It was an early game so it was always a weird atmosphere like, i had to get out of bed at 9 :-( but there was also some strange buzz around the stadium i noticed before the match.

The match started and portsmouth had the first chance with a flick on from a freekick from herman to benjani, bejani only needed to hit the target and he missed. It was a very slow start for sunderland as the next chance fell to portsmouth. Yorke lost the ball in centre midfield and krancjar (sp) beat his man and struck a left foot shot which was very well saved by gordon.

After this sunderland seemed to get into the game, they started passing very well, they won every 50/50 tackle, they were attacking from the wings with murphy and stokes and it was very successful. With keiron and miller doing the running in the centre, and yorkie winning every tackle! Sunderlands first chance dropped to murphy when he dispossesed distin and was one on one against him, distin out muscled him and gave time for other defenders to get back, murphy still kept the ball and managed to get a shot away which just rolled past the post. Also stokes had a decent effort running at the defender and cutting in inside on his left foot and fired a shot straight at james.

The break through came from a great ball down the line to jones, campbell tried to foul jones and all the fans screamed because it shouldve been a freekick, campbell stopped playing and jones kept the ball in, squared it and keiron finished it like a striker. It was a fanastic finish and exactly how we want keiron to be playing.... running into the box from midfield arriving late!

A few minutes later keiron managed to grab his 2nd goal of the game. He made a reat tackle in the centre, miller played the ball through to murphy, murphy laid it off and with keirons first touch he took it past his man and fired in across the keeper on his right foot! Another great goal from him!

We didnt really want half time to come.

Sunderland started the 2nd half well with a close shot from keiron, a good left foot effort from stokes, a glacing header from jones. We started to look open at the back and let portsmouth in a few times..... every time portsmouth got through gordon and evans specifically were exceptional, their communication and positioning was fantastic. Benjani was 1 on 1 with gordon, he squared the ball and evans cut the ball out... its what we have missed, the team playing for each other!

the best move of the game was when keiron cut inside on his left foot and rifled a shot off the bar, this wouldve been a hattrick for him!

Jonny evans was fantastic all game and it was great to see gordon looking more comfortable with him in front of him. Gordon met every corner and just plucked the ball out of the air and especially showed his confidence in the last few mins when he came from a cross and had a 1 hand punch which went out to the half way line!

All round it was a fantastic performance from the whole team, except deano... hes so lazy! They were playing as a team and it is great to see... may it carry on next week at spurs!

Ratings:
Gordon - 9 - Big improvement, looked a lot more confident but he still had the odd occaision where he looked flat footed
Whitehead - 4 - he was so lazy, i remember one chance where he gave the ball away attacking and just stood there, didnt even jog back. This is when we are 2-0 up.... and it led to benjani being one on one with gordon.
Nyron - 7 - Very solid along side evans
Evans - 10- Man of the match for me!
Collins - 8 - another very solid game from him!
Stokes - 7 - very good game from him, worked his ass off and never stopped running, he showed a lot of passion out there for us!
Miller - 7 - never gave the ball away, did enough running for the whole centre midfield!
Yorkie - 7 - never missed a tackle and sprayed the ball from the back very well.
Keiron - 10 - this guy was amazing, he had an eye for goal, he passed very well, he tracked back defensively, he was playing like a true attacking midfielder, right place at right time. Defenders didnt know how to mark him!
Murphy - 7 - another very good game from murphy, worked his ass off just like stokes did!
Jones - 9 - playing through injury he still showed loads of class. He didnt run as much but everytime he got the ball distin and campbell didnt know how to stop him!

Teams:

SAFC - Gordon, Collins, Evans(McShane76), Nosworthy, Yorke, Miller, Whitehead, Murphy, Jones(O'Donovan82), Stokes(Leadbitter72).

Subs not used - Fulop, Cole.

PFC - James, Hreidarsson, Campbell, Distin(Traore90), Pamarot, Kranjcar, Hughes, Mendes, Mvuemba, Nugent, Mwaruwari(Songo64).

Subs not used - Lauren, Begovic, Wilson.

Goals:

SAFC: K.Richardson 23 & 43

Match Stats:

Ref - Chris Foy

Attendance - 37,369

Possession - SAFC 45-55 BWFC

Shots on target - 4-2

Shots off target - 7-6

Fouls: 15-6

Match Pics:

Above: Richardson fights to get ahead

Above: After goal

Above: Jones gets past Campbell to set-up the first goal

Above: Skipper Dean happy after going 2 up

Above: Roy not happy with linesman

Above: Kieran watches 2nd goal go in

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