Most of the pre-match talk was about the two new signings of Djibril Cisse and David Healy. However none of them were on the starting line up and they both started on the bench.

Sunderland lined up with gordon in goal, the back four was bardsley, nyron, collins and higgy playing at left back as a late replacement for Chimbonda. The midfield started off with malbranque on the right, whitehead and richardson in the centre, with Andy Reid playing left wing. Murphy and diouf lead the line up front.

The first 10 minutes started off with Spurs dominating and having good spells of possession. Sunderland struggled to get out of their half. Sunderland began to get into the game and were very attacking, malbranque looked very sharp in midfield. Richardson was very solid, grafting and putting a few very good tackles in. Its so refreshing to see a sunderland midfield who actually have quality, we have always been a team that grafts and works hard and tries to earn luck. Now sunderland have a midfield full of quality and always look like they can produce that bit of class.

Spurs had a few decent chances with their best of the 1st half coming from a corner and the ball fizzed across the 6 yrd line with bet failing to convert.

Sunderlands came closest with a 25 yard strike from malbranque that hit the post, gomez looked beaten!

Second half the game really opened up, with Bale directing a free header from a corner just over the bar, it shouldve been 1-0. It was a scare for sunderland and murphys fault, he just stood and watched.

Sunderland had 3 quick successive chances, collins missed a free header at back post. Diouf put a great cross in for Murphy and murphy connected well with his volley and it was a decent save. Then just a couple of minutes later the ball bounced nice for richardson and he fired a 25 yard shot into the far corner with Gomez beaten! Fantastic strike.... 1-0 to sunderland.

This saw the introduction of Cisse.

Sunderland sat back and spurs were all over sunderland and got a well deserved equaliser, it was a lucky bounce but they all count.

The game seemed to tighten up a bit, then murphy got free on the left wing and whipped a fantastic cross in for Cisse, great header, 2-1 to sunderland with 7 minutes remaining. Instant hero at sunderland.

This is very important win for us, i thought 4 points from 1st three games would be good, and i think we should exceed that next week at home to City.

Players who deserve a mention: Murphy had a solid game, malbranque showed class but tired towards the end, all the back four were top class and very well organised, gordon made some great saves to keep sunderland in the game.... but My Man Of The Match goes to Nyron Nosworthy. Especially first half he was everywhere, he made some very good clearences with his head, he organised well, he tackled well... an all round great performance!

Bring on City!

Ha'way The Lads!

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