Evening all — I’m in an Uber back home so thought I’d hop on and give some brief thoughts on today’s game.
As I said to the Lads in the pub after the match when we recorded the Podcast, that felt very routine
in the end, even if the truth of it was that we had to come from a goal down to win the game against a tough opponent.
For once the pressure was on us to deliver as Palace have been a mess this week, and to be fair, we did our jobs. Aye, you can probably grumble about the way we conceded, but our response was instant and magnificent, and I thought we controlled the game from that point.
The full defence was fantastic, and what a joy it is to have Reinildo back. Noah Sadiki was stupidly good, and I thought that was the best Trai Hume has played in a while in a relatively unfamiliar position. But, special praise must be reserved for Brian Brobbey. I can’t really remember a more complete centre forward performance than that from a Sunderland striker in a very long time. He did everything you could realistically ask of him, bouncing defenders all over the place, winning every ball that came in to him, holding up the ball and capping it off with a brilliant goal to win us the game. No wonder he had cramp when he scored — he gave it everything. Considering you had Jean Phillipe Mateta on the pitch at the exact same time, you’d be forgiven for not knowing which of them was set to sign for Juventus. I know who I’d rather have in my team — you can totally see why Brobbey was being linked with huge moves 18 months ago when he was playing well for Ajax, because he’s absolutely quality and improving with every game.
Overall, we can’t not be happy with the performance and, of we are being totally honest, I think we needed that win. It’s been a little while since we last picked up three points, and it sets us up nicely going into the game next week at West Ham.
We’ve come through our toughest period of the season and with players returning and new signings coming through the door, it really does feel like the only way is up from here.
HAWAY!
