Worried Coleman’s Stadium of Fright
IPSWICH kept alive their faint hopes of securing a play-off place as they piled further misery on Sunderland.
Joe Garner’s first-half strike preceded an own goal from Adam Matthews on the stroke of half-time, ensuring Mick McCarthy made an enjoyable return to Wearside.
And McCarthy said: “I have no sympathy for anybody, regardless of who I or my teams play against and I’ve always been the same.
“We all want to win for our team. I am sad to see the plight this club is in and I know how hard it is to turn around. I had it myself when I was here. It’s like trying to turn round an oil tanker with a canoe paddle in your hand.”
However, for Sunderland boss Chris Coleman, there was yet more disappointment as his side remained rooted in the Championship’s bottom three, just one point off the foot of the table.
He said: “It was the second game running where we conceded a minute before half-time but it is what it is and we are where we are.
“When we go a goal behind, we just don’t come back. That’s a worry because we’re not always going to go 1-0 up.”
Coleman named all three of his deadline-day signings in Sunderland’s starting line-up but any hopes of a radical change of fortunes were blown out of the water in the opening 45 minutes.
The visitors were ahead 10 minutes before the break with Joe Garner taking advantage of some hesitant Sunderland defending. Receiving the ball with his back to goal, Garner spun around a static Billy Jones before curling home a simple side-foot finish.
Sunderland’s defending has been desperate all season and the Black Cats were found wanting again as their opponents doubled their advantage in first-half stoppage time.
Callum Connolly sent Grant Ward scampering past Lee Cattermole and while Freddie Sears was unable to make any contact with the midfielder’s cross on the edge of the six-yard box, he blocked the view of Adam Matthews and the ball bounced off him and rebounded into the net.
LYS MOUSSET headed a late winner to ease Bournemouth’s relegation worries but increase Stoke’s.
Another impressive second-half performance saw Bournemouth overturn Stoke’s fifth-minute lead through Xherdan Shaqiri. Josh King scored his third Premier League goal of the season before his fellow substitute Mousset nodded a
79th-minute winner. Bournemouth, who were last beaten by runaway leaders Manchester City on December 23, could not quite match their midweek heroics of beating Chelsea by three second-half goals. But after shrugging off their shaky start, Eddie Howe’s side turned the game around to move closer to safety.
Howe said: “It was a totally different game from Chelsea. We started that one well but nothing seemed to go right for us in the early stages here. “It wasn’t a great performance but we had to dig in. We’ve done that a lot lately so that’s a good sign for us.” Stoke were dragged into the drop zone after suffering their first defeat under new boss Paul Lambert in his third game in charge. Despite starting with the same lineup that beat Chelsea
3-0 in midweek, Howe’s side were disorganised and they quickly paid for it. Shaqiri was lively all game and after five minutes the Switzerland star’s goalbound shot was cleared by Steve Cook.
But Shaqiri would not be denied moments later when Stoke’s new £14million recruit Badou Ndiaye swung over a left-wing cross from a throw-in. With the Bournemouth defence monitoring target man Peter Crouch, the pint-sized Shaqiri headed Stoke ahead.
Bournemouth suffered another early setback when defender Steve Cook limped off after 13 minutes. It caused Howe to reorganise his side, sending on King into midfield and Charlie Daniels dropped deeper.
Stoke keeper Jack Butland was called into action within seconds of the restart when King tried his luck from the edge of the area.
Crouch came close when he headed Shaqiri’s corner against the bar before Bournemouth took control and levelled on 70 minutes.
After Lewis Cook and Dan Gosling combined while Kurt Zouma and Joe Allen failed to clear on the edge of the area, King calmly slotted into the bottom corner.
Bournemouth were transformed from their sleepy start and their pressure was rewarded when France Under-21s star Mousset headed in Jordon Ibe’s free-kick at the back post.
Lambert said: “One hundred per cent we should have got something out of the game. I would have been disappointed with a draw.”