Black Cats fail to deliver

WHAT’S the similarity between Sunderland’s players and Britain’s postmen? On about one day out of every three at the moment, they fail to deliver.

To Stoke and Burnley, venues where the Black Cats have already served up a distinctly second-class service, you can now add the name of Birmingham City.

It is all very well performing heroics against Manchester United and Liverpool, but if Sunderland are to achieve their stated ambition of joining the middle rank of Premier League clubs this season, they are going to have to start beating the sides who are likely to finish below them.

“It’s there for everybody to see,” said a downbeat Steve Bruce, whose warm reception from the home fans was ruined as goals from Liam Ridgewell and James McFadden prevented the Black Cats from breaking into the top four.

“Against Burnley, Stoke and now Birmingham, we haven’t taken anything. It’s those three games in particular where we haven’t got anywhere near the standards that we’ve set.

“When we’re good, we’re very good. But then all of a sudden we throw in an hour like we did here. It was the same with the second half performance at Burnley and at Stoke. Out of ten games, that’s three against the socalled lesser sides where we’ve under-performed. It’s a massive disappointment.”

With matches against West Ham, Wigan, Fulham and Portsmouth to come before Christmas, Bruce’s challenge is to remedy the problem before it inflicts further damage on Sunderland’s Premier League position.

With major changes both on and off the field during the summer, a certain degree of inconsistency was always going to be apparent in the first half of the season.

But having identified Sunderland’s ‘soft centre’ as a major weakness when arriving at the Stadium of Light, the fear is that Bruce’s repair work has not been sufficient to eliminate the issue.

Just as they had failed to impose themselves at Turf Moor and the Britannia Stadium, so Sunderland’s players provided limp resistance at St Andrew’s.

Their tackling and closing down was lethargic, particularly during the first half, and their passing was ragged and rushed throughout. As a result, Birmingham’s midfielders dictated the tempo and momentum of the match, and the hosts were already two goals to the good by the time Sunderland finally awoke from their slumber late on.

“You can’t wait for an hour and then turn up,” said Bruce.

“I’ll analyse it, but maybe we need a different approach away from home in terms of personnel and formation.”

It certainly looked that way for the opening hour, with Sunderland badly missing the drive and energy of the injured Lee Cattermole. The England Under-21 international will be out of action until Christmas and, in his absence, Bruce is going to have to discover a way of solidifying a midfield that lacked bite.

Jordan Henderson is not a ball winner in the mould of Cattermole, and with Bolo Zenden and Kieran Richardson hardly mirroring the former Middlesbrough midfielder either, there must be an argument for playing a 4-5-1 formation on the road.

That would nullify some of Sunderland’s attacking threat, but the dearth of opportunities in the opening 80 minutes of Saturday’s game hardly made a compelling case for keeping Kenywne Jones and Darren Bent together when the Wearsiders visit Tottenham in two weeks.

“Five in midfield is an option,”

said Bruce. “Although I think the threat of the front two has been a big part of our team.” At times, undoubtedly.

At Stoke and Birmingham, rather less so.

It would be wrong to point the finger at the front two, however, as it is hard to think of a single Sunderland player who played to their potential at the weekend.

Lorik Cana, so impressive against Liverpool, was anonymous.

Andy Reid, a revelation in recent weeks, was spraying misplaced passes here, there and everywhere. And Darren Bent, so deadly so far this season, spurned an undeserved opportunity to salvage a point in the 89th minute.

Mediocrity was rife, and the biggest surprise of a one-sided first half was that it took Birmingham 37 minutes to make a breakthrough.

Sebastien Larsson drilled a low free-kick from the left, and after Cameron Jerome missed the ball, Ridgewell flicked it past Craig Gordon from inside the six-yard box.

It could have been handball, and the defender could have been offside. Either way, it was hardly undeserved.

“We think it was offside,”

said Bruce. “But we can’t use that to mask over the first hour in particular, which was poor.”

Trailing at the interval, Sunderland fell further behind three minutes after the break when McFadden received a short pass from Christian Benitez, turned inside Phil Bardsley and curled a low shot into the corner.

That looked like being that, but after offering little in the opening 80 minutes, Sunderland suddenly stirred themselves at the death.

Scott Dann’s own goal provided a lifeline – the Birmingham defender hooked Michael Turner’s header into his own net as it appeared to be heading past the post – and Bent came within an inch of stealing a draw.

Reid delivered a teasing centre, and after pulling away to the back post, the leading scorer shaved the outside of the upright with a volley that flew across the goalmouth.

Match facts

Goals:

1-0: Ridgewell (37mins, deflected home Larsson’s low free-kick from inside six-yard box)

2-0: McFadden (48mins, received Jerome’s lay-off, turned inside Bardsley and curled low shot into corner)

2-1: Dann (82mins, own goal, hooked Turner’s header into his own net as he tried to clear)

Bookings: Johnson (24mins, foul), Ferguson (81, foul), McSheffrey (90, foul), Gordon (90, handling outside area)

Referee: Martin Atkinson (Halifax) - Could have sent Gordon off late on, but opted for the sensible option of a yellow card 7

Attendance: 21,723

Entertainment: ✰✰✰

BIRMINGHAM (4-4-2):

Hart 5; Carr 7, Johnson 6, Dann 7, Ridgewell 6; Larsson 6, Bowyer 6, Ferguson 6, McFadden 8 (O’Connor 76mins); BENITEZ 8, Jerome 6 (McSheffrey 76mins). Subs (not used): Taylor (gk), Parnaby, Queudrue, Carsley, Phillips.

SUNDERLAND (4-4-2):

5 Gordon: Wasn’t to blame for either goal, but appeared to handle late on and could have been dismissed

5 Bardsley: Will feel he might have done better when McFadden turned inside him for the hosts’ second goal

6 Turner: Defended fairly well and confirmed his attacking threat with the header that led to Dann’s own goal

5 Ferdinand: No lapses of concentration, but struggled to deal with Benitez’s movement and pace

6 Richardson: Made a couple of excellent last-ditch tackles, and livened things up when switched to midfield

4 Malbranque: Infuriatingly anonymous – for every impressive display, the Frenchman produces one like this

5 Cana: Never got on top of things and was a shadow of the player who played against Liverpool

5 Henderson: Struggled to get into the game and is not a like-for-like replacement for Cattermole

6 REID: Plenty of his balls failed to come off, but at least he was trying to drive Sunderland forward

4 Jones: Failed to get anything out of the home defence and never looked like scoring

5 Bent: Not one of his better days, but still came within inches of grabbing a dramatic late leveller

Subs:

Campbell (for Malbranque, 68mins): Sprightly when introduced, but headed over from a good position late on 6

McCartney (for Henderson, 68mins): Slotted in effectively at leftback and may start there tomorrow 5

Zenden (for Cana, 68mins): Looked comfortable late on and could make his first start against Aston Villa (not used): Fulop (gk), Nosworthy, Da Silva, Healy.

MAN OF THE MATCH

CHRISTIAN Benitez – the Ecuador international looks a lively addition to the Premier League’s battalion of overseas attackers.