Premier League - Sunderland thrash sorry Stoke

Sun, 18 Sep 16:57:00 2011

Sunderland stunned a sluggish Stoke City to claim a convincingly 4-0 win in their Premier League encounter at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland 4 Stoke 0

Titus Bramble put the Black Cats in front as early as the fifth minute courtesy of a dismal mistake from Asmir Begovic, before a headed own goal from Jonathan Woodgate saw the hosts swiftly double their lead.

Stoke's misery was compounded as a low drive from Craig Gardner took a vicious deflection to loop over the hapless Begovic, and a fourth followed with Sebastian Larsson lashing home a stunning free-kick as the underfire Steve Bruce was left to celebrate a comprehensive victory.

The visitors looked lethargic early on as Sunderland dominated the possession from kick off, and Bramble netted the opener as early as the fifth minute after Begovic inexplicably failed to grasp his seemingly innocuous effort.

Ryan Shawcross had to pull off a last-ditch challenge to thwart the dangerous Stephane Sessegnon as Sunderland continued to pile on the pressure, and the Black Cats proceeded to double their lead in the 11th minute.

An exquisite deep cross from Larsson caused havoc in the Stoke box, and Woodgate beat Nicklas Bendtner to the ball, inadvertently heading past his own keeper Begovic to gift the hosts a two-goal lead.

Stoke very nearly hit back within six minutes as Matthew Etherington executed a majestic free kick which beat the Sunderland wall and forced Simon Mignolet into making a fine diving save to his left to parry the ball wide.

But Sunderland were undeterred by the fleeting pressure on their goal and a fierce drive from Gardner on the edge of the Stoke box took a vicious deflection off Shawcross and looped over Begovic to give the hosts a three-goal advantage.

Stoke came out after the break determined to arrest their slump and the visitors enjoyed a sustained spell of possession without being able to make a concerted assault on the Sunderland goal.

The Black Cats refused to be dictated to, and Larsson capped a distinguished performance with an exquisite curled free kick round into the far corner of the net, with Begovic beaten on his side of the goal with the Stoke wall left helpless on the hour mark.

Begovic sought to make amends for his earlier blunder, and he made a very fine sprawling save down low to his left to deny the excellent Sessegnon, whose rasping drive appeared destined for the bottom corner of the net.

It was a case of damage limitation late on for Stoke as Pulis swiftly made his full allocation of substitutions and looked to simply shore up his side defensively in the final stages.

Sunderland closed out a clinical and ruthlessly efficient victory with a clean sheet the bonus Bruce was looking for as his side helped alleviate some of the pressure on his shoulders with the three points, while inflicting a first defeat of the Premier League campaign on an off-colour Stoke.

Dan Quarrell - follow on Twitter @danquarrell / Eurosport

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  1. NEWCASTLEIAN1, Games at Sunderland are categorised to­ you idiot. about 2 months ago a document got release­ talking about how much is your footy program at the­ matches is & stuff like that & it said­ Blackburn & Newcastle has the cheapest tickets in­ the premier league. they was talking about it on­ Talksport to & one more thing, I'M A BIG­ KNUCKLE DRAGGER.

    TONY K, Newcastle has not sold out­ against Arsenal, Fulham & Aston Villa away. so if I­ was you I would keep your mouth shut.

    BOB R, Ben Araf­ LOL did nothing in the French league FACT, Cabaye gor­ raped by QPR midfield LOL & Tiote can't pass a­ ball for toffee & he's always get a yellow­ card. I'M SO SCARED OF THAT MIDFIELD LOL­ NOT.

    PLUS, THE FUNNIES THING I READ ON HERE TONIGHT­ WAS FROM JONNY SAYING NEWCASTLE WIN THE LEAGUE CUP LOL­ MORE CHANCE OF ME SEEING A FLYING PIG THAN NEWCASTLE­ WINING ANYTHING LOL.

    SUNDERLAND (TOP DOGS IN THE NORTH­ EAST) TILL I DIE.

    From David, on Thu 22 Sep 9:32

  2. Someone cant help mentioning blacks,is it the Gay boy­ or the blob using my username , its a tad boring­ now!!
    Not that I give a shyte you silly boys!! from non­ racist Joseph !

    From joseph, on Wed 21 Sep 23:00

  3. yaaaaaaaaawn!!!

    From joseph, on Wed 21 Sep 22:56

  4. Here is my least favourite 5 things (In no particular­ order)

    1. Being poorly.
    2. Being Skint.
    3. Getting­ beat by NUFC.
    4. Black people.
    5. Jews.

    From HK, on Wed 21 Sep 18:35

  5. Joe Nazi
    You just cant help mentioning blacks can­ you?
    Racist buffoon.

    From Tony, on Wed 21 Sep 18:30

  6. Well Bob, we all know Joe Nazi loves his drink. As for­ the contradictions, it just proves what a paranoid and­ unhinged character he is. I would advise everyone on­ here both toon and mackem to just ignore whatever he­ says, he's just a poisonous little snake. FACT.

    From Tony, on Wed 21 Sep 18:29
  7. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Jonny blob, cos who's black!!!

