In a game that was full of drama, badly timed tackles and bizarre goals, Mick McCarthy’s Sunderland were ramping up their promotion push with a 2–0 win over fellow promotion rivals West Ham United at the Stadium of Light.
Goals from Kevin Kyle and Jeff Whitley in a fifteen-minute spell midway through the second half ensured that we got the three points against Alan Pardew’s team.
However, if Pardew felt a little hard done by the defeat, it could be understood given some of the events of the first half
in this game.
Early on Sunderland goalkeeper Mart Poom saved well from Bobby Zamora’s header and a 20-yard drive from Marlon Harewood to keep the game level and just after this, West Ham’s misery increased when Matthew Etherington suffered a suspected broken leg after 17 minutes.
In what VAR would have certainly overturned now, Steven Wright’s high-flying challenge on Etherington inexplicably did not even warrant a yellow card from referee Richard Beeby. On first glance, the challenge looked completely overzealous and with the West Ham winger appearing to be in absolute agony, it is safe to say that McCarthy’s men got away with one.
The fortune appeared to be with us on this particular occasion and the goals came through Kyle diverting home a free-kick from close range on the hour with Whitley then cashing in on Christian Dailly’s error to score the second 16 minutes later.
Again, if VAR was in use for this game, it certainly is likely that Whitley’s goal would have been checked given the force in which he slide-tackled Dailly to score the goal in a challenge that looked like a typical ‘man and ball’ tackle.
Whitley expressed his delight with the win after the game and stated that the previous few days saw him experience the highs and lows of football after being suspended for our upcoming FA Cup semi-final after another horrid tackle in the previous game against Preston North End!
“Wednesday was the low point of my career, but scoring here is the high point.
“It’s a nice end to a tough week. I had to get that Preston game out of my system and it’s great to get my first goal. When was my last goal? I’m not too sure. I’d run a long way for this one and I wasn’t going to stop.”
“It’s very disappointing for me to miss the semi-final. It was only after the game the other night that I found out.
This certainly was a big win for us and it appeared to commence a run of good form in the league with the team going the next seven games unbeaten, with six of them being victories.
