Sunderland – West Ham match report

The under fire Avram Grant was given no favours by his side’s performance in the north-east yesterday.

The scrutiny the Israeli is under will only increase as The Hammers remain rooted to the bottom of the Barclays Premier League. Worryingly for the London side the road to recovery seems a rocky one, with the visits of money bags Manchester City and Everton to Upton Park and away trips to Fulham and the ever difficult Blackburn Rovers all over Christmas.

Grant will be frustrated as it was just beginning to seem like West Ham were on the up following a crucial league win over Wigan and of course the midweek massacre of Man United. Sunderland on the other hand seem to have come on leaps and bounds under Steve Bruce, bouncing up to seventh in the league level on points with Bolton.

However despite the stark contrast between the two clubs on paper they are not as  dissimilar as it may appear. Consider the squads of both sides for example; both rely mainly on a specific trio of players to raise their respective scoring tally. Bent, Gyan and Wellbeck have scored a vast majority of Sunderland’s goals in the league this season while Carlton Cole,Scott Parker and Piquionne enjoy similar honours at West Ham.

It was surprising then,  the that it was not one of these three who netted the winning goal for The Black Cats at the Stadium of Light, rather it was the lesser known midfielder Jordan Henderson who fired them to victory in the 34th minute.

The goal, it can be argued, was coming. Sunderland were dominant in possession throughout the first 45, statistics telling us at one point it was 70% – 30% in their favour. The problem for the Weirsiders was converting this possession into chances. Their main threat was posed through shots from distance Kieran Richardson, who played well incidentally, blazing his uncontrolled shot over the bar from 20 yards in the 19th minute and Darren Bent barely worrying Robert Green with a slice shot from distance which was hit straight down the ‘keepers throat. West ham offered very little offensively and so the opening half hour was pretty forgettable. That old saying, goals change games, however, proved true on this occasion as following Henderson hitting the back of the net the game was open and flowed more for the remainder of the first half.

It was West Ham who showed themselves to be the better side in the second half with Carlton Cole dragging his shot marginally wide from close range. Bruce’s men started sluggishly and struggled to maintain their strangle hold on possession and thus create chances, with their only goal scoring opportunity of note being Wellbeck’s failure to capitalise on Gordon spilling the ball at his feet in 85th minute. Wellbeck looked certain to double his teams advantage but struck his shot directly at the one remaining West Ham defender to deny him sixth goal at Sunderland as a Manchester United loanee.

Referee Martin Atkinson was kept busy throughout this encounter. Boa Morte can consider himself luck not to have been sent for an early bath in the second minute as his reckless two footed challenge received only a yellow card. Discipline continued to be an issue for West Ham as Carlton Cole could have easily been given a second yellow for his deliberate handball of a promising Sunderland free kick. Cole continued to walk the proverbial disciplinary tight rope and on another day could have again saw a second yellow for continual dissent against an Atkinson decision. West Ham’s frustration was beginning to grow as the clock wore down and Scott Parker, normally a beacon of leadership, was booked for a rash challenge on Gyan as he kept the ball in the corner in the last minute of regular time.

However the game ended with 22 men still on the field of play and a 1-0 score-line to Sunderland which left Grant with a bad taste in his mouth and an even worse pain in his head as his side joined Wolves at the bottom of the Premier League pack. “It’s fair to say that we need to improve, the gap is not too big. I think we have a very good squad to stay up. We showed that in our last two games.” Despite the disappointing nature the result Grant was encouraged by his teams spirited performance. “We were better in the second half. We started the game not so good. We had chances to score so we were disappointed. We are playing away at Sunderland and we had chances in the second half. They had possession and they scored”

However Avram Grant will again be back to square one on the training ground Monday morning as a result of Henderson’s fantastic goal. Latching on to a fantastic long ball from deep Henderson, who still had a lot to do, Finished neatly to ignite the now familiar moans of the West Ham faithful.