MOYES GETS A SLAP FA boss blasts lack of respect
Troubled boss can’t stop rot as Leicester grab fifth win in row
SUNDERLAND boss David Moyes was reeling from another defeat on a night which ended with a blast from FA chairman Greg Clarke over his ‘slap’ threat to a female TV interviewer.
While Moyes insisted he was ‘ surprised’ by the reaction to comments he made last month to the BBC’s Vicki Sparks, which could mean an FA rap, Clarke’s condemnation was strong.
‘It was regrettable, it was distasteful, and it showed a lack of respect,’ said Clarke. ‘We in the game stand for respect. It’s doubly bad to use such a term to a woman because there is a lot of violence against women in society.’
David Moyes leant against the edge of the tunnel with a face like thunder. His anger last night was not aimed at a BBC reporter, though, but rather his failing players.
sunderland crumbled again here to hasten their drop towards the Championship. Moyes had seen his side do better than most against Leicester under Craig shakespeare, but succumb to defeat all the same.
Leicester’s fans taunted him with a chorus of ‘you’re getting slapped in the morning’.
Moyes’s misfortune has been all of his own making, on and off the pitch. He has failed to lift a modest yet Premier League-hardened group of players out of the relegation zone for more than a couple of weeks at the start of the season.
and now he has heaped embarrassment on the club with his shameful comments to reporter vicki sparks. a bad week for Moyes got worse here when shakespeare sent on islam slimani and Marc albrighton just after the hour. seven minutes later, the pair had combined to give Leicester the breakthrough.
albrighton cut back on the left and crossed invitingly. slimani accepted the chance, beating Lamine Kone to head home his first goal since New year’s eve.
Credit to shakespeare there, but he enjoyed some remarkable luck 14 minutes from time. Christian Fuchs cleared poorly, straight to victor anichebe, whose shot through a crowd of Leicester bodies deflected up on to a post. it could easily have gone in.
Little more than a minute later, shakespeare’s fifth Premier League victory in a row and sixth in all competitions was confirmed. another albrighton cross found Jamie vardy, who took one touch to control the ball and another to lash it into the roof of net.
vardy’s fifth goal under shakespeare sees Leicester surge into the top half of the table, just six weeks after slipping into the bottom three.
sunderland, meanwhile, are eight points off safety and have not scored for 585 minutes.
if the sunderland hierarchy are to be believed, their club will have the same manager for an entire campaign for the first time in six seasons by keeping faith in Moyes. steve Bruce, Martin o’Neill, Paolo di Canio, Gus Poyet and dick advocaat all exited mid-season in a sequence that dates back to 2011-12, with owner ellis short each time gambling on a new manager to shore up sunderland’s Premier League status.
so, for football reasons alone, Moyes is fortunate to be in situ. His comments to sparks are just a further reason for his position to face serious scrutiny. But given this is the club whose moral compass has been faulty for some time, it was no surprise that they backed Moyes yesterday.
‘Wholly unacceptable,’ said a club statement of Moyes’s threat to sparks, yet sunderland will continue with him in charge.
so it was that he selected a team he hoped would provide shelter amid the squall. Jermain defoe started after doubts around an injured knee and there was a shock first appearance since september for captain Lee Cattermole, who has been out with a hip problem.
in the 34th minute, Cattermole made the kind of mark we have come to expect. demarai Gray was bursting into sunderland territory after a corner and, with only Bryan oviedo as cover, Cattermole dived to trip the Leicester winger.
Gray continued but was put off his stride and oviedo was able to tackle legitimately and stop a goalscoring chance.
Having been the victim of a brutal professional foul by Ryan shawcross on saturday, this was further evidence that Gray’s speed will cause opponents to resort to dark arts. Cattermole was shown the inevitable yellow card.
Gray picked himself up to produce Leicester’s brightest moment of the first half, unleashing a curling strike from 25 yards that goalkeeper Jordan Pickford stretched to deflect wide. Pickford was also required to be alert in the 16th minute when Robert Huth’s header from a Riyad Mahrez freekick required a punch clear.
But this was not the backs-tothe-wall job that might have been expected of sunderland. They went into the match having not scored in five successive games, but looked the likelier side to break the deadlock.
danny simpson had to stoop to deny sebastian Larsson at the far post, and Leicester keeper Kasper schmeichel blocked a defoe shot from a tight angle.
defoe also tried from distance but pulled the ball wide and there was a similar result when didier N’dong was given a presentable chance at the end of a break.
sunderland were showing the fight that has been absent so often this season and when defoe connected sweetly with a volley just before the hour, only for the ball to zip into schmeichel’s hands, the atmosphere got edgy.
That changed a short time later, and Leicester’s upward surge continues. The only direction sunderland are heading is down.