Sunday January 13, 2008 Day 22 Finished Stadium of Light

Sunderland 2 - 0 Portsmouth

  • Richardson 33’, 44’

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  • Live Commentary

    Time:90'
    • Sunderland
    • Portsmouth
    • 90+5' There's the final whistle, and Sunderland have completed a well-deserved victory. They go level on points with Wigan, Birmingham and Bolton, while Portsmouth's excellent away form deserts them. Stick with us for Bolton v Blackburn at 4pm - just click the link on the right.
    • 90+4' Djimi Traore replaces Distin for what will surely be the briefest of cameos.
    • 90+2' Sylvain Distin has gone down with cramp. Sam Allardyce famously fines players who get cramp, and well he might. How hard can it be to take on some isotonic drinks during the course of a game?
    • 90' Not your day, son. Mendes tries one of his trademark 30-yard blockbusters but the ball screws uselessly into the crowd, high and wide.
    • 88' Harry Redknapp is looking like a man who knows the jig is up. He has a tough month ahead of him. Unless he decides he wants the Newcastle job, that is. No, wait...
    • 86' Craig Gordon saves referee Chris Foy's blushes, booming a punch far downfield. Great distance.
    • 85' Pamarot is a good metre and a half away from Richardson but it won't stop him going to ground - and winning a free-kick. There will be uproar if Pompey score from this.
    • 83' Richardson might have got the goals, but Kenwyne Jones has been the key man for Sunderland today. He gets a standing ovation as he comes off for Roy O'Donovan.
    • 82' Pompey look fresh out of ideas. Although the African Cup of Nations has arguably only deprived them of three regular starters (Diop, Utaka, Muntari), they have been pretty abject today.
    • 80' Rotten tackle from behind by Richardson on Campbell. He has blotted his copybook there. Yellow card.
    • 77' Paul McShane just won't be denied. He eventually does come on for Evans.
    • 76' Poor old Paul McShane was stripped and all ready to come on, before Evans decided he was OK to continue. And he does just that.
    • 75' Jonny Evans is struggling with an injury. I can be no more specific than saying it affects his leg. He may or may not be back. Eurosport.yahoo.com: Hard fact - first.
    • 73' Grant Leadbitter comes on for Anthony Stokes. Sunderland, not unreasonably, are going to try and sit on this lead.
    • 71' Bah! Rotten news for Danny Collins Fantasy Football fans - he's been booked. It was a dreadful challenge and fully deserved, it must be said.
    • 70' Sunderland want a penalty!! Campbell nudged Jones, it's true, but the big striker went down like someone had detonated a big stack of dynamite underneath him.
    • 69' Portsmouth's back four is a complete shambles. Jones again turns his man and finds Stokes in acres of space. The Irishman takes an age to set himself before hitting a left-foot shot that James saves with ease.
    • 67' A festival of flicks in the Sunderland box. Nugent backheels for Benjani, who in turn looks for Kranjcar, but a red-and-white shirt nicks the ball away before he can shoot.
    • 65' Here is the aforementioned Franck Songo'o. He replaces Arnold Mvuemba, who has been a peripheral figure today.
    • 64' Sunderland corner on the right, taken by Liam Miller. Jones gets a dreadlock on it but the ball skids onto the roof of the net.
    • 62' Mendes crosses from the right... too close to Gordon, who makes a comfortable catch.
    • 60' Stone me this is action-packed! Daryl Murphy crosses from the left for Jones, whose glancing header is just wide. Real end-to-end stuff. A classic English game - full of excitement and mistakes in equal measure.
    • 59' Kieran Richardson hits the bar!!! So close to a hat-trick, rattling the woodwork from 20 yards. Pompey then break with pace again but Benjani's shot is straight at Gordon.
    • 58' Great counter-attack by Portsmouth. James starts it and Kranjcar slips it through for Benjani, who inexplicably attempts a pass when he should go for goal, and Sunderland scramble it clear.
    • 57' Kranjcar considers shooting from 40 yards but thinks better of it and works the ball out to Mvuemba on the right. His cross is cleared as far as Mendes, whose effort is blocked.
    • 53' A genuine football question this time: Where the dickens is Matty Taylor? On his way to Bolton. The Trotters have had a bid accepted, and Taylor's omission from the Pompey 16 would imply he and his 35-yard screamers will be on show at the Reebok by next weekend.
    • 51' Kenwyne Jones is playing like a man possessed. He latches on to the ball again and it takes two men (Distin and Campbell) to take it off him.
    • 50' Apologies to Jip van Steenis, who is in fact a girl. It's off to political correctness camp for me. And, no, she doesn't have a brother called Jaap.
    • 49' Richardson!! He goes for goal from the edge of the box, but lifts his shot just over and is denied an improbable hat-trick.
    • 48' Portsmouth have changed shape a little, with David Nugent and Benjani both pushing up front in more of a 4-4-2 formation.
    • 46' We are back under way! No changes from either side. Pompey have Franck Songo'o on the bench, who is the son of Cameroon's World Cup '90 keeper Jacques Songo'o. He has just returned from a loan at Crystal Palace.
    • - Thanks for your contributions. Depending on the level of interest during the second half, there may be more audience participation. ukfeedback@eurosport.com is the address, and don't worry about the nasty auto-reply telling you you've got it wrong.
    • - Keith Gibson asks: "Who has the best legs on the pitch ??" Well Keith, I suppose it would have to be a toss-up between Pompey's midfield duo Pedro Mendes and Niko Kranjcar, who are either recently returned from a winter break or have been on the St. Tropez. Or, if you like your men big and strapping, you can't go far wrong with Nyron Nosworthy.
    • - Andy Buckingham writes: "You mentioned that you have Danny Collins on your fantasy team, what players would you recommend to implement in the team for the new year - perhaps imports from the january transfer window??" Being a good employee, I do the Yahoo! Fantasy game where players' values fluctuate according to their performances. Manuel Fernandes could be a good shout and Anelka looks great, but I'd obviously steer clear of the Derby lot.
