A Night of Negatives

It was a night that went horribly wrong.

Sunderland lost 2-0 to Aston Villa.

Sunderland's performance lacked passion and drive.

Sunderland failed to really test goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

Sunderland captain Lorik Cana was sent off.

This basically sums the game up, the Black Cats had the ideal opportunity in front of them to correct their recent poor run of form and get the season back on track. However they failed to do this and put in a terrible performance, which left the red and white army leaving with a number of questions in mind.

The only real positive to come out of the match was the return of Lee Cattermole. The combative midfielder had a 20 minute run out after coming on as a sub, he looked his usual busy self but could not change the course of the game.

Villa never looked amazing and there wasn't much between the two teams in terms of possession. Though Villa showed quality where it mattered. An immense defence built around the stonewall that is Richard Dunne and a clinical front line who took chances when they came along.

Emile Heskey opened the scoring when he was played in to slot past the on rushing Marton Fulop. Midfielder James Milner doubled the lead with a wonder strike outside the box, it was that good even I was applauding and remember he is an ex-Maggie!

Cana's sending off was foolish, the Albanian had already been booked early in the game, so to slide in as he did was a stupid idea from the skipper who should of lead his teams fightback.

Some of Steve Bruce's decisions and tactics left many scratching their heads, for example allowing Kieran Richardson to play on even though he had been awful and removing Kenwyne Jones who yes wasn't at the top of his game, but gave the defence a target.

Perhaps these decisions lost us the game and were a poor call of judgement, but I encourage all Mackems to keep faith and turn out in force over our next few games to get the lads back on track.

Keep the Faith
FTM