EPL Round 36: Sunderland AFC vs Middlesbrough FC

By: Lucas | April 26th, 2008

Second-half substitute Daryl Murphy is the hero today, heading home from a Grant Leadbitter corner in the 92nd minute to give Sunderland a thrilling 3-2 win over local rivals Middlesbrough. The win moves Sunderland to 13th in the table with 39 points - and more importantly guarantees that they will not be relegated this season.

If I may exclaim at this point: Fuck Yes!

The game started frantically, and without Johnny Evans and Phil Bardsley Sunderland looked very shaky in the back. Nyron Nosworthy had a horrible first half, practically handing Boro their first goal after just 4 minutes with a weak clearance that eventually ended up with Tuncay Sanli slotting past Craig Gordon. But Middlesbrough’s keeper Brad Jones was shit, and it only took a minute for Danny Higginbotham to head in the equalizer.

Michael Chopra, who had his nose bloodied by Boro’s Ivan Drago lookalike defender David Wheater, made it 2-1 just before the break with a great run and shot off the bottom of the crossbar.

The second half saw Sunderland looking much more stable in the back. Chopra, Kenwyne Jones and Andy Reid were giving the Middlesbrough backline fits, and Chopra probably should have made it 3-1 off a beautiful cross from Dean Whitehead (credit due to Brad Jones for a nice save). Kenwyne then got his own head injury from a frightening clash of noggins with Emanuel Pogatetz. But no quit from our Trini Hero as he continued to win balls in the air, even looking like a walking M.A.S.H. unit.

The linesmen were complete turds in this game, at one point flagging Chopra for offside when he was at least a yard on. Then on a much closer play later in the second half, when Afonso Alves looked to be a hair offside, no flag was raised and the overpriced Brazilian sent a Julio Arca pass bouncing into the side netting. Higginbotham looked like he maybe could have gotten to the ball to clear it, but didn’t dive for the ball, and I was about to throw my coffee mug through the television.

No matter, as the lads in Red and White continued to press, and in stoppage time Murphy sent the Stadium of Light into ecstatic raptures with his glancing header to beat the hapless Jones. Sunderland is safe, Smoggies go home, bring on Bolton (I have an added interest in seeing Bolton lose next week: obviously I want Sunderland to win, but as an American, I want to see Fulham a.k.a. Team America stay up; they kept their slim survival hopes alive with an unlikely win at Man City today).

HA’WAY THE LADS!!

[A post-scriptum to you, dear reader(s): I know this blog has been very bereft of activity lately. For the past couple months I've been doing only match reports, and even those dried up in the past two weeks. For that I apologize. But I have an excuse: my home team, my beloved Portland Timbers (yes, they are my #1 football love), started their season last week, and I haven't been able to save much footy focus for anything else. I vow to do my best to keep this space active, at least until the end of the EPL season; after which, who knows? I may start up a separate blog, devoted to all my teams: Timbers, SAFC, Portland Trail Blazers (that's basketball), Miami Dolphins (the 'other' football, and my first sports love), and my alma mater Florida State University. It remains to be seen, but I don't know if I can really do justice to a Black Cats blog from 6000 miles away. Stay tuned, and thank you for reading.

oh, and a post-post-scriptum - if you're interested the Timbers play host to the evil horrid scum seattle sounders tonight at 7:00 pm Pacific time. Timbers vs sounders is always a heated and feisty affair - you can listen for free at portlandtimbers.com]