    • - A big hello to Jip van Steenis, who writes in from the Netherlands. Sadly for Jip, he's a Portsmouth fan. More importantly, does he have a brother called Jaap?
    • 45+2' Mendes delivers a free-kick into the box from the right side... it is headed clear and that's half-time. Sunderland are cruising and the Stadium of Light is in raptures!
    • 45' Two for Sunderland, two for Kieran Richardson - a remarkable turn of events against the team with the best away record in the division. I always said he was a good signing...
    • 44' GOAL!!! It's two!! Amazing!! Benjani gives the ball away weakly and Murphy supplies Richardson, who races past Hreidarsson and slots into the bottom left corner.
    • 42' Miller plays a through ball for Stokes to run on to but the young Irishman is unluckily flagged offside. He left the Pompey back line for dead there.
    • 40' Sunderland win another corner and have got the crowd at some pitch. Harry must wish he had taken the Newcastle job. Kenwyne Jones is running Pompey ragged.
    • 39' All this action is bad news for reader emails. A text commentator can have only one mistress, and in this case it is an unexceptional Premier League game. More from you at half-time.
    • 37' Pompey are all at sea defensively as Jones goes up against Campbell again. The visitors make a real pig's ear of clearing it and Sunderland win a corner... it comes to nothing.
    • 36' Kranjcar delivers a corner from the Portsmouth left and Gordon makes a good catch - that was a pacy ball.
    • 36' Despite that opening goal, Tamer Al Sayed wants to know more about Ilaria D'Amico. Alas, Tamer, the football has started in Italy so we'll have to wait until half-time.
    • 34' Well, that should spark the game into life. Great play by Jones, but Harry Redknapp will wonder why Sol Campbell gave up on that long ball. A costly error.
    • 33' GOAL!!!! Sunderland in front out of nothing!! It's Kieran Richardson! Kenwyne Jones chases a lost cause, racing beyond Campbell and stopping the ball on the left byline. He pulls back for Richardson who slides the ball coolly into the far corner!!
    • 32' Jasmine Summerfield poses one of the eternal questions: "So what do you think came first, chicken or the egg??" I say the egg, albeit a dinosaur egg.
    • 31' A lively run by Daryl Murphy, who capitalises on a Distin error and cuts in from the right, but drills his left-foot shot wide. He was off-balance by the end of that run.
    • 29' Good afternoon to Vigfus, who asks how Jonny Evans is looking at centre-back for Sunderland. Not bad, considering it is his first league start. On the evidence of the first half-hour, he is certainly preferable to Paul McShane.
    • 28' A corner comes in from the Sunderland right and Jonny Evans wins the header, but the ball comes to him awkwardly and pings over the bar and wide.
    • 26' If you think this text commentary is bad, check out the automated nonsense available on some lesser websites: 23 - Attacking throw-in by Danny Collins (Sunderland); 24 - Attacking throw-in by Danny Collins (Sunderland); 24 - Attacking throw-in by Danny Collins (Sunderland). Spellbinding.
    • 24' The game really has gone off the boil after a lively start. If you fancy a Sunday lunchtime chat instead, feel free to email ukfeedback@eurosport.com on any subject, however obscure, and we'll have a chinwag.
    • 22' Look, I could talk about the game but there's really nothing going on. Chris Foy awards Sunderland a free-kick for an infringement 10 yards or so inside their own half. See?
    • 20' If you haven't read David James's column in the Observer talking about Harry Redknapp (and let's face it, you almost certainly haven't), you really should. It's the usual perceptive stuff, complete with the revelations that Stuart Pearce was never at Man City training, Roy Evans cried when he left Liverpool, and Jamo calls the contenders to replace 'Arry "successful failures", saying his "heart sinks" when he hears their names.
    • 17' The corner is cleared, which brings us back to Ilaria D'Amico, who is the little-black-dress-wearing presenter of Sky Italia's football coverage. A voluptuous Italian Richard Keys, if you will.
    • 16' Kranjcar tests Gordon with a powerful left-foot shot that the Scottish goalkeeper elects to save with just the one hand. Corner.
    • 15' A lull in proceedings coincides with an extended spell on an alternative TV screen for the wonderful Ilaria D'Amico. Who she? I'll tell you in a minute.
    • 12' Neither defensive unit looks rock-solid as such, and it would be a big surprise if this ended goalless. At Fratton Park, maybe, but not on the road.
    • 10' A decent-looking cross from the right by Stokes but he has only Jones in the box and the ball sails over everyone and out of the area.
    • 8' What a miss by Benjani!! The Zimbabwean dribbles an apologetic shot wide after being set up just a couple of yards out by Hreidarsson. A real let-off for Sunderland, and anyone stupid enough to put Danny Collins in their fantasy team. (Blushing shhepishly)
    • 7' Stokes is handed another chance after being supplied by Jones but snatches at it and drags his shot well wide.
    • 5' Hreidarsson stands off Stokes who attempts to lash in a Belletti-style screamer but instead scuffs a low shot straight at James.
    • 4' Nugent gets on the ball on the left side of the Sunderlabnd box... the on-loan Jonny Evans clears.
    • 2' Murphy is supplied down the left channel but is crowded out - albeit at the expense of a Sunderland corner. Noe Pamarot is playing right-back today.
    • 1' David Nugent makes a rare start for Pompey, while Arnold Mvuemba is another less-than-familiar name on Harry Redknapp's teamsheet. Dwight Yorke is back for Sunderland but there is no Michael Chopra or Dickson Etuhu.
    • - It's Sunderland v Portmsouth LIVE from the Stadium of Light! Portsmouth are severey depleted thanks to numerous African Cup of Nations call-ups and Roy Keane's side will fancy their chances of taking something from the game.

