Late leveller adds insult to injury
EASINGTON-born Sunderland fan Adam Johnson added injury to insult with a late, late equaliser yesterday which denied the Black Cats arguably their most stirring victory of the season.
As Johnson curled a left-foot shot exquisitely into the very top corner of Craig Gordon's goal, seconds after the 90-minute mark passed, Steve Bruce would have known exactly what he'd lost. Two points, and a top quality player.
The Sunderland boss diligently pursued the Mackem-mad Johnson family's pride and joy for months ahead of the January transfer window, and at times believed he had his man.
But in the end, money talked, and Johnson walked to the richest club in world football, after City met Middlesbrough's asking price.
And proving there's no sentiment in professional football – not content with depriving Sunderland of a player who would have been a perfect part of Bruce's rebuilding plans – the former Boro winger also torpedoed hopes of the Wearsiders' first back-to-back top-flight victories in 48 matches.
Though City deserved a share of the spoils on the balance of a second half they dominated, it was still hard on Sunderland after Kenwyne Jones had given them the perfect start.
The Trinidad and Tobago striker produced the first shot of the game in the third minute – a long-range effort which Shay Given comfortably scooped up – but the former Magpie keeper had no chance with Jones's effort five minutes later.
Young midfielder David Meyler found Steed Malbranque ahead of him with a driven pass to the left flank, and the Frenchman put in an angled cross which Jones rose to superbly to head back across Given from 12 yards out.
It was a finish every bit as emphatic as the tumbling somersault which followed it, but it wasn't a flash in the pan from Sunderland, who went on to dominate the first half with a display which made a nonsense of the form book and the Black Cats' selection problems.
But efforts from Meyler and Jones were not particularly threatening, and that set the pattern for the remainder of the half with the home team in the driving seat but unable to find the quality needed to notch Sunderland's second.
Half-chances fell to Fraizer Campbell but the striker, deployed on the right wing, fluffed every opportunity.
Crucially, Jones failed to reappear for the second half and though his replacement, Jordan Henderson, produced a typically energetic performance on his return from long-term injury, Sunderland missed the outlet of the big target-man.
Craig Gordon then made two excellent saves to deny City – the first from Roque Santa Cruz at his right-hand post in the 50th minute, his second at his left-hand post to stop Shaun Wright-Phillips.
But just as fine a block came a minute later when he palmed out a would-be cross from Bellamy that looked to be sneaking in at his near post.
There was fantastic football in the 70th minute with Gordon making a point-blank save from Tevez in the six-yard box before Mensah cleared substitute Patrick Vieira's follow-up.
With Sunderland looking composed enough, City boss Roberto Mancini made his last change of the afternoon, bringing on Johnson in place of Wright-Phillips.
Gordon pulled off another great save on the edge of his six-yard box to deny Bellamy's run and then an even better effort to thwart Joleon's Lescott's attempt to stab home from a couple of yards out.
But his block in the 91st minute was world class, as Bellamy's shot from the edge of the area deflected off Hutton, which Gordon still somehow managed to save with his feet.
At that point you would have sworn the points were Sunderland's, but they were undone seconds later when the ball came out to Johnson on the right of goal, and he sized up the situation before curling a shot into Gordon's top right-hand corner.
Even Henderson on the line couldn't jump high enough to block a shot which was absolutely perfectly placed.
It was eye-of-the-needle stuff, and yet again in this season of last-minute letdowns, it was enough to burst Sunderland's bubble.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for South Shields
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
