Cats within a whisker of famous win
FERDINAND scoring an injury-time equaliser for Manchester United minutes after Kieran Richardson was embroiled in controversy might have been a typical Old Trafford scenario several seasons ago.
But this time it was own-goal Anton, not rested Rio, with the late equaliser, and Richardson – so many years a United prospect – was giving Sir Alex Ferguson's side the advantage wearing opposition colours, rather than the red of the home side, as he contrived to get himself sent off.
These were the two late twists in Saturday's engrossing drama at the Theatre of Dreams.
But the biggest story of the day was the fact that up until Anton's fluke own-goal 90 seconds before the final whistle, Sunderland were on course for what would have been a well-deserved win.
Bottom line? United were lucky.
And don't let anyone tell you different, including Ferguson, whose preposterous ravings against match referee Alan Wiley afterwards were fooling no one.
For the first hour of the game, Sunderland were the better side and United laboured to find a decisive way back until Richardson was red-carded in the 85th minute and Ferdinand fluffed his lines in the dying seconds.
Sunderland, opting for a confident 4-4-2 formation, started positively and United still looked as though they were trying to settle when they fell behind to a seventh-minute Darren Bent strike.
Kenwyne Jones started the move, holding on to the ball on the right, before dragging it back to Lee Cattermole, and when the midfielder's short pass forward reached Bent, it was blink-of-the-eye stuff before it was in the back of the net.
His back to goal, Bent's first touch with his left foot stopped the ball and moved him inside John O'Shea, the striker instantly swivelling on a right-foot shot which saw the ball flash low under the despairing Ben Foster.
Andy Reid was at the heart of all things good about Sunderland going forward, as Bent and Jones stretched United's defence and vindicated Bruce's decision to field both strikers.
Cattermole and Lorik Cana bossed Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher in midfield, while Sunderland's back four were exceptional in containing United, especially down the flanks, where Phil Bardsley was outstanding and Kieran Richardson neutralised Nani.
Michael Turner and Anton Ferdinand, though, had massive games against Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney.
Thus United found themselves in the unusual position of feeding on scraps at Old Trafford.
They had a good chance midway through the first-half, when O'Shea drove in a brilliant ball from the right, but Ferdinand did brilliantly at the near post to squeeze out Danny Welbeck with a brave header.
Sunderland actually looked pretty comfortable before the break.
And overall there was a balance between the two sides – Bent went on a great run down the right which Scholes only stopped at the expense of a yellow card; Nani threatened to go past Richardson down the flank, the Sunderland man's bodycheck earning him a yellow card too.
United felt they should have had a penalty when a cross popped up against the top of Reid's bicep as he tried to control it 10 minutes from the break; Malbranque should have had a free-kick on the edge of the United area on the stroke of half-time, but once again the referee waved play on.
Things changed quickly at the start of the second-half, when Sunderland were in almost immediate trouble.
A Ferdinand headed backpass in the 48th minute was not strong enough to reach Gordon, and Berbatov's pressure forced a scramble which saw Wayne Rooney's goalbound shot blocked by the atoning defender.
Gordon then made a great save from Rooney in the 50th minute, after Richardson had been defeated by Nani.
But Ferdinand only half-cleared the loose ball and O'Shea's ball back in from the right found Berbatov, who finished with an acrobatic bicycle kick.
In the minutes that followed, United played some lovely stuff, but Sunderland did not crumble and just before the hour they retook the lead.
Reid, in the centre of midfield, evaded Fletcher's crude two-footed lunge and, with the referee playing an excellent advantage, he exchanged a neat one-two with Jones before chipping a cross forward to the striker, who held off Nemanja Vidic to powerfully head home the ball home through Foster's weak block.
United's response was instant but not incisive – a wayward Welbeck shot, a Rooney snapshot which missed the target by inches (from the player who has more shots on target this season in the Premier League than any other), and a stream of corners which threatened but never delivered for the home side.
Finally Alex Ferguson, stepped it up, bringing on Antonio Valencia and Michael Carrick for Fletcher and Welbeck, and United improved further, but it was another substitute, Sunderland's – Jordan Henderson – who almost made the most telling contribution.
Coming on for Reid in the 74th minute, he skipped past a scything challenge down the right and fed Malbranque, whose ball to Jones inside the six-yard box was about to be swept home when Carrick nicked it off the Trinidadian's toe.
It was a breathtakingly adroit tackle and it needed to be, for if Sunderland had reached 3-1 with less than 15 minutes left, there would surely have been no way back for the home team.
As it was, with time ticking on, it increasingly looked as though United would not be able to find a way back.
But then disaster struck for Sunderland in the 85th minute, when Richardson committed a foul and kicked the ball away before the free-kick – it was an unthinking act, but it cost the player his place on the pitch as a second yellow was flourished.
From then on, the Red wave became a tidal wave, as 10-man Sunderland clung on desperately.
Hope remained as four minutes time were added on – Vidic heading wide, Carrick unable to squeeze the ball home as Sunderland defended doggedly.
But right at the death, after Cana had headed off the line and Henderson headed out of the box, Patrice Evra rifled in a low off-target shot and Ferdinand, unsure of his bearings, stuck out a leg and deflected the ball past Gordon for the most luckless and painful of equalisers.
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Weather for South Shields
Saturday 11 February 2012
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