[bloody hell, sorry, Jamie wrote this - forgot to attribute it to him.... (he didn't point this out, I've just noticed myself)]
Depressing stuff up north, as usual. Fulham, set up to achieve another 0-0, could not take advantage of a sleepy Sunderland side in the first half and had no real plan B after going a goal behind in the second. So, the match eventually petered out and our opponents achieved victory without seeming to do much at all – surely their easiest three points of the season.
Kenwyne Jones’ goal came shortly after half time. Steed Malbranque, who was excellent, reminded us of his incredible low centre of gravity in shrugging off a Danny Murphy challenge to drive at the centre of our defence. A half-tackle came in, but the ball only ricocheted to Andy Reid, who curled a shot goalwards. Schwarzer saved, but only into the path of Jones, who gratefully tapped in. Perhaps Murphy was too weak in the tackle, perhaps Schwarzer could have aimed his parry further from danger – but in truth these things happen. It only demonstrates why having barely any ambition to score is such a dangerous game to play.
In the first half it seemed to look as if we might break the shackles. We were the better side, defending confidently and passing crisply – but, as has often been the case, half-time arrived with the realisation that we hadn’t created a single clear-cut chance. In fact, the two best opportunities had fallen to Sunderland – Cisse shooting just wide and Jones having a shot well saved when he really should have scored – both when they pounced on errors in our midfield by directly attacking. In the end, our only real ‘miss’ was by Davies, who should have done better from five yards after Dempsey had headed across goal. Steed Malbranque missed a similarly gilt-edged opportunity late on, when again Mark Schwarzer came to our rescue.
One can only feel for Johnson and Zamora who are completely starved of service. Both looked bright to begin with but gradually faded, perhaps resigned to the inevitability of another fruitless evening’s work. The recently departed Bullard would not have made a difference but his replacement Etuhu did himself no favours, giving the ball away recklessly on a number of occasions. Indeed, perhaps the most alarming part of Roy Hodgson’s satisfied post-match interview was his description of Etuhu’s performance as ‘excellent’.
On the plus side, John Paintsil was back to his best: beaten once on the wing by Reid but otherwise sound in defence and our only source of any width in attack – at one point bursting into Sunderland’s box having chested down a diagonal ball (only to shoot wastefully over). And in general our defence was good, especially the imperious Hangeland. But this isn’t enough, surely. Roy’s cautious approach cannot be said to be working since our away record – five points out of a possible thirty-three – is undeniably appalling. Depressingly, as long as our home form continues to keep us afloat, it’s difficult to see anything changing for the rest of the season. But is ‘afloat’ really all we aspire to be?
