Safc vs QPR Review

By Scott Kay
April 15 2007

Sunderland beat QPR 2-1 after dominating the game but struggled to put the ball in the back of the net. Big relief to all sunderland fans!

Sunderland 2-1 QPR. Before the match i was discussing the game with my dad, i always thought this game was going to be tough, my prediction was a close 1-0 or 2-1. It ended up 2-1 but the game was very very tough. The team who made it tough was sunderland themselves. After a great start and very well worked goal by Dean Whitehead after 7 minutes it looked to be an easy day. With a few very good chances, the best chance fell to Murphy from a corner, he had a free header from 3 yards out but missed the ball completely.

Sunderland became too casual and acted as if it was too easy, Danny Simpson gave the ball away in midfield and Darren Ward give away a penalty. 1-1. From this point i had a very bad feeling it just wasnt going to be Sunderlands day.

This bad feeling got worse going longer and longer into the second half. Connolly had lots of chances but had a very poor day of finishing rarely testing the goalkeeper.

On around 87th minute Sunderland got a free kick on the right hand side of midfield. Carlos Edwars cleverly disquised the freekick into Grant Leadbitters path and he struck the ball perfectly curling away from the goalkeeper into his right bottom corner. This is the second late winner Grant Leadbitter has scored for Sunderland in 6 days.

QPR had 3 shots on goal if my memory is right, that is 2 freekicks and 1 penalty. They were very very poor.

We had some great news on the final whistle knowing that Derby lost in the last minute against Ipswich. This is a major step forward to the premiership and sunderland can build on it with a good win at colchester next week hopefully.

All in all i thought Sunderland was the best team by far and battled an important win out although i do feel they were awful in front of goal and dont deserve to be promoted if they are going to be like that in the final 3rd of the pitch.

Ratings:

Ward: 7 - Almost the perfect game but he gave away a penalty where he maybes committed when he shouldnt have.
Simpson: 5/6 - Very disappointing performance (for his standards), he gave the ball away a lot but fair play to the lad he gave 100%.
Nyron: Perfect 10 - This man was outstanding again, his awareness and ability to read the game was awesome and he was an extremely solid centre back. His distribution today was the best i have ever seen by him, sprayed many cross field balls out to the wingers with pin point accuracy.
Evans: 9 - I though he was as solid as ever with a great partnership and understanding with the rest of the back 4.
Collins: a solid 8 - I though he was very solid in left back, worked well with evans and had a good understanding.
Edwards: 7 - quite a poor game for his standards, he had the ball quite often but never had any real targets to hit, well worked goal will leadbitter.
Yorke: 6 - he seemed very tired and slow, did make a few good runs forward and good passes though. (subbed for leadbitter)
Whitehead: 5/6 - Was very poor from Whitehead, he finished off a very well worked goal but he looked very slow and lost the ball a lot in midfield.
Wallace: 6/7 - He seemed to get marked out of the first half quite a lot, when he was on the ball he looked a threat but again there was few targets for him in the box. (subbed 2nd half for Stern John)
Murphy: 9 first half as striker, 4 on left wing. The best half of football i have seen from murphy, he was a big threat teasing the QPR defence. On the left wing he was awful, trying impossible things and he put many poor crosses in when he had time and he gave the ball away a lot. (subbed for stokes)
Connolly: 7 - Worked very well outside of the box but lacked that finishing quality he has has all season.
John: 6 - quite solid but he didnt have enough time to shine.
Stokes: 6 - Same as stern, didnt have enough time and didnt get on the ball enough.
Leadbitter: 8 - Worked very hard and give sunderland that extra bit of attacking quality in the second half. Fantastic goal by Grant.

HA'WAY THE LADS!