette v Boro bad, but did feel like protecting the established EPL team. Overall I'm disappointed we didn't win, but relieved we didn't lose so I'll settle for the point.
 
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C Montgomery Burns said:
Back in from the match, so my thoughts on it.

A "strange" game, overall we deserved to win it. We were the better team, created more chances, more possession, more shots and should have had a penalty. But, we could easily have lost it. We started slowly and seemed a bit disjointed in midfield. They had a shot narrowly wide after about 12 seconds and for the first 30 minutes or so we were at sea. Whether it was the wind or just being caught cold, I don't know, but we were sloppy with the ball and invited pressure onto us. I thought Sadiki had a poor half, he seemed of the wavelength. He'd taken a knock off Le Fee (a symptom of our disjointed play at the time) early on and seemed to struggle for a while afterwards, he was definitely limping a bit and looked uncomfortable for a few minutes afterwards. It was a few minutes after this that they scored, I do think it was a foul in the build up (I've not seen it again since, though), but I think he made a meal of it, which might be why it wasn't given. Reinildo did something similar late on in the half near the North Stand where he was pushed but went down holding his face. It's frustrating if our players are doing it, but almost understandable as nearly every 50-50 went in their favour. With Sadiki down our defence and midfield were caught out and stretched and couldn't close their player out resulting in the goal. For the next 10 minutes or so we were at sea, Grealish hit the post about 5 minutes after they scored and about 5 minutes after that they missed a sitter to make it 2-0. Sadiki was booked for a foul committed out of frustration for not being awarded a free kick after being fouled himself seconds earlier and Mukiele was booked for dissent for frustration about Sadiki not being awarded a free kick himself. After about 30 minutes we began to get a foothold in the game and created a few half chances, without testing Pickford, the best being Ballard's header which was scrambled away.

Second half we were much better, scoring inside a minute of the restart and nearly taking the lead 2 minutes after that, both with deflected shots. Top quality save from Pickford for the second, shows why he's England's no 1 keeper. For most of the half we had Everton pinned back in their half, Isidor had a shot from a tight angle wide, Mukiele headed over and we should have had a penalty for handball, Sadiki was much better, more like himself and Xhaka bosses the half, deserved MOTM in my opinion. I'll give a shout out to Traore, I thought he looked decent throughout and grew into the game more as the second half wore on. We looked dangerous when we got forward and the long throws and corners caused them problems, but we just couldn't grab a winner.

It was almost the classic game of 2 halves. I won't say a draw was a fair result, we were the better team for over an hour so probably deserved to edge it for a win. But we could have been out of it inside 30 minutes.

Personally, though I thought the referee was awful. It felt like every 50-50 went their way, while we only got free kicks if it was obvious. The late free kick for a foul of Brobbey for a perfectly timed tackle summed him up. It also felt as though any time, especially late in the first half, where we could put them under pressure he'd give a foul against us to ease the pressure on them. It wasn't Jarred Gillette v Boro bad, but did feel like protecting the established EPL team. Overall I'm disappointed we didn't win, but relieved we didn't lose so I'll settle for the point.
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:emoticon-0150-hands
 
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flandersmackem said:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing… but I would have liked to see Mayenda given 20 mins last night.. he brings something different, I’m sure RLB has plans for him, but would be nice to get the lad on the pitch now and again
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I was hoping that too, they didn’t like it when Traore ran at them. Hopefully he gets a chance against Arsenal.
 
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Can’t play well every game. When it’s not your day, limit the damage. That’s what we did last night after our first half hour of the season where we just didn’t get going and we’re unusually sloppy. Defo could have won it but it’s important to not lose sometimes, we take the point and keep going.

Do think we’ll finish above Everton just based off that, real quality out wide but I prefer our defence and midfield. Entertaining game and we showed our heart again.

Hell of a challenge on Saturday but these are the games you want to see SAFC in, looking forward to it. Who knows, could pull off a surprise
 
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TheBronzeBummer said:
Bertrand Traore was class tonight mind, 2.5 million to come sit on the bench they said, one even said our worst ever player.

He was the only player who looked dangerous in 1v1's, for me, Le Bris should have had us set up with two wingers. We grew into it so can't complain too much.

Good point.
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I thought at kick off he got the formation wrong but we clearly grew into it and the start was poor individually pretty much across the board.

We do struggle to create clear cut chances mine and whilst it was difficult Everton should have buried a chance they had in the first half spell.

onwards and upwards, complete free hit against arsenal with the points collected since the internal break.

we’ve surely seen enough to more than suggest we can make a good fist of staying up.

Can’t knock the lads from the 35th minute onwards and if we can play like that regularly which we pretty much have, we’ve got a lot to be happy about.
 
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