HomeZ OLD CATEGORIESManchester Utd (NN)Sunderland 0 Manchester United 1 Match Report | O'Neill Sacked

Sunderland 0 Manchester United 1 Match Report | O’Neill Sacked

Sunderland’s season took yet another turn for the worst, as they were defeated 1-0 by Manchester United at the Stadium of Light. Titus Bramble scored an own goal after a Robin van Persie shot deflected into the net off his knee.

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The home side came into the game just four points above the relegation places, and had the unlikely job of somehow finding a winning against a United side who haven’t lost in their last 17 games, and who also haven’t conceded in their last five.

Sunderland would have considered themselves lucky to start the game as they didn’t see much of the ball for the remainder of the half. United dominated the early exchanges and after 10 minutes, it was shown that the visitors had controlled 75% of the possession. Alexander Buttner had the first real chance of the game when he turned inside Adam Johnson and Phil Bardsley, but took too many touches in the box and allowed Simon Mignolet to make the save.

More chances came for United as Sunderland really struggled to contain Shinji Kagawa. One such failure to stop the Japanese midfielder led to another chance for Buttner, when Kagawa gave the ball to Anderson who passed it through the Black Cats’ defence. However, once again Mignolet came to Sunderland’s rescue. The home side struggled to penetrate United’s defence and made as much out of a Rafael challenge on Craig Gardner as they could.

United finally took a deserved lead midway through the half. Van Persie brought the ball down on the left hand side of the box and kept it away from Phil Bardsley. He ran to the byline and put in a shot through the Scotland defender’s legs, however Bramble was unfortunately misplaced and the ball went into his own net after it struck his knee.

As the game approached half-time, United had more chances through Anderson and a Van Persie free kick but to no avail. Martin O’Neil will have perhaps considered his side fortunate to go off the pitch just one goal down.

Sunderland came out with a greater urgency in the second half and kept United under sustained pressure for the majority of it. They pushed more men forward and were unlucky to not be rewarded for their efforts.

The game had a few touches of controversy however, as both John O’Shea and Van Persie were booked for dangerous challenges. Sunderland were also denied a penalty midway through the half when Bardsley was seemingly brought down by Johnny Evans in the box. On reflection though, Bardsley fell before Evans made contact and it was the right decision by the referee.

O’Neil brought Connor Wickham on the 75th minute to add some threat to Sunderland’s forward line. It almost worked as the youngster linked up well with Danny Graham, and the former Swansea striker would have scored had me latched on to Wickham’s pass when he was one on one with David De Gea.

The home side clearly began to tire towards the end and for the last 10 minutes, United were back in full control.

Speaking after the match, Van Persie said,

[quote]We knew that it would be tough. We had to dig in but everyone fought hard and it was a well-deserved win.[/quote]

It was a deserved victory for the champions elect and means that they are now 18 points ahead of their title rivals Manchester City in the race to win the Premier League. Sunderland fans however will be anxiously waiting to see the results of Wigan’s game against Norwich, and Aston Villa’s game against Liverpool.

O’Neill Sacked in aftermath

The aftermath of the game saw Sunderland’s manager, Martin O’Neill, removed from his position as manager. Sunderland find themselves one point above the relegation zone with both Wigan and Aston Villa playing one game less. If Aston Villa were to win today Sunderland would be fourth from bottom with a resurgent Wigan right behind them.

It’s the first time since 1992-93 (inaugural  Premier League season) that two managers have been sacked in March. It’ll be interesting to see whether Sunderland bring in a stop-gap caretaker or appoint someone for the long haul. Wolverhampton Wanderers tried this approach last season and suffered the consequences when they sacked Mick McCarthy after a heavy defeat to rivals West Brom.

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