Class starting to show for Cats as McGeady and Scots star again
Plymouth 0 Sunderland 2
SIX wins in n a row and four straight clean sheets s have kept the Sunderland bandwagon rolling on.
It needed the quality of Aiden McGeady and nd the brilliant goalkeeping of Jon McLaughlin to earn the latest est victory, a 2-0 triumph against ainst a spirited Plymouth Argyle whose league form had been much improved going into the game.
Character, , though, was perhaps s the biggest factor, and the main reason on for Sunderland to be so optimistic ic that tide can turn sively after their heir back relega- a- L e a g u e
T h e r e of talking g a m e n o t h i g h e s t t h e d e c i - back-totions to One. were plenty points from a which though always of the quality, lacked little in the entertainment stakes in the south west. “THEY’VE got to be the best side in the league,” Plymouth Argyle manager Derek Adams said of Sunderland at full-time. “They should be the best side in the league.”
With 1,305 supporters making the 815-mile round trip, the Black Cats are a giant fish in the League One pond.
They have a 48,000-seater stadium, and 30,000 attendances at each home game. Less than two years ago they were a Premier League side, and while their fall has been dramatic, they have at least had parachute payments to cushion it.
Adams is dead right. If Sunderland
Peterboro Peterborough United have cracked. With Sunderland breathing heavily down their t necks, you always felt it would be a matter of time before the Posh slipped up and the Black C Cats took advantage. It was w not a classic performance manc from Sunderland on a windswept, wi rainy Saturday afternoon at the opposite end of the country. But a sixth straight win isn is something they have not achieved since Mick McCarthy led them to the Championship, and i it really does feel as th though they are in the mi midst of a season-shaping run which has more to come. Pete Peterborough’s 1-0 defeat at Wycom Wycombe means Sunderland are into the automatic promotion places. places And altho although Portsmouth’s 1-0 win at Brad Bradford City keeps them top, the Wea Wearsiders’ game in hand means they remain in range. The Black Cats are coming for them. do not have the best team in this division, something has been going badly wrong. But things have routinely been going badly wrong for years.
If football was that straight-forward, we could work out the league tables when the accounts are filed, and save fans the mammoth schlep to watch their team in the wind and rain of the South West. Thank goodness it does not work like that.
Having the resources to outmuscle the rest of a division only counts for something when you use them properly. For the first time in a long time, Sunderland have. It has allowed One down, one to go Sunderland players surround Aiden Classic McGeady
Aiden McGeady was deservedly recalled after two good performances from the bench but his first-half display showed why he is not the regular a man of his talent ought to be.
The goals he scored to win the game shows why he can never be ignored.
Sunderland were looking to switch the play to his right wing, with Chris Maguire and George Honeyman both finding the Republic of Ireland inter- them the quality at either end which can decide matches like yesterday’s, where there is little else between the teams.
Right now, the tables say Portsmouth have the third tier’s best team, but with the Black Cats’ game in hand and the ominous momentum they are building, you suspect it will tell a different tale by the end of the season.
Sunderland did not spend much in last summer’s transfer window but the true financial strength of a club comes from its wage bill, and their £14m payroll is getting on for five times the division’s average. They did not pay a fee for goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin, and already had Aiden McGeady, but the touches of brilliance they produced were why they won 2-0 against a Plymouth team who matched them for effort, but could not bridge the gap in quality.
The Black Cats have one of League One’s deadliest finishers, but Josh Maja was not himself at Home Park despite battling hard. He even took a shot when on his backside.
But with Sunderland rarely able to get in behind the Pilgrims’ backline, there were very few chances created, and Maja is not the sort of player who