  • Team Stats

    Sunderland Stats Portsmouth
    44% Possession 55%
    13 Shots 11
    4 Shots on target 2
    1 Saves 0
    7 Corners 5
    6 Fouls 14
    3 Offsides 1
    3 Yellow cards 1
    0 Red cards 0
    39 Tackles 25
    269 Accurate passes 306
    72 Bad passes 65

  • Player Stats

    G =
    Goals
    S =
    Shots
    SoT =
    Shot on Target
    F =
    Fouls
    FW =
    Fouls Won
    O =
    Offsides
    A =
    Assists
    AP =
    Accurate Passes
    BP =
    Bad Passes
    T =
    Tackles
    • Sunderland
      G S SoT F FW O A AP BP T
      1 Craig Gordon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 0
      5 Nyron Nosworthy 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 15 2 3
      15 Danny Collins 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 23 21 5
      44 Jonny Evans 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 15 8 3
      10 Kieran Richardson 2 4 2 3 1 0 0 30 6 4
      12 Liam Miller 0 1 0 2 2 0 0 32 3 6
      19 Dwight Yorke 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 55 7 5
      8 Dean Whitehead 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 27 1 1
      17 Kenwyne Jones 0 2 0 3 1 0 1 19 6 1
      9 Anthony Stokes 0 3 2 1 0 1 0 21 5 4
      11 Daryl Murphy 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 16 10 6
      20 Andy Cole 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      18 Grant Leadbitter 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 8 0 0
      6 Paul McShane 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
      32 Marton Fülöp 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      23 Roy O'Donovan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
    • Portsmouth
      G S SoT F FW O A AP BP T
      1 David James 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 2 0
      23 Sol Campbell 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 18 0 0
      7 Hermann Hreidarsson 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 19 11 2
      16 Noe Pamarot 0 0 0 2 3 1 0 29 0 6
      15 Sylvain Distin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 11 1
      30 Pedro Mendes 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 52 7 2
      22 Richard Hughes 0 2 0 1 3 0 0 37 9 1
      18 Arnold Mvuemba 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 31 4 3
      19 Niko Kranjcar 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 36 13 2
      25 Benjamin Mwaruwari 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 20 1 6
      10 David Nugent 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 19 5 1
      31 Asmir Begovic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      6 Djimi Traore 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      4 Bisan Lauren 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      35 Marc Wilson 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      34 Franck Songo'o 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 2 1

