Advocaat’s looking up at salvation
DICK ADVOCAAT insists Sunderland will ‘definitely’ avoid relegation after seeing his players talking before this game’s kick-off about the need to win to stay up — and then delivering the team display necessary to seal the points. Two Jordi Gomez penalties were enough, although an out-of-sorts Southampton had equalised 73 seconds after the first spot kick when Sadio Mane pounced on the kind of defensive cock-up that has undermined the Black Cats’ season. Advocaat’s side remain in the bottom three with tough away trips to Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea and a solitary home game against in-form Leicester to come. But just two points separate Sunderland and the four teams above them, and their Dutch manager sees this win as just the fillip they need. ‘If we had lost it would have been very difficult (to stay up),’ he said. ‘I could see the way the players were sitting and talking to each other that they were really up for it. They were saying, “We don’t want to go down and if we don’t want to go down, then we have to do it today” and they were totally right.’ Sunderland striker Danny Graham paid tribute to Gomez’s nerveless finishing from the spot, saying his team-mate had ‘massive balls’. ‘The biggest I have ever seen,’ Graham added. ‘The pressure he must have been under, particularly for that second penalty, was unbelievable.’
0 — the number of goals striker Danny Graham has scored for Sunderland since his £5m move from Swansea two years ago. SUNDERLAND (4-3-3): Pantilimon 5; Jones 6, Coates 4.5, O’Shea 6 (Vergini 31min, 6), Van Aanholt 6.5; Larsson 6.5 (Rodwell 82), Cattermole 6.5, Gomez 7.5; Defoe 6.5 (Johnson 82), Graham 6.5, Wickham 6.5. Booked: Jones, Cattermole. Scorer: Gomez 21 pen, 55 pen. SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): K Davis 6; Clyne 6, Fonte 5.5, Yoshida 6, Bertrand 6; Wanyama 6 (S Davis 66, 6), Alderweireld 6; Long 5.5 (Duricic 46, 6), Ward-Prowse 5.5, Mane 6.5 (Elia 70, 5.5); Pelle 5.5. Booked: Wanyama, Pelle. Sent off: Ward-Prowse. Scorer: Mane 22. Man of the match: Jordi Gomez. Referee: Mike Jones 6.