Sunderland 1 Blackburn Rovers 2
1 October 2007
Like Roy Keane, Mark Hughes is a man who knows what he wants and will do whatever it takes to achieve these targets. Unhappy with recent performances he left out several "regulars" and was proved right by a much improved performance.
Sunderland will be disappointed with the outcome because both goals were the results of mistakes at the back and their goal came just too late in the day to give them the chance of sneaking a point.
The first half was mediocre at best with highlights few and far between but at 0-0 it could still go either way.
However, after the break, the game livened up, but it took some dreadful defending to gift the visitors not one, but two goals. Sloppy defending all round resulted in the talented Bentley being left in the clear to smash the ball home and then the unfortunate Higginbotham dropped another clanger and Emerton nodded across gopal for Santa Cruz to add to his season's tally. As always, you can never question the fighting instincts of the Wearsiders and the hard-working Leadbitter very neatly side-footed home from the edge of the box but it was just too late to give enough time to maybe snatch an equaliser.
Games against teams such as Blackburn will never be easy and I really feel that they are a side who have not been given the credit they deserve. Talking of games that are never going to be easy. It is off to Arsenal next week and that will be a test and a half!
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