Game over: Chris Samba hauls down Danny WelbeckSunderland’s appalling away record continued last night despite the most promising fact that, for 45 minutes, Steve Bruce’s side were faced with 10 men.
They have won only twice away from Wearside in their past 33 attempts stretching back 14 months. It is a miserable statistic for a club with ambition.
So when Chris Samba was dismissed in first-half injury time by referee Lee Probert, the travelling thousands sensed a rare away breakthrough was imminent.
Sunderland, after all, had been the better side in the first half against 11 men and only a combination of wasteful finishing and a smart Paul Robinson save from Darren Bent kept Blackburn level.
But against 10 men Sunderland got worse and Rovers got better.
Bruce sent on £13million club record signing Asamoah Gyan midway through the second half but his one opportunity, a curling shot, was also stopped by Robinson. The former England goalkeeper symbolised Rovers’ defiance.
Blackburn deserved their point and the watching Kenny Dalglish will have noted the familiar attitude that the Lancastrians will take with them to Anfield on Saturday.
Samba will not be on Merseyside but his manager Sam Allardyce accepted referee Probert’s decision.
‘I’ve no complaints,’ said Allardyce. ‘We’ll miss Chris for Anfield. He is very down, but it happens.’
Marching orders: Lee Probert sends Samba offIt was typical of Sunderland’s sprightly first-half efforts that Welbeck should chase down the dawdling Samba, harass him off the ball and then get the wrong side of the normally assured big defender.
Samba’s half-tug, half-foul on Welbeck came in the ‘D’ outside Rovers’ box. Welbeck fell in the area but the linesman flagged for the original foul and as the last man, Samba was shown a straight red card.
‘Chris got himself in a muddle but he pulled the fella down,’ added Allardyce. ‘He should have just cleared it. We had one team talk in mind, lo and behold that went out the window because Chris got sent off. But we feel like it’s almost a win going 45 or 48 minutes limiting the opposition to half-chances. And we caused a few problems at the other end.’
Bruce lamented once again Sunderland’s over-reliance on Bent for goals. ‘I think I said last week that it was our achilles heel,’ he noted.
‘I knew after the sending-off they would sit back, they were arguably better with 10 men. But we still created enough.’
The one to watch: Jordan Henderson (right) tussles with Steven Nzonzi
Along with Dalglish, Sir Alex Ferguson was present and as with Fabio Capello’s representative Stuart Pearce, Sunderland’s energetic midfielder Jordan Henderson was probably the reason. Like Sunderland as a whole, Henderson was good before Samba’s red card, average after it.There were others in red and white stripes more culpable.
In the first 25 minutes alone Sunderland wasted three good openings, Lee Cattermole choosing to dive when in the Blackburn area, then Ahmed Al-Muhammadi seeming to panic when released by Henderson on the right.
Then Gael Givet slipped at just the wrong moment for Allardyce’s liking, when challenging Bent as the hosts’ last man.
Bent was suddenly free and closing in on goal with only Robinson to beat. But he advertised his shot with his body shape and the goalkeeper parried.
Robinson’s opposite number Simon Mignolet had to work to tip over a couple of free-kicks from Morten Gamst Pedersen and in the second half there was a scramble in front of Mignolet when the ball could easily have gone in.
It was a game neither side deserved to win.
source :dailymail
