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The game was played after non-stop rain over the past 24 hours but due to the excellent work at the 'Stadium Of Light' the pitch was in perfect condition with few signs of any water on it.
Within the first five minutes of the match both Rivers and Ashton went close to giving Crewe the surprised lead. Rivers had a shot from 12 yards cannoning back off a defender whilst Dean Ashton was set free on goal, by Rivers, only to hit his shot straight at the keeper.
It was something that was going to be regretted, Deano's head seemed to drop and Sunderland started to impose themselves on the game before resuming control. It refused to end as the loud bunch of Sunderland fans roared their team on as an unenthusiastic Crewe were failing miserably in soaking up the pressure.
Eventually, on the 10th minute, Sunderland got the goal that was waiting. From a corner the ball was cleared to Carl Robinson a good 25 yards out for him to just hit it through a crowd of players and into the bottom left corner. Ben Williams seemed to have got a touch - but the view for away fans was awful.
Crewe heads soon dropped and Sunderland enjoyed time and space on the ball without any real challenge from Crewe, and even when we did get the ball it always seemed to be hoofing it over to Dean Ashton or Mark Rivers - who had notched up seven off-sides by half time.
From Sunderland it was more attacking play than threatening play from Crewe's point of view. Chances to test Ben Williams were few and far between with the back four mostly, unconvincingly defusing attacks. Sunderland were comfortable, maybe a little too comfortable.
On the 42nd minute neat play saw Ashton turn his marker a break free on goal. He went off to his right before knocking it down across the face of the goal where Mark Rivers was sliding in at the far post to slot under Thomas Myhre. I have to say I've not seen such relief from a Crewe player in celebrations for a long time.
For the last few minutes of the first half we actually looked the better team but that wasn't to last long, as seen as we are Crewe.
The whole of the second half was Sunderland. We didn't look up to even trying to stop them, we just delayed them. They were huffing and puffing with Kevin Kyle and Marcus Stewart up front, accompanied by two tricky wingers Liam Lawrence and John Oster.
Oster gave Billy a terrible game. Some poor defending from Billy regularly aloud Oster in behind him. Walker had his usual terrible showing of how not to defend, Foster was shaky but kept his nerve whilst Tonkin was, well, average.
So on the 67th minute, after Sunderland flashed the ball across the Crewe goal countless times, the ball finally sneaked in. It was rather like Rivers goal with Kyle to cross for Stewart to tap in.
By this time our attacking was dire. Vaughan was our most creative player with his little runs and having 6ft 3in players bouncing off his 5ft 11in frame. Any long balls were lost as Ashton was out done by Sunderland defenders in the heading department and Rivers, well, he can't head. The service to the front was actually rubbish. The midfield sat deep, Cochrane and Sorvel blended into the defence, Vaughan seemed to be playing as a left sided sweeper whilst Lunt was stood in the premiership getting the sh*t kicked out of him.
Cochrane though was back on form. He never stopped working to close Sunderland down, his work rate beat the 9 other outfield players put together - and I'm not even saying the others didn't try. For me he was our man of the match.
Anyway, after Sunderland's second goal Dario got Higdon and Jones on for Tonkin and Rivers. Frankly it was 10 minutes too late. We were trying to counter attack but there was no pace to use, Steve Jones was the answer at half time in fact.
We created a few more chances in the 4-3-3 formation with Higdon offering more height and Jones offering his usual. Lunt actually scored from a 35 yard free kick but an apparent push in the box meant it was disallowed. That may have been our only shot on target in the second half.... and it wasn't even a proper one.
The game didn't really get much more interesting for us, Sunderland held us well and with just 2 minutes left they allowed half the Crewe support to leave early when Neil Sorvel fucked up.
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you - Neil Sorvel really did mess it up. Stephen Elliott was holding a rather useless ball on the half way line and right next to the dugouts. He was breaking but Crewe were getting back before Sunderland players. That was until Sorvel went sliding in, gave away a throw in, ignored Elliott who went pelting to wards goal whilst the throw in was sent in his direction.
Our defence were still trying to get back but it was too late as Elliott teased Williams a bit before rolling it over the line. To say Ben looked angry would be the understatement of the century.
That was that. We were out classed after letting heads drop. The defining moment on the game was probably Ashton missing his glorious chance early on; that woke Sunderland up and let our main attacking force lose confidence. Ashton just didn't seem to have that va va voom after it.
Can we blame the team at all? Well, I blame Sorvel and Walker because I don't think they should even be in the squad, never mind the team. That was all. Out done by a team with better players. Player ratings;
Ben Williams: 6 - A bit like Saturday. Not at fault for the goals and did his part fine.
Anthony Tonkin: 6 - No real complaints, was one of our better players.
Stephen Foster: 5 - Looked rather shakey to me. One or two times got himself under pressure without real need. Generally ok.
Richard Walker: 5 - Kevin Kyle got the better of him. Says it all. Distribution is terrible.
Billy Jones: 4 - One of his bad games. Was taken apart bit by bit in the second half by John Oster. Looked like Rob Lloyd was going to replace him for a while, till Lloyd sat back on the bench again.
Kenny Lunt: 6 - Had that creative spark in him but didn't get forward enough and never made the perfect final ball.
Neil Sorvel: 4 - He's not a 'Championship' player. Simple as. A dreadful set of poor passing and awful judgement.
Justin Cochrane: 7 - The smallest thorn in the Sunderland side we could offer. Was everywhere on the pitch and seemed to just generally annoy Sunderland without taking control of the midfield like he needs to.
David Vaughan: 7 - Caused Sunderland problems and really got to them. In fact, he took the pee out of them at times but he needs to show more, and I feel he will as the season goes on.
Dean Ashton: 6 - Was in and out of the game. When he had space he gave Sunderland problems but he didn't put himself about enough.
Mark Rivers: 6 - Getting better slowly, his goal will get him going. I think giving him time will pay off, but once some 'fans' get an idea into their head that a player/manager is poor they're hard to convince otherwise because they're always right, you're always wrong. Ah well. Still offside ALOT which he needs to work on, and has done for the past 10 years.