COLEMAN DREAMS DASHED BY PINTO

YOU could just about make out Sunderland’s hope disappearing into the thick Wearside mist. Through the fog there were red and white bodies strewn across the turf. Just a few minutes earlier they held a slender lead which would have taken them four points from safety with four to play. Doable, as boss Chris Coleman would say. But not now, not after Norwich captain Ivo Pinto struck at the death when the hosts failed to deal with a free-kick. Just as they were beginning to whisper of miracles and great escapes, silence descended. Sunderland’s own descent into League One could be all but confirmed by the weekend. The usually ebullient Coleman was low by the time he came to reflect. ‘It’s a naive way to concede but we’ve seen it before, not dealing with set-plays,’ he said. ‘We’re not streetwise enough. It’s two points we’ve given up, it’s a huge blow for us. We should be here saying, “Game on”, but we’re probably going to need the four wins to stay up.’ Norwich manager Daniel Farke said: ‘It was wild. I was asking myself, “How many chances do we need?”. It was unbelievable how many we missed.’ There were no excuses for missing kick-off last night, for the traffic actually thinned the closer you got to the Stadium of Light, such is the city’s dwindling interest in their team. But those who had made the effort on a miserable night were out of their seats inside 10 seconds when Ashley Fletcher burst clear but was denied by Angus Gunn. That early excitement soon faded as Norwich took control and Nelson Oliveira cracked the post with a header. Sunderland had a penalty on 40 minutes when Grant Hanley toppled Fletcher. Aiden McGeady’s effort, though, was just as clumsy as Hanley’s tackle and he struck the upright. Sunderland finally broke the deadlock on 63 minutes as George Honeyman hit home after an effort from McGeady’s rebounded to his unmarked feet. And the same was true of Pinto as he pounced on a loose ball and hammered home one minute from time.