There appeared to be a bit of a play-off hangover in this Sunderland side after the semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace the previous May. Mick McCarthy’s side had commenced the season with an extremely disappointing 2 – 0 defeat to Coventry City, and whilst this was followed up with a win against Crewe Alexandra, the performance wasn’t spectacular. We would soon find out that Crewe would be struggling for survival as the season went on.
On this day in 2004, Ian Holloway’s QPR arrived at the Stadium
of Light without a win thus far but with some extremely decent players at their disposal, such as Martin Rowlands, Paul Gallen, and Gareth Ainsworth. Holloway’s players had a fast start, catching the home side napping and taking the lead with just over ten minutes gone. After picking up the ball around the halfway line, Paul Furlong went on a mazy run that took him past three Sunderland players, who didn’t cover themselves in glory, before letting rip past goalkeeper Thomas Myhre.
The quality of the goal was one thing, but the ease with which he was permitted to glide up the pitch, basically unopposed except for a little ‘shepherding’ from the Sunderland defence, was sure to frustrate Mick McCarthy.
Thankfully for the Irishman, his team responded with their first shot of the game after John Oster hit a long-range pass right to the feet of striker Marcus Stewart, whose first touch gave him a bit of space before placing it past Chris Day in the QPR goal.
The fact that this was the team’s first shot summarised how the half was going and how the team were playing like a side who hadn’t recovered from the major setback at the end of the previous season.
Republic of Ireland international Rowlands was having a great game for the away side. His mazy runs and dribbles were causing Stephen Wright all sorts of bother, and it was his run against the run of play in the second half that gave QPR the lead once again. After cutting in from the left, Rowlands let off a superb strike that nestled in the net, though one could be forgiven for thinking Myhre in the Sunderland goal could have done better.
From this point onwards, Sunderland were in trouble, and the Stadium of Light was experiencing the familiar sinking feeling, with memories of the 19-point Premier League season barely out of their memory.
Liam Lawrence’s attempt at a cross almost ended up in the net after it took a wicked deflection that was going in unless Day in the QPR goal got a hand to it. McCarthy brought on Seán Thornton along with Stephen Elliott in the hope of salvaging a goal, but QPR’s defence was holding firm.
This was until a deep corner from the aforementioned Thornton found defender Steven Caldwell, and his header could only be parried into the net by the QPR goalkeeper to salvage a draw for the team. The scenes when the goal went in showed a team that was unified, as they all celebrated together, but McCarthy certainly needed things to click quicker, as his team looked quite disjointed at times.
After the game, the manager felt a draw was the least they deserved but also paid tribute to QPR, who he felt played a good game.
“Rangers scored two fantastic goals, and you sometimes have to give credit to the opposition. But I felt we could have defended better.
“It would have been an injustice if we had not got something, but sometimes it does happen.
“I always felt we were going to have the lion’s share of possession, and that’s what we did.”
