Carrick licks wounds after noon shootout
At the Riverside Stadium
THEY say a point is never to be sniffed at — especially in a tight play-off race — but there was not much satisfaction for either team from this draw. Middlesbrough felt they should have killed the game off after Marcus Forss volleyed home in eye-catching fashion following a training ground free-kick routine. sunderland grabbed a point through Nazariy Rusyn late on, but created enough good chances to have easily taken all three. so this high-noon shootout ended in a sort of truce and both teams will move on.
Michael Beale’s sunderland remain a point off the top six, while Michael Carrick’s Boro are down in 12th but only four adrift with a game in hand. With only five points splitting Hull in sixth to Cardiff in 13th, it is tough to predict who will extend their campaign in May, but both teams have a strong case.
‘It feels we are losing points we definitely should be gaining,’ said Carrick. ‘There have been too many games when we put ourselves in good positions, give them next to nothing and then come away with that result.
‘Not to come away with the win is disappointing. When it’s 1-0 and we have control, the second goal didn’t come and the sucker punch made the difference.’
Beale also felt a nagging frustration, saying: ‘We worked the ball into good areas in their box and I’m expecting us to come away with something from those opportunities. We won’t know how big that point is for another few weeks, but they would have been a massive three points for either team.’
Boro’s Finn Azaz skied a good early chance before sunderland created the first half’s better openings. The best of them saw Abdoullah Ba denied by Rav van den Berg’s goalline clearance after Jobe Bellingham and Jack Clarke teed him up. Middlesbrough were muchimproved after the break and led just after the hour mark.
Dan Barlaser, Hayden Hackney and sam Greenwood played their part in a free-kick that deflected off Pierre Ekwah and bounced up to Forss. The Finn’s controlling touch, pivot and volley into the bottom corner were top class.
But sunderland, having offered very little in the second half, snatched a point with seven minutes to play. Clarke picked out Ukrainian forward Rusyn on the right-hand side and he controlled before sending a halfvolley beyond keeper Tom Glover, who could not keep it out despite getting a strong hand to the ball.
MIDDLESBRO 1 SUNDERLAND 1