If only they had started with the fight and desire of second half
Sunderland 0 Burnley 0
IT was a massive game for Sunderland.
The visit of Burnley was not just an opportunity for David Moyes’ Black Cats, but an absolute necessity.
Sunderland just had to win, and to hell with how.
At this stage lessons do not count for an awful lot - results are the only things that matter.
Nevertheless, as I was contractually obliged to learn five things from the game, here is what the 0-0 draw with Burnley told us.
1. IT GETS WORSE
If Sunderland were not going to beat Burnley then at the very least they needed those outside the relegation zone not to widen the gap. As it was, the distance between the Black Cats and safety is up to seven points.
It summed up the Black Cats’ day that an own goal from Troy Deeney was enough to pull Crystal Palace just Jason Denayer has been badly missed a little further into the distance. With only ten games to play, things are looking worrying for a Black Cats side who have not won at home since before Christmas.
Lamine Kone’s training ground injury will have left Sunderland cursing their luck, but the position you find yourselves in after 28 games of a Premier League season has very little to do with fortune, and the Wearsiders’ is starting to look extremely ominous.
They have made a speciality of pulling off improbable and even downright ridiculous escape acts before, but there were few signs it is coming again.
When David Moyes was sacked as manager of Manchester United a publicity-hungry bookmaker (you know the one) sat the Grim Reaper by the dugout. On Saturday, in the posh seats behind Moyes, sat Ellis Short. ‘Football club owner watches his football club play’ ought not to be big news, but at the Stadium of Light these days it is. The trigger-happy Texan seemed to lose his appetite for the Black Cats a long time ago, which might explain why Moyes has clung on in the dugout longer than many of his predecessors might have expected to.
While Mrs Short looked to be resting her eyes during the first half – and who can blame her, it was dire – Peter Reid Sunderland boss David Moyes in the and Kevin Ball, former Sunderland manager and two-time caretaker manager, were watching rather more keenly.
With the Black Cats into an international break and Aitor Karanka’s departure leaving Moyes as the last manager standing in the bottom six, he could be forgiven for shifting in his seat for the next couple of days.
Short has a history of sacking Sunderland managers in March, and of