Down and out for Sunderland
SUNDERLAND’S 10-year stay in the Premier League ended yesterday when they lost 1-0 at home to Bournemouth, leaving them 13 points adrift with four games remaining after Hull City held on for a goalless draw at Southampton.
Sunderland’s fate looked set when Bournemouth’s Josh King side-footed the winner at the Stadium of Light in the 88th minute after a swift counter-attack.
A Hull defeat would have given Sunderland a stay of execution and when Southampton were awarded a penalty at St Mary’s in the final minute there was a glimmer of hope for David Moyes’s team.
But Hull goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic dived low to save Dusan Tadic’s penalty in the final minute and earn the 17th-placed Tigers a vital point in their own battle against the drop.
Sunderland had some chances but top scorer Jermain Defoe was not at his sharpest and, not for the first time this season, the home supporters flooded out of the ground before the final whistle.
“My feeling at the start of the season was it was going to be a hard graft,” Moyes told BBC Radio.
“But ultimately, today I feel for the supporters. They pay their hard-earned cash to come to the stadium and we have not given them enough this season,” he said.
Middlesbrough, who play at home to Manchester City today, are in 19th place on 27 points while Swansea are on 31 and away to Manchester United, also today, and Hull are on 34.
The only other goal on a low-key day, with none of the top seven teams playing, came at the Hawthorns where Jamie Vardy struck the winner for Leicester against West Brom in the 43rd minute.
The win lifts reigning champions Leicester, who have spent much of the season facing the threat of relegation, up four places to the relative safety of 11th, nine points ahead of third-from-bottom side Swansea City, with four games to play.
Vardy netted in the 43rd minute after Shinji Okazaki snapped up a bad back pass and played him in, and the England striker slotted home his 12th league goal of the season.
Second-half substitute James Mcclean provided a much-needed injection of pace and trickery on the left for West Brom, but despite plenty of possession they could not find the back of the net, yet they remain eighth despite losing their last four league games and failing to score in five.
Stoke City and West Ham United both edged towards Premier League survival after yesterday’s action-packed 0-0 draw kept them well clear of the relegation struggle below them.
Goalkeepers at both ends shone as Stoke’s Jack Butland kept out two efforts by West Ham’s Ghana forward Andrew Ayew, notably a spectacular overhead kick in the 36th minute, while he also thwarted Manuel Lanzini.
West Ham’s Spanish shot-stopper Adrian denied Marko Arnautovic, Saido Berahino and Xherdan Shaqiri, the latter also missing Stoke’s best chance of the match when he dragged his shot wide from close range.
Stoke piled on the pressure in the closing stages as they started whipping inviting crosses into West Ham’s penalty area but the visitors held firm to stretch their unbeaten run to four games, albeit three of them draws. – Reuters