Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce was left to bemoan the cruelty of the Barclays Premier League after seeing his side create more than enough chances to beat Sunderland only to lose 2-1.
Rovers took the lead at the Stadium of Light, had two goals disallowed and saw new signing Nikola Kalinic pass up four glorious opportunities as the Black Cats came from behind to snatch all three points.
"I have left a group of players in the dressing room who are very, very disappointed," said Allardyce. "We are all very, very disappointed that we haven't come away with anything today based on the performance."
He added: "But this is the Barclays Premier League, this is the cruellest league in the world for punishing somebody that doesn't take advantage when they are in control."
To add to Allardyce's misery, skipper Ryan Nelsen limped off with a recurrence of his medial ligament injury and striker Franco di Santo damaged a hamstring.
Rovers went ahead with 21 minutes gone when Gael Givet smashed a long-range shot home after Lee Cattermole had cleared Morten Gamst Pedersen's corner to the edge of the box.
The Black Cats were level within 11 minutes of Givet's opener when Kenwyne Jones out-stripped the Blackburn defence to collect Steed Malbranque's ball over the top and round keeper Paul Robinson.
He headed home Cattermole's cross nine minutes after the break to put the home side ahead, but Steve Nzonzi's header was ruled out for offside against Christopher Samba seconds later. Samba also hit the bar and Kalinic failed to make the most of a series of openings as Rovers' luck deserted them.
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce admitted his side had ridden their luck.
"We just simply couldn't cope with Blackburn in the first half, so we were itching to get them in at half-time and to be level was good for us," he said. "We rode our luck a little bit, we have to say."
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An ugly win but a win all the same. With the next few fixtures hopefully we can get a good amount of points on the table. The defence needs sorting and I imagine Collins slipping in at left back with Da Silva/Mensah coming in alongside Rio sorry Anton Ferdinand!! Fulop was also a little unsettling at the back!! We need a little more creativity in midfield (like Malbranque) as when we played it on the deck to feet (instead of hoofing long balls to Jones) we caused them problems. I'm sure Bruce will sort the defence out in the coming weeks. Hopefully a good cup run starting tonight.
fat boy sam, nufc reject...... keep on whinging, thats all your good for...AWAY THE LADS
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where are our alledged strikers!! roberts mcCarthy i said it last year and everytime we play well up to the edge of the box only to be totaly let down by mutt and geoff up front how they can be classed as prenireship (strikers ) i just dont know and to keep them over the close season and pay them yet more doe for not scoring is beyond belief, but there again who would buy either of them?? what's a player worth who cant do what he gets paid for?? it takes a full back to get the only goal of yhe game for us and the rest just squander chances left right and centre! they would be in every day, night 24 hrs untill one of them could find the empty net but i suppose they will trot out the same old excuses! Come on sam get right on their case.
"Cruel" defeat? It seems pretty damn sweet to me - cruel if you're a fan of Blackburn, I suppose - and then you deserve the misery that's coming to you...
"What a shame SAM", dont cry too much, should be used to loosing being an "ex mag", hee hee hee.
Haway the Lads
they were gonna issue a commemorative stamp for him but his head was toooooo big!!!
Why oh Why do the Toon up the road always get bigger crowda still,they had 2300 more against Sheff Wed than we did against Chelsea come on.
Why oh Why do the Toon up the road always get bigger crowda still,they had 2300 more against Sheff Wed than we did against Chelsea come on.
Blackburn going down, but what Fat Sam jump ship as soon as possible, useless fat Sam.
It's about being able to win ugly and that's what we did on Saturday,we looked second best but came away with 3 points, happy days
As i have said on other pages, a great result from the team on the whole but a really good performance from CAna, Cattermole Bent and Jones.
Blackburns weakness was to conentrate on Bent which allowed the extra space for Jones to exploit, which he did with assists from Cattermole and Malbranqueand Richardson.
I do, however, feel that we need a wide player to provide the width to the team on a consistant level week in, week out.
Big Sam?How big is he?He's waiting for his dad SAF to come and wipe off his tears
you dont score you dont win look at the score line in the paper 2 1 to Sunderlan job done forget it Sam and move on
well done lads!! another 3 points, FTM
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