O’nien rises to a new challenge but others were left exposed
Portsmouth 3 Sunderland 1
SUNDERLAND came out the losers from their biggest game of the season so far, beaten 3-1 by League One leaders Portsmouth in a frenetic game which reflected the noisy atmosphere on the terraces.
The Black Cats gave as good as they got for the first half until a Glenn Loovens foul tipped the whole balance of the game in Portsmouth’s favour and Kenny Jackett’s men ruthlessly exposed their uncertainties.
The defeat extends Pompey’s lead over Sunderland to eight points, and means that even winning their games in hand against Blackpool and Accrington Stanley will not be enough to overhaul them (although the sides are still to meet at the Stadium of Light).
There was no shortage of talking points, and some sobering lessons to be learnt from what was only the Wearsiders’ fourth defeat of the season, and their second in the league.
Jack Ross’ tactical plan has to be ripped up
Handed his first league start of the season as he recovers from two cruciate knee ligament injuries, Duncan Watmore’s pace was a real feature of his time on the field. The forward had the beating of all Pompey’s defenders without always having the end product to make the most of it.
Sunderland struggled to make good use of it.
Playing at the head of a 4-1-4-1 formation, Watmore was particularly enthusiastic about mining the insideleft channel but in peeling off there, he stretched the Portsmouth back four, but left a gap down the middle where the centre-forward ought to be. As the first half went on, Ross decided to move Lynden Gooch inside to fill it.
The switch almost reaped dividends just before half-time, with Watmore robbing Nathan Thompson, getting to the line and pulling the ball for the American, whose shot allowed Craig Macgillivray to get across his goal and save with his legs.
With Gooch at centre-forward and Aiden Mcgeady in the middle too, the players you would expect to be wingers were down the middle, with natural central midfielders Max Power and George Honeyman providing the width.
All that had to be abandoned once Loovens was sent off a couple of minutes into the second half, and Portsmouth exploited how ragged Sunderland (unsurprisingly) became as they took risks to go chasing an equaliser.
Sunderland’s stand-ins are exposed
The Black Cats coped without Tom Flanagan at home to Bristol THE big games are decided on fine margins, and Sunderland’s final away match of 2018 hung on a red card and a sending-off that never was.
There had been nothing to chose between the Black Cats and League One leaders Portsmouth in the first half.
Neither side could claim to have dominated an opening 45 minutes of so few chances, but the best had perhaps fallen to Lynden Gooch, who tried to send Duncan Watmore’s cross back from where it had come from as all good centre-forward’s should, but in doing so, Rover, even if his deputy, Loovens, looked a bit rusty on his first league start since September.
The Dutchman looked ill at ease again, and that tipped the balance after what had been an even first half of very few chances at either end.
Portsmouth played a ball in behind the Black Cats’ back four and Oli Hawkins was fastest to it, leaving Loovens trailing his man. The defender tried to tackle from the wrong side, conceded a penalty and was sent off for his troubles. It totally changed the delicate balance of the game, particularly when Gareth Evans smashed a penalty which gave Jon Mclaughlin no chance.
Loovens’ replacement Alim Ozturk had not yet had chance to get warm when Ronan Curtis headed down the inside-left channel, and with the Turk unable to get close enough to him, he was able to find the net from a tight angle. Sunderland looked rattled defensively throughout the second half, unable to trust Ozturk and discomforted by the pace and attacking thrust of the home side.
It was a good advert for Ross to dip into the transfer market for another centre-back in January and even before Saturday, it was likely to be top of his
shopping list. allowed Craig Macgillivray to get back across his goal and save with his legs.
Pompey could also make a case for being the better team at halftime, having had more of the ball in Sunderland’s final third.
But once the game went from 11 v 11 to 11 v 10, there was no dispute. The balance tipped decisively.
The second half was only a couple of minutes old when the ball was played in behind the Black Cats’ back four.
At 35 years old, Glenn Loovens is never the fastest of central defenders, even more so having only made
Attacking Issues In your big games, you want your big players,
Sunderland chose to do without their 13-goal top-scorer Josh Maja, asking Watmore to lead the line instead. The teenager never came off the bench, with goal-shy Jerome Sinclair preferred as the final substitute with the Black Cats 3-1 down going into the final ten minutes a man short.
Chris Maguire was used as a substitute, but the fact he was again limited to a cameo (32 minutes here) suggests the Scot is still not fully over the whack he took to the ribs in the dramatic league game at Walsall.
To be going into the busy Festive period with two key attacking players struggling with injury is not ideal if that is the case. Charlie Wyke could be involved on Boxing Day but like Watmore, he will need time to scrape off the rust after a bad knee injury.
Luke O’nien showing a new string to his bow
Earlier in the week, Luke O’nien was joking about how he fibbed to Sunderland’s coaching staff about having played right-back before to get a game in the FA Cup replay against Walsall.
You would not have known from his performance that day that O’nien was a complete novice, but trusting him to play in this high-octane, top-of-thetable clash at Fratton Park was another matter altogether, and he rose to the occasion.
O’nein showed good positional sense to sweep up behind his centrebacks, and made an excellent interception when Lee Cattermole overcommitted and left his team vulnerable his first league start since September the previous weekend. He found himself looking at the heels of Oli Hawkins, the wrong side to make a tackle, but tried anyway.
The result was a penalty smashed into the net by Gareth Evans. And a red card. Until last season, that was pretty clear-cut. Loovens was the last man and if that was not a goalscoring opportunity, Hawkins would not be playing centre-forward for the team top of the league.
The rule has been tweaked to cut out the “double jeopardy” of a red card and a penalty for a player who makes a foul by accident (it is actually a triple punishment, because Loovens will now be suspended for the Boxing Day visit of Bradford City too), and that was the defence Jack Ross fell back on after the game, describing the challenge as a “coming together”.
At first sight, it looked like the Dutchman was bang to rights, and one sight was all the referee got.
Portsmouth were ruthless in exploiting their one-man advantage, and if Loovens looked a bit rusty, it was nothing compared to his replacement, Alim Ozturk.
The Turkish centre-back has rare-