    From joseph, on Wed 21 Sep 18:07

  8. Agreed Tony. What's with JOSEPH and his multiple­ IDs these days? He seems to contradict himself a lot­ too. Do you think he's back on the White Lightning­ and Lambrini cocktails again?

    From Bob R, on Wed 21 Sep 17:38

  9. Bob R
    Although your post to Malc is - as usual - packed­ with FACTS i fear you may be p.1ssing into the wind.­ Even though­ Sunderoneflukeywincantpaperoverthewideningcracksland­ have had a truly horrendous start to the season, even­ though they have the weakest squad theyve had for­ years, even though the supporters are staying away and­ the manager is hanging onto his job by his fat fingers,­ Malc still believes they are among the top six teams in­ the EPL. I reckon if malc went to see his GP he'd­ get a prescription for this and after a couple of days­ medication he may just accept the FACT that­ Sunderwhatonly32000?land are total shyte and will­ definately be scrapping for survival at the end of the­ season.

    From Tony, on Wed 21 Sep 17:16

  10. Malcolm. The word deluded sums you up. Last season when­ you were in a decent position you played with a strike­ force of Wellbeck (usually out of position), Bent and­ Gyan. Wellbeck returned to his parent club and the­ other 2 couldn't stand working for Bruce and forced­ moves to clubs which could hardly be described as major­ forces. None of these players have been replaced. Yes,­ you beat Stoke but you must admit you used up a lot of­ luck in that game as all but the last goal were really­ spawny.
    Take a look at the respective midfields, ours­ is packed full of skill, quality and flair. You have a­ few journeymen from relegated clubs.

    From Bob R, on Wed 21 Sep 15:42

  11. 113, another in my username folks !! Sad Geordie­ fraudster!!!

    From joseph, on Wed 21 Sep 4:36

  12. Roker Bore, so it's coz he's black then!!!!

    From JONNY, on Wed 21 Sep 2:10

  13. Malc
    League tables dont lie. Newcastle are currently­ the north easts best team. FACT.

    From HK, on Wed 21 Sep 1:07

  14. Tony
    Its blatantly obvious if we hadnt had the bad­ injuries our form wouldnt have dipped any where near as­ much as it did so I am afraid its your outburst that is­ totally out of order and no-one in the premire league­ had as many as we had to contend with . Your squad­ wouldnt have coped with the amount of injuries to key­ players thats for certain !!!!! Nothing i say about my­ team is outrageous in my eyes, its only you zebras that­ read between the lines and come out with a totally­ different comprehension of what is being said. He has­ re newed the players to make the team better and­ stronger and that is starting to show but of course you­ wont accept that because you expect everyhting to­ happen over night , well it will when we take over your­ position and and you finish where you rightly belong­ below the best team in the northeast and if you­ finish above twelth again you will be extremely­ lucky.!!!!!!

    From MALCOLM D, on Wed 21 Sep 0:55

  15. newcastleian you really are a tosser.
    if you look­ carefully in the newcastle pages I have also used the­ same reason why there was such a totally pathetic away­ turn out from newcastle fans at villa.

    From geordieprince1, on Tue 20 Sep 20:05

  16. Things are looking up for Brucey and the mackems bet­ they can't wait to unleash their new found form on­ some unsuspecting League Cup opponents this week. Who­ do they play again?

    From Bob R, on Tue 20 Sep 18:57

  17. Nice to see the Geordie girls cant take it and have to­ resort to posting in my username and sad thing is­ yahoo dont do anything about it!! Its a case of if you­ cant beat him join him , come to think of it why not­ join me at SOL, you are infatuated with our club enough­ to come and watch us !!

    From joseph, on Tue 20 Sep 17:10

  18. Malc
    "IF WE HADNT HAD THE INJURIES WE'D HAVE­ FINISHED IN A EUROPEAN SPOT?"

    There is absolutely­ no evidence to support this outrageous claim and its­ also massively disrespectful to all the teams that­ finished above you (all of which had injuries to­ contend with at some point)

    P.S. If that squad could­ have really honestly got you into Europe then why on­ earth did Wor Brucie dismantle it?

    From Tony, on Tue 20 Sep 16:21

  19. Jonny
    So its okay for Stoke to have some injuriy­ problems and that can be quoted as a reasonable excuse­ as to why they didnt perform ??? When we had our really­ bad run of injuries last season and our form dipped you­ were very quick to slate our team and tell us we were­ just using the injuries as an excuse??????? Like i­ said in my reply then and same again now no one had as­ many bad injuuries as we did and we still survived and­ FINISHED HIGHER THAN YOU, IF WE HADNT HAD THAT RUN OF­ BAD INJURIES WE WOULD HAVE FINISHED IN A EUROPEAN SPOT.­ Now stop being hypocritical and listen to reason­ instead of being so biased!!!!!!

    From MALCOLM D, on Tue 20 Sep 16:14

  20. Blobby, having said that i must admit that you and­ Gayboy are the funniest guys on here and it'd be a­ duller site without you.

    From HK, on Tue 20 Sep 15:24
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