Sunderland Review

This weekend saw us host North east side, Sunderland Athletic in our 5^th league game of the season. The black cats have been in reasonable form taking 3 points from 3 games, and they stole another as captain Kevin Nolan grabbed an equaliser in the dying embers of the game.

The game saw us start of poorly as another James Collins error helped the opposition to grab the opener after 9 minutes. The black cats new signing, Steven Fletcher, was the goalscorer and he has made a huge impact after his £12 million move from Wolverhapton Wanderers this summer.

Sunderland went on to have only one more shot on target as West Ham piled on the pressure, having a total of 11 shots on the Sunderland goal.

After a very acrobatic shot, Kevin Nolan looked set to celebrate, but a magical save from goalkeeper Mignolet kept the Hammers out. Nolan didnt stop there, and carried on rattling at the door, looking for his 3^rd goal of this season.

In the dying moments of the game, new signing Matt Jarvis used his lightning speed to stop the ball going out of play, he flicked the ball back into the area which caught the head of fellow new boy Modibo Maiga, who headed the ball down to Kevin Nola, who showed great balance and strength to swivel his body and get a last minute shot onto the palm of keeper Mignolet, the ball however, still made its way into the back of the net making it 1-1, sending the fans and Kevin Nolan in to ruptures.

After this unfortunate draw, in a game we easily dominated we sit 9^th in the league, and are still unbeaten at home.

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce went on to say “We had pinned them back and were waiting for the quality of finish, which came in injury time.”

The draw, which was very much undeserved for the Black Cats left manager O’Neil frusrated, as they sit one position behind rivals Newcastle, who have 1 more point.

Match Statistics:

West Ham -----------------------------------------------------Sunderland

Possesion:

61%----------------------------------------------------------------39%

Shots:

20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

On target:

11 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

Corners:

10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

Fouls:

12 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10

Bookings :

West Ham – J.Jaaskelainen (Yellow)

                     W.Reid            (Yellow)

Sunderland – C.Gardner       (Yellow)

Thank You!

Ben Edkins