Robbie Keane scored his 100th goal in our colours as Sunderland were defeated
2-0 at the Lane.
Unlike the recent trend for goals aplenty at both ends, this
one came very close to being a second one-nil victory of the week, but we were
forced to endure a few nervous moments in this one after Sunderland took heart
in the final third from not falling more than a goal behind. It did not take
long for the team to get cracking, in fact it was just the second minute when
Jamie O'Hara nicked the ball from Paul McShane down the left flank and, after a
little help from Young-Pyo Lee, managed to fizz across the area. Dimitar
Berbatov attempted a stab at it, but ended up helping on into the path of
Lennon, who prodded past Craig Gordon with the underside of his boot. There were
significant changes to the side from Tuesday night at Reading, with Paul
Stalteri and Lee coming in on each side of the defence and Tom Huddlestone
recalled after suspension at centre half. Lennon was back in place of the
suspended Steed Malbranque, while Jermain Defoe took the place of Robbie Keane
and was named captain. A lightening Lennon break was later thwarted by the hand
of Dwight Yorke, but somehow the assistant right in front of the offence failed
to notice. Nineteen minutes in a sublime ball from Huddlestone was
athletically latched onto by Jermaine Jenas and steered past Gordon, but
Berbatov could not quite find the acceleration to apply a tap-in finish at the
far post. Lennon delivered another low cross that just evaded a wave of white
shirts before Berbatov struck and clipped the top of the crossbar. Just over ten
minutes before the break Defoe had Gordon flailing backwards in an attempt to
reach his chipped shot, but the keeper did brilliantly to tip over in the end.
The Scotland international then reacted sharply to turn away a Berbatov
piledriver. A rare Sunderland response with Kenwyne Jones seemingly on a path
through to goal was brilliantly de-railed by Michael Dawson, leaving the big
striker in a heap. Daryl Murphy roused the travelling support just after the
break with a speculative shot from the top corner of the penalty area that
flashed not too far adrift of goal, before Jones did have the ball in the net
but his effort off a set piece was ruled out for offside. Jamie O'Hara made way
for Teemu Tainio ten minutes into the half, leading to Kevin Boateng moving to
the right and Lennon left - the Finn occupying the middle ground.
A Lennon
dash down the left led to Defoe being within prodding distance of a goal, but
Gordon was able to foil. Berbatov then drilled goalwards after the ball flicked
up out of the feet of Defoe - a deflection taking it just wide. Huddlestone's
deceptive free-kick from 25 yards then required the goalkeeper to take
goal-preventing action. Robbie Keane wa summoned from the bench in the 74th
minute, with Defoe wrapping the armband around the arm of the Irishman before
leaving the pitch. Radek Cerny was next in action though with a desperate block
from a Danny Collins header. Dawson was next forced into a goal-saving action in
front of the posts to dey Jones an equaliser before lunging into a further
challenge to ensure danger was averted. Sunderland were piling on the pressure
given that our early advantage was not extended. Cerny made a double save from
Murphy and Liam Miller when you were really fearing the worst.Robbie got in on
the act in stoppage time with a drive on goal that you felt Gordon would save,
but the ball squirted under him and the ton-up man was off to celebrate in a
familiar fashion that we haven't seen for a while.It is on to Carling Cup
business on Tuesday.
Linked here.
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