I tend to veer away from giving too much lip service to who is refereeing our games during pre-match build-up. We aren’t in 2005 Serie A. This isn’t Calciopoli, where Luciano Moggi is in a back office somewhere threatening referees over the phone. I have regularly been of the belief that, despite dodgy officiating, if you play well enough, you’ll usually get a result, especially in the age of VAR.
Yet, for Tuesday’s meeting with Leeds, I did find myself having a look at who would be presiding over
the occasion at Elland Road. As long as it wasn’t Jarred Gillett, that would offer a morsel of improvement from Saturday. I never thought I’d be so thankful to see Stuart Attwell’s name listed as the man in the middle.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a game marred by refereeing controversy. I actually thought Attwell got all the big calls spot on. I would say that, mind you – a disallowed Leeds goal and a Sunderland penalty within minutes, all after last weekend – call it compensation.
With rumours circulating ahead of kick-off that Robin Roefs had sustained a knock despite Regis Le Bris’s best efforts to keep that news firmly under wraps, it spared us the surprise when the team news hit our feeds, with January signing Melker Elborg strapping up his gloves for the first time in the Sunderland goal.
Elsewhere, Nilsson Angulo and Luke O’Nien were given starting berths, with captain Granit Xhaka dropping to the bench following a very solid 77 minutes against Bournemouth last time out, while Lutsharel Geertruida completed the midfield trio of Habib Diarra and Noah Sadiki.
For the most part, the first half was a pretty drab affair. Leeds spent the majority of it loitering around our box to little avail. Our impenetrable defensive display was reminiscent of the performances we became accustomed to in the first third of the campaign, with Dan Ballard and Omar Alderete both enjoying outstanding evenings.
The only action of note was Anton Stach’s low-driven free-kick which forced a solid stop from Elborg to deny the Whites an opener with a strong right arm. Understandably, we were a little disjointed in the transition; Geertruida, who was deputising for the benched Xhaka, found himself very much adjusting to the tempo mid-game.
The second half brought an improved showing, and while Joe Rodon thought he’d broken the deadlock for the hosts with a header from a whipped Stach free-kick, the goal was quickly adjudged to have been offside.
Moments later, VAR’s exoneration arc was complete, awarding us a penalty after Ethan Ampadu was ruled to have handled the ball inside the Leeds box, leaving Diarra to step up to the spot and fire us ahead, narrowly beating Karl Darlow after the keeper got a hand to it.
While Leeds probed in the dying embers, before the officials seemingly plucked 12 minutes of stoppage time out of their arses, Sunderland stood firm to claim an invaluable win – our first at Elland Road in 20 years – and reach the targeted 40-point milestone: better known as the land of safety.
This was by no means a particularly memorable performance, but it bore all the hallmarks of what we’ve come to associate with Le Bris’s side since he joined the club: an uncompromising belief in tactical principles, commitment, unity, and an undying belief that three points is always achievable.
What struck me was when the camera panned to our French gaffer at full-time, as he embraced his coaching staff on the touchline. This was a defining image of our campaign; a celebration of a realised goal, and we’d achieved it in the “Le Bris way”, just as questions began to be raised of a man that has brought this club so much in the last 18 months.
