Baggies Bag the Black Cats

An unstoppable Belgian, a fortunate ricochet goal and a centre half who caused one mistake too many, we had it all in this match and I am going to sum it all up for you.

 

Coming into the match I knew Sunderland would struggle to get any points at The Hawthorn’s, which I was right in thinking but believe me the black cats did not go down easily, early in the match it was Sunderland doing most of the attacking which was nice for a change, we tested the baggies with a series of dangerous corners which gave Sunderland some hope, and it was only an added bonus that the ref was giving us a fair few decisions early in the game.

But then West Brom started to get into the stride that they had at the beginning of the season which saw them reach the top five in the premier league earlier in the season, but again the black cats continued to press which resulted in a left footed from Steven Fletcher outside the box hit the post, but again quickly West Brom gained control and took the ball down the opposite end which saw James Morrison whipping in a very dangerous cross which resulted in a goal kick. Shortly after that we may have witnessed one of the misses of the season in which we saw a Liam Ridgewell cross to Mulumbu who just needed to hit the target from 6 yards out and that would have been a goal but it was not be and it carried on 0-0.

Some more drama took place when a through ball to Lukaku which resulted in a goal got called back as the whistle had already blown for a free kick just outside the box which resulted in nothing at all for the baggies. The drama in this match continued to roll when a cross from Liam Ridgewell hit the hand of Craig Gardner inside the box which resulted in a penalty for West Brom, Lukaku converted the penalty straight down the middle 1-0 to the baggies. That goal lit a fuse in Lukaku which then saw him covering a lot of ground a causing Sunderland a lot of problems. Down the other end of the pitch Sunderland were unlucky not to get a penalty themselves when an Adam Johnson shot hit the right arm of McCauley but fortunate for West Brom the ref did not see it and gave the corner instead, the second half ended with West Brom destroying Sunderland in possession 72% - 28%.

The second half kicked off similar to the first half with Sunderland pressing hard against the West Brom defence, which included another troubling corner which resulted with a well placed Mulumbu clearing the ball, but sadly there was no stopping Lukaku during the game who was causing the Sunderland defence problems throughout the match, West Brom again quickly burned out Sunderland fire with a series of troubling corners, soon after that disaster struck in the shape of a very fortunate Belgian, when an incredibly short back pass from Titus Bramble saw Lukaku chase the ball down from one side and Simon Mingolet try to meet the ball from the other side which was a test of pace which in the end saw the ball ricochet of Lukaku’s leg and into the net there was nothing his fellow Belgian keeper could do 2-0.

Shortly after that though Sessegnon put the black cats back in the game with a right footed shot from the left side of the box sail into the top right corner of the net, this left Sunderland with 11 minutes to save their skins and rescue a point from this match, but smartly West Brom started to play possession football which saw a series of passes cause the Black Cats some problems, another amateur mistake from Titus Bramble nearly resulted in West Brom stretching their lead when a poorly cleared ball from Bramble when straight to Morrison and his left footed shot swerved wide.

Shortly after that Sunderland realised that they may be able to get something out of the match and a left footed shot from Vaughan almost put Sunderland level but the resilient Ben Foster was not giving in and rescued his side, again though Sunderland began to press and Sessegnon applied the pressure down the right wing which saw him dribble the ball inside the box which resulted in him beating one man but at the cost of him dribbling the ball out of play which would later turn out to be costly for the Black Cats, but again the Black Cats would not give up and they had time for one more attack and a cross from James Mclean which reached the head of Titus Bramble who was trying to make up for his earlier mistake headed back down to Mclean who tried to left footed half volley which saw Sunderland’s last attempt sail over the bar, the match ended with the baggies taking home all 3 points from a very intriguing match.           

Jack Toward (@Toward18)