Ex-boss Alex is Stoked as the Cats capitulate in second half
Sunderland fell to a humiliating loss on Alex Neil’s return to the Stadium of Light as they shipped four secondhalf goals in a 5-1 defeat to Stoke City.
The Black Cats’ poor end to the January transfer window was ruthlessly exposed by Neil’s side, who exposed a lack of potency in the final third and completely overran their inexperienced opposition on the counter-attack.
The visitors had taken a narrow lead into the break through JoshL au rent’ s controversial opener, but the second half proved to bean almost total mismatch as the visitors poured forward over and over again, with former Newcastle United striker Dwight Gayle scoring a brace to add insult to injury for the 43,000 crowd.
With a challenging run of fixtures ahead and no obvious solution to the striker shortageforthcoming, Sunderland’ s top-six hopes are if not hanging by a thread then on their way to being extinguished. After a bright start, it was the visitors who were beginning to see more of the ball, Will Small bone sliding an effort wide before Anthony Patterson did well to cut out a low cross.
Tony Mowbray’s side began to find their feet and some space in which to play, with Amad seeing an effort from the edge of the area blocked. They then produced a lovely, sweeping move from the middle of the pitch which allowed Jack Clarke to take on and beat his marker, cutting a low cross from the by line into the six yard box on his weaker left foot. Joe Gel hardtdi dwell to pull into space and meet it, but his effort was blocked and then Dan Neil volleyed over the loose ball.
The game then started to fall into a more predictable pattern, with the Black Cats dominating the ball but well away from the Stoke City goal. Neil’s side looked comfortable sitting off and picking their moments to press, breaking in numbers when they won it back. With regular fouls making the game increasingly stop start, the hosts weren’t really getting anywhere. Sunderland survived a number of dangerous low crosses into their box before the game swung five minutes before the break.
It started with a Sunderland corner, cleared from the box but floated back in by Aji Alese. Danny Batth got there first, cleaned out by Matija Sarkic, who came to claim but got nowhere near. Dan Ballard headed the loose ball towards goal but Phil Jagielka sensed the danger and cleared on the line, at which point the referee Jeremy Simpson stopped play for a head injury to Ki-Jana Hoever. The defender returned to play after treatment and immediately launched a sweeping counter-attack, finished superbly by Laurent into the roof of the net after Smallbone’s cutback.
Sunderland additionally argued that Patterson’s view had been impeded by an offside player, but the goal stood amid rising frustration in the Stadium of Light.
Mowbray was booked for walking to remonstrate with the referee in farcical scenes at the whistle, with Sunderland struggling to create any chances of note.
The Black Cats head coach made a double substitution at the break – Luke O’Nien and Edouard Michut replacing Alese and Gelhardt – to try and turn things round but within 10 minutes the game was all but up. Stoke’s second came from Sunderland’s own freekick, cleared to the halfway line where Gay le caught Neil in possession. He played in Small bone and the midfielder picked his pass to the back post perfectly,leaving Ty re se Campbell with the easiest of finishes. He had another within minutes, Sunderland again caught in possession and though the forward’s first effort had been blocked, the second was curled perfectly into the far corner.
They were goals that had been coming all game, Sunderland’ s lack of movement and variety in the final third giving Stoke so many chances to steal the ball near the halfway line.
Sunderland did briefly give their supporters some hope when Alex Pritchard finished an excellent cross from Patrick Roberts at close range, but it was almost immediately extinguished when Gayle converted from close range after Patterson initially saved a Jagielka header at a corner.
It had been a dismal second half implosion and it wasn’t over – the fifth a goal of embarrassing ease as Gayle beat Patterson to a free-kick floated into the box and nodded into the far corner.
The final exchanges were played out at an almost nonexistent tempo, though Gayle was denied a hat-trick only by a good Patterson save.
*Here’s how some fans reacted...
@MrMoranPE: Recruitment has been spot on in the last few windows, but the decision to not sign an experienced forward and midfielder to replace Stewart and Evans is absolutely baffling. No focal point up front, and zero protection for the centre-halves with the players we have available.
@SAFC_NYorkshire:
We’ve gone from play-off contenders to one point from a possible twelve. Before the season started I would have been very happy with being tenth after this many games, now I just feel a bit deflated.
@Philip_ R J 89:43,064. For a performance and a result like this. It’s just absolutely unacceptable. He’ s done a lot of good, but Tony M ow bray should face some seriously hard questions after this. We’ve absolutely caved in today. The players have just folded.
@_wisemensay:Last week I said we would be OK. Wrong. We're conceding too many goals and too many poor goals as well. No midfield and we can't shoot, never mind score. We are in trouble.
@JamesFul well End: Take the Alex Neil stuff out of it, but to ship five goals at home to a team who were third bottom and have lost their last two games is just totally unacceptable.