  • Summary

    • 70' Sunderland want a penalty!! Campbell nudged Jones, it's true, but the big striker went down like someone had detonated a big stack of dynamite underneath him.
    • 69' Portsmouth's back four is a complete shambles. Jones again turns his man and finds Stokes in acres of space. The Irishman takes an age to set himself before hitting a left-foot shot that James saves with ease.
    • 60' Stone me this is action-packed! Daryl Murphy crosses from the left for Jones, whose glancing header is just wide. Real end-to-end stuff. A classic English game - full of excitement and mistakes in equal measure.
    • 59' Kieran Richardson hits the bar!!! So close to a hat-trick, rattling the woodwork from 20 yards. Pompey then break with pace again but Benjani's shot is straight at Gordon.
    • 58' Great counter-attack by Portsmouth. James starts it and Kranjcar slips it through for Benjani, who inexplicably attempts a pass when he should go for goal, and Sunderland scramble it clear.
    • 49' Richardson!! He goes for goal from the edge of the box, but lifts his shot just over and is denied an improbable hat-trick.
    • 44' GOAL!!! It's two!! Amazing!! Benjani gives the ball away weakly and Murphy supplies Richardson, who races past Hreidarsson and slots into the bottom left corner.
    • 33' GOAL!!!! Sunderland in front out of nothing!! It's Kieran Richardson! Kenwyne Jones chases a lost cause, racing beyond Campbell and stopping the ball on the left byline. He pulls back for Richardson who slides the ball coolly into the far corner!!
    • 16' Kranjcar tests Gordon with a powerful left-foot shot that the Scottish goalkeeper elects to save with just the one hand. Corner.
    • 8' What a miss by Benjani!! The Zimbabwean dribbles an apologetic shot wide after being set up just a couple of yards out by Hreidarsson. A real let-off for Sunderland, and anyone stupid enough to put Danny Collins in their fantasy team. (Blushing shhepishly)
    • 7' Stokes is handed another chance after being supplied by Jones but snatches at it and drags his shot well wide.
    • - It's Sunderland v Portmsouth LIVE from the Stadium of Light! Portsmouth are severey depleted thanks to numerous African Cup of Nations call-ups and Roy Keane's side will fancy their chances of taking something from the game.

Team Line-up & Ratings

  • Line-up

    Live Team Line-Up

    • Starting line-up

      • C. Gordon
      • D. Whitehead
      • J. Evans Substitution Out (77′)
      • N. Nosworthy
      • D. Collins Yellow Card
      • D. Yorke
      • L. Miller
      • A. Stokes Substitution Out (73′)
      • K. Richardson Goals×2 Yellow Card
      • K. Jones Substitution Out (83′)
      • D. Murphy

      Subs

      • A. Cole
      • R. O'Donovan
      • G. Leadbitter Substitution In73′
      • M. Fülöp
      • P. McShane

    • Starting line-up

      • D. James
      • N. Pamarot
      • S. Campbell
      • S. Distin Substitution Out (90′)
      • H. Hreidarsson
      • A. Mvuemba Substitution Out (65′)
      • R. Hughes
      • P. Mendes
      • N. Kranjcar
      • D. Nugent
      • B. Mwaruwari

      Subs

      • D. Traore Substitution In90′
      • A. Begovic
      • M. Wilson
      • F. Songo'o
      • Lauren

  • Rate Players

    Rate Players

    Please to rate the players.

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    • Player Y! Users Expert My Rating
      Goalkeeper
      - -
      Defenders
      - -
      Substitution Out77′ - -
      - -
      Yellow Card - -
      Midfielders
      - -
      - -
      Substitution Out73′ - -
      Goals ×2 Yellow Card - -
      Strikers
      Substitution Out83′ - -
      - -
      Subs
      Substitution In73′ - -
    • Player Y! Users Expert My Rating
      Goalkeeper
      - -
      Defenders
      - -
      - -
      Substitution Out90′ - -
      - -
      Midfielders
      Substitution Out65′ - -
      - -
      - -
      - -
      Strikers
      - -
      - -
      Subs
      Substitution In90′ - -

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