Darren Bent

By The Black Cats
October 21 2009

Sunderland took yet more points from the 'Big 4' this weekend with a great home win over Liverpool leaving reds boss Rafa Benitez in danger of losing his job at Anfield. Sunderland have now took 4 points from their last two games, impressive considering those matches were away to Man Utd and then home at the Sunderland Stadium of Light vs Liverpool.

And I'm sure you will have heard about 'that' goal, Darren Bent's shot deflecting off a Liverpool beach ball past Liverpool 'keeper Reina which was stupidly thrown on to the pitch by a Liverpool fan behind Reina's goal.

However, you can't blame everything on a beach ball, Bent got the ball in a good position and shot - and when you put a shot on target anything can happen.

The question in my mind is, 'Why didn't Reina move/deflate the ball?' - bet he regrets the decision to leave it where it was.

Enough of all this talk of beach balls though - Sunderland deserved to win and could have easily scored 4 or 5 - with Darren Bent also hitting the woodwork.

The result, unfortunately, was marred by two injuries to key Sunderland players, both Kenwyne Jones and Lee Cattermole had to be stretchered off - Jones with a twisted ankle should be ok for this weekend - however Cattermole has damaged ligaments in his knee and will miss at least 12 weeks - a devastating blow for Sunderland Boss Steve Bruce.

George McCartney also had to be replaced at half time through illness, Anton Ferdinand was moved over to left back and Captain Lorik Cana moved into central defence and put in a great Captain's performance with Jordan Henderson coming on and into center midfield.

Jones was replaced by Fraizer Campbell, and Cattermole made way for debutant Bolo Zenden who looked calm, cool and assured and was greeted with a warm welcome to Wearside.

All in all it was a great performance from every black cats player, especially Lorik Cana, and an even better result.

The Captain's View - here's what Cana had to say on the display.

"It was a great game for us, especially for the players on the pitch; we really enjoyed the game," said Cana.

"We started very well with a lot of pressure.  We knew how important this game was for the future, so we started with power and determination.

"The players were not too tired from the international break and it was a great atmosphere in the stadium, from the supporters."

"It was different after when he lost Kenwyne and Catts - I played in defence and we didn't have as much pressure in midfield.

"Central defence is not something new for me.  I have played there for my country and I have experience in that position.  I used that experience to help the team as much as I could."

"But we should just look at the football game as a whole.  We played probably 100 minutes and we had many other opportunities to score.

"We were the best team on the pitch."