Sunday, April 16

All square at the Stadium of Light

Sunderland 2 West Ham 2

Another game where West Ham have twice lost the lead. It's a decent away point on paper, but I've lost count of the number of points West Ham have thrown away from winning positions. The Hammers had the ideal start. Byram got in a good cross, Carroll mishit across goal and Ayew kept his head to poke home. Five goals in eight ages is now looking like a decent return from Ayew, although he also volleyed over when well-placed later in the game.

Just when it looked like the Irons might control the game Khazri equalised direct from a corner — Sunderland's first goal in 701 minutes of football. Anichebe was possibly fouling Randolph on the line, but the West Ham keeper also wasn't strong enough and there was no defender on the far post to clear.

Hammers had another great chance to win after James Collins headed in Snodgrass's corner two minutes after the break. But Sunderland showed good spirit to come back into the game. When Byram was sent off for a second yellow (his first booking was a silly off the ball foul) after 82 minutes you knew it was likely to all go wrong. In the 90th minute Randolph dropped the ball under pressure from Anichebe and Borini stroked home. To give the ten-man Hammers some credit they did survive ten minutes of added time due to Billy Jones' head injury.

So Byram and Noble will be suspended for the Everton game, with Ogbonna, Obiang and Antonio out for the season. Bilic also needs to look at the goalkeeping position after another uncertain display by Randolph. Though as results panned out we gained a point on Swansea and Hull, and at 14th the Irons are now nine points clear of the Swans with five games left and a better goal difference. Let's hope we can get a result against Everton to finally dispel any lingering fears. 

4 comments:

mj said...

Let's hope 1 or 2 more points is enough

Pete May said...

As we have a better goal difference than Swansea they have to win three and draw one out of five games to catch us . Thankfully they don't seem to be playing well enough to do that, eve if we lose all five games left. Though I'd still feel a lot more secure with another win!

Jackhammer said...

As ever its going to be messy right to the end. although I like Randolf he seems to be making some questionable decisions, whether Adrian can improve it we'll have wait a see.....
I was listening to a dodgy Sunderland FC commentary while away on for the w/e and they weren't happy campers either even at 2-2.
We are a tough lot to keep happy us supporters, havent watched MOTD recording yet, not sure i am strong enough yet.
Roll on the new season, a competent striker plus right back, and an injection of confidence for the whole squad.
God its grim at the moment but I still want Bilic to succeed, fingers crossed!

Pete May said...

Amen to that Rob