The game started off quite sloppy, poor conditions for a football game. It was very windy and it showed. Sunderland had most of the possession in the first 10 minutes and attacking threats.

Jones was winning everything in the air and sunderlands first goal of the day came in the 15th minute when a freekick was launched up for jones, he nodded it down and murphy rifled in from 6 yards out in the top corner.

it was a great start for sunderland, exactly what they needed because it was looking like it would be a very hard game.

Throughout the game sunderland very solid as a team, they worked hard together and played for each other. First half yorkie was awful, he didnt have enough time to get the ball down and pass it as the 4 man midfield doesnt really suit his style of play well.

Birmingham had there first sight of goal near half time when evans missed a clearance and it allowed jerome one on one with gordon, but nyron came across and did enough to put jermone off, and his shot was straight at gordon.

Keane made 1 sub at half time, yorke off for Rade Prica. This allowed murphy to go to the left wing, his better position i think.

Birmingham started the 2nd half better with kapo giving the sunderland fans a bit of a scare with a powerful shot from 25 yards out which just missed the post, it looked to me like gordon had it covered.

It only took prica 15 minutes to make a big impact. A weak back pass to taylor and Prica pounced and lifted the ball over the keeper to make it 2-0. fantastic goal and finish, we havent seen strikers instinct like that at sunderland since SKP.

Stokes came off for roy o'donovan, so o'donovan played on the right wing.

Roy made an instant impact when he whipped a cross in and it fell to prica, prica dropped his head, the ball hit him and he managed to kick the ball in the net. The goal was disallowed. I am about 50-50 on this one. i think if we were 1-1 i wouldve said it was a definate goal and the ref disallowed it because it wasnt so vital. To me it looked like the ball hit his thigh and Rade fell on the ball, the ball squimed out between his arm and body hittin his arm on the way out but he didnt gain an advantage by it.

Anyways it doesnt really matter. We got the 2-0 win, we didnt play amazingly well but we took our chances and fair play to the lads. It was a fantastic team performance and we looked very solid at the back with bardsley and collins looking great and nyron and evans playing very well together.

Ratings:
Gordon - 8 - perfect performance really, had nothing much to do but he was in control of everything.
Bardsley - 8 - Very solid debut from the lads, put some very strong tackles in.
Nyron - 6 - he was good but he made 1 error, a poor pass back to gordon but it was dealt with.
Evans - 6 - Like nyron, good performance but 1 error which couldve cost us.
Collins - 8 - very solid and he came inside a lot to cover for evans and nyron.
Whitehead - 3 - absolutly shocking, he is an awful football player, he cant tackle and he cant pass. He give the ball away a lot and he didnt chase down. he has lost the heart to play for sunderland and doesnt deserve to be captain.
Miller - 9 - Fantastic performance, good vision, never give the ball away, won the ball looked up moved it around midfield and played it out. Worked very hard and never did anything wrong. Very good performance from miller, he showed a bit of class in CM, what we have missed!
Yorke - 4 - wasnt his sortof game, 4 man midfield didnt suit him.
Stokes - 6 - he had a couple of good runs, good cross in the box first half for jones but was just 1 yard to far.
Jones - 9 - Great performance as always, you know what youre gonna get. he was fantastic around the box, i just cant wait for keiran to get back to play off him running in from midfield.
Murphy - 7 - typical murphy, does nothing then gets a goal. 2nd half was better on the left wing, he put a great cross in which led to roy getting the ball to cross for prica.

Prica - 9 - great debut, won everything, he was very quick and sent a message out. great finish for his goal and i hope he does well for us this season.
O'donovan - 7 - one of his better performances, didnt get much of a mention but he was solid enough for me.

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