Mick’s not taking his safety for Grant-ed
GRANT WARD’S jammy goal ensured Ipswich picked up a point against Birmingham.
After left-back Jonathan Grounds had given the visitors a 48th-minute lead, Ward equalised for Ipswich with an overhit cross in the 72nd minute, as these two desperately out-of-form teams shared the points.
With just four league wins between them in 2017 – and both nervously looking over their shoulders at the relegation zone – this was a tight and tense 90 minutes at Portman Road.
Town boss Mick McCarthy said: “I don’t want to be involved in a relegation. We’ve got to get enough points and stay in the league.”
“I thought the first half was a Championship scrap that we probably shaded but we lost all our momentum for giving a s**t goal away.
“Bartosz Bialkowski kept us in it and we weren’t playing well. It was a horrible atmosphere and we got away with a wonder-strike, or a lucky cross, to get a point.”
Freddie Sears found the net when he calmly dispatched Ward’s pull-back from the byline but the midfielder had run the ball out of play and the goal was disallowed.
Ipswich saw penalty appeals waved away by referee Andrew Madley moments later, when Jonas Knudsen’s flicked header struck the arm of Maikel Kieftenbeld, before Lukas Jutkiewicz headed Emilio Nsue’s cross over.
Jutkiewicz had another chance with his head just before the half-time whistle but Bialkowski saved.
However, three minutes after the restart, the keeper was powerless to prevent Grounds, with a hint of offside, from smashing into the roof of the net after blocking from Jutkiewicz.
But Ipswich grabbed themselves a lucky lifeline when Ward’s cross from the right flew over the despairing dive of Tomasz Kuszczak.
Brum boss Gianfranco Zola said: “It’s a goalkeeper error – but he was outstanding for us last week so it’s part of the game.
“I’m pleased with the point and the performance. I know it’s a good point because it was a difficult match.”
David Moyes’ side look as good as relegated but Walter Mazzarri’s men are picking up vital points against clubs they will have targeted.
And Miguel Britos’ towering header was all they needed to overcome the struggling Black Cats.
Mazzarri said: “I have never thought Watford were near the relegation zone – most of the teams below us have won – but if we keep playing like this we should be okay.
“We did not score as many as we should and if you get one goal anything can happen.”
Moyes, whose side have now played nearly 500 minutes without scoring, said: “I’m not so sure we need miracles but we need to win games, that’s for sure.
“There have been a few situations like this at Sunderland before and hopefully we can survive again.”
All the talk beforehand might have been about Jermain Defoe and his new World Cup dreams. But it was young Jordan Pickford at the other end who deserved the plaudits yesterday.
Two superb saves in the first 10 minutes reinforced the keeper’s claims for a seat on the England plane to Russia next year.
A third save of equal quality kept his side in it just before the break as the men in front of him started to show the sort of cracks that have put them in their present pickle.
M’Baye Niang and Stefano Okaka in particular had chances but a combination of profligacy – and the impressive Pickford – denied them a lead they probably deserved.
Moyes said: “He is a top young keeper. He had a real command of his box and if he keeps performing like this there are few who will do as well.” Sunderland huffed and puffed with all the threat of a damp lettuce. And it was hardly surprising Watford got the breakthrough after 53 minutes.
Even Pickford – the only Premier-class player Sunderland had yesterday – could not produce the heroics needed to stop Britos heading home the matchwinner after Fabio Borini made a hash of clearing his lines.
To be honest, Watford should have been out of sight before Jose Holebas had a scorcher deflected over the bar.
The visitors’ increasingly desperate plight could not have been more clearly illustrated after the anonymous Adnan Januzaj left to a chorus of boos from his own supporters when he was replaced by Wahbi Khazri.
You could hardy blame them. They had travelled a long way to see so little.