Doomed Cats fail to put up a fight for yet another must-win game
ANOTHER week, another must-win game, another disappointment.
Sunderland took a full complement of supporters to Vicarage Road more in hope than expectation and this 1-0 defeat just about puts the tin lid on it, even with nine games to play.
So what did we learn from another afternoon that had supporters digging out the number for the Samaritans?
1. SUNDERLAND ARE DOWN
There. I said it. Yes, okay, you probably all knew, but what other conclusion can you reach?
If Swansea City manage to win at home to Middlesbrough today, the gap to safety will be ten points and the number of games left would be eight. For a team showing signs of fight that would be pretty tough, so for Sunderland it could — no, will — be fatal.
The Black Cats were the only relegation-threatened team in action not to win on Saturday. Hull City beat West Ham United, Leicester City defeated Stoke City of course (but it was nice of Fans are starting to lose their patience with Adnan Januzaj them to give Sunderland a six-month headstart all the same). Crystal Palace even won at Chelsea.
2. GIVING AWAY CORNERS TO WATFORD IS NOT A GREAT IDEA
Even with the er... considerable... frame of Troy Deeney on their bench, there were some big boys in Walter Mazzarri’s line-up. Stefano Okaka is just as much of a beast of a centre-forward as the man he was filling in for, and M’Baye Niang is not a man you would upset in a hurry either.
Abdoulaye Doucoure is no midget and when he put some meat behind his shots they certainly stayed hit, and Miguel Britos is fairly substantial — as Adnan Januzaj will have realised when the centre-back thundered into a slightly high tackle on him in the second period. Even substitute Isaac Success — who, for a change, lived up to his name — is a hefty fella.
And Sunderland fans already knew Younes Kaboul was capable of making a nuisance of himself at corners.
You would have thought, then, the Black Cats would have been desperate not to concede any flag kicks. Instead, they allowed their hosts 13 of them.
Size isn’t everything, though, and Watford posed more threat from the set pieces when Sunderland failed to clear their lines effectively, than with efforts from inside the area.
From their tenth attempt, however, they made it count — eventually. Fabio Borini diverted Okaka’s header onto the bar but no one thought to stick to Britos from the rebound and that was that. Jack Rodwell and Watford’s Tom Cleverley
Judging by the discomfort the striker was in after injuring his knee midway through the second half, three games in a week might be a tough ask, never mind 10 in April and May.
If you’re a Black Cats fan reading this to cheer yourself up, you really are in the wrong place, I’m afraid.
4. SUNDERLAND PICKED THE WRONG MAN FOR PLAN B — AND PLAN A TOO
More than a few Wearside fans were a little perplexed as to what Didier Ndong was doing on the bench against Burnley, and David Moyes’ explanation that he wanted more “Britishness” did not really pacify them. If brittleness had been why he went for Jack Rodwell