Another outstanding win on the road for Black Cats
There were times when this felt like a masterclass in how to find a way not to win a football game.
As Neil Critchley very fairly said afterwards, between the two boxes there was for large spells very little to separate the two teams.
Critchley’s side, though, are ‘in that moment’ and every Sunderland fan will know exactly what he means by that.
The last time they had played a Championship fixture on this ground, a nothing game was settled by one bad misjudgement, one red card from nowhere.
In a forgettable game, another defeat and another step towards the drop.
QPR were in a very different moment, flying high towards the very top of the division, when the two sides met at the Stadium of Light earlier this season.
So despite being outplayed for the vast majority of the game, when their talented playmaker Ilias Chair lines up a free kick from way out with not too long to go, he of course arcs it right into the very top corner. And when they send the goalkeeper up with one last hail mary in stoppage time, he of course stoops and arcs a deft header just where no one in red-andwhite can get to it.
In this moment, though, a fairly innocuous header from Dan Ballard is fumbled by the very same goalkeeper and in the softest of circumstances, the hosts are chasing the game.
And when Chair takes a good penalty he somehow sees it hooked away by Anthony Patterson - a connection so sweet it evokes the very cleanest of volleys in Sunderland’srecentpast(Defoe against Newcastle, and of course, Vergini at Southampton spring to mind).
There hasn’t been a great deal wrong with this QPR performance but in the closing moments there are yellow cards for kicking the ball away, yellow cards for breaking up counter after counter.
They are defeated in every sense just now and Sunderland, having done the hard
yards, are purring.
It’s party time in the away end, now. It’s a third trip to London in as many weeks and yet another stand behind the goal is packed to the rafters.
Each and every time you wonder when this season might begin to lose a little bit of steam, when the realities of taking such a thin and inexperienced squad into such a competitive division and when the obvious impact of so many injuries to such key players will begin to show itself in performances and results, Mowbray’s side dig deep and find something else.
Yes the first goal comes from a goalkeeping error, but the corner is forced by another wonderful piece of interplay around the box, an audacious Abdoullah Ba backheel allowing Patrick Roberts to get the shot away.
Yes the penalty save is a crucial moment in the game, but with such an impressive young goalkeeper there comes a point where this is skill as well as luck.
And there is truly nothing
fortunate about the second and third goals, incisive breaks finished expertly.
The point here is that Sunderland have a stable defensive base and attacking players as good as just about any side in the division. ‘We’re doing OK’, has become Mowbray’s understated mantra.
The delirium in that away end tells you that they’re going a fair bit better than that.
The biggest positive both for Mowbray and Sunderland moving forward was that he had been able to get some valuable rest for key players, and still come away with three points in the bag.
When the game kicked off his side were lined up in a very unfamiliar 4-4-2 shape. Part of this was designed specifically for QPR, with Mowbray reasoning that while their defence are impressive in possession, they lack some mobility and with two strikers up front, that can leave them exposed on the break.
It was also partly because Mowbray needed to rotate, with his small squad in the midst of a punishing schedule.
It made for some unusual combinations, Abdoullah Ba on the left wing and Alex Pritchard joining Luke O’Nien in a midfield two.
There were times when it did work, the nervousness in the home side often leading to slack passes from the back and when that happened, Sunderland were suddenly superbly placed.
Deploying Ba out wide worked well because his defensive responsibilities were less, and when he drifted infield to join in with the play it was difficult for QPR to get near him.
Yet by Mowbray’s own admission, there were spells early on when the lack of fluidity was telling.
Sunderland undoubtedly got stronger when they ended the game in a more familiar shape and with more familiar combinations, and this rotation should strengthen Mowbray’s hand for the games ahead.
It was put to Mowbray at the start of his post-match press conference that this had been a comfortable win.
That was quickly rejected, though by the final ten minutes, it was fair to say Sunderland’s joyful combination play made for a far more relaxing time in the dugout.
Mowbray again was keen to play down any talk of the top six, reflecting on the challenges his side had faced in this game and the ones they would face in the weeks ahead given how threadbare they are in some key positions.
He knows that talk will grow regardless. Sunderland have been exceptional since the World Cup break, and with fifteen games to go there is no getting past the fact that they are right in the mix.
Yet as the boss rang out round the ground as Clarke thumped home the third, the thought did cross your mind that maybe it’s best not to worry about that too much, at least not just now.
This tension, this frustration in the home end will be back one day.
These moments don’t come around too often and they are to be relished. A freehit season to savour.