Crystal Palace 0 Sunderland 1
Football on a Monday night is essentially a television construct and if your team is playing, it's a bit of a pain in the arse having to wait more than 50 hours after most of the weekend's action is finished. Even more so if you're a Sunderland fan waiting to see your team get beaten again. So it was with some delight that I saw them buck the trend courtesy of a poor attacking showing from Palace and an a combined clanger from Scott Dann and Wayne Hennessey that saw Jermain Defoe pass the ball into an empty net.
The other positive other than a decent defensive showing for a change was the appearance of Duncan Watmore from the bench. Watmore is 21 years old and plays with the sort of enthusiasm and fearlessness that football fans love. The club have recently tied him down to a four year contract and I reckon he'll be a hugely important player for years to come. I suspect he'll end up at Liverpool like most of Sunderland's best players.
Tonight's result also pleased my father who, despite not traditionally being a man to bear a grudge, has felt ill will towards Palace since the 2004 Division One playoffs. Sunderland were about three minutes away from playing in the final at the Millenium Stadium and Cardiff for a place in the Premier League. Darren Powell scored in injury time to take the game to extra time and a penalty shootout which The Eagles eventually won. Both of us identified at the time that Palace's shall we say, uncultured centre forward Neil Shipperley had fouled our goalkeeper Mart Poom. Sadly, this fact was lost on the referee.
Palace were promoted and the rest is history. Or rather they went straight back down courtesy of a late goal scored by their local rivals, Charlton, on the last day of the season. At that point, I was relatively satisfied with the situation as Sunderland waltzed the league the next season. Still, the bad blood runs deep.
The other positive other than a decent defensive showing for a change was the appearance of Duncan Watmore from the bench. Watmore is 21 years old and plays with the sort of enthusiasm and fearlessness that football fans love. The club have recently tied him down to a four year contract and I reckon he'll be a hugely important player for years to come. I suspect he'll end up at Liverpool like most of Sunderland's best players.
Tonight's result also pleased my father who, despite not traditionally being a man to bear a grudge, has felt ill will towards Palace since the 2004 Division One playoffs. Sunderland were about three minutes away from playing in the final at the Millenium Stadium and Cardiff for a place in the Premier League. Darren Powell scored in injury time to take the game to extra time and a penalty shootout which The Eagles eventually won. Both of us identified at the time that Palace's shall we say, uncultured centre forward Neil Shipperley had fouled our goalkeeper Mart Poom. Sadly, this fact was lost on the referee.
Palace were promoted and the rest is history. Or rather they went straight back down courtesy of a late goal scored by their local rivals, Charlton, on the last day of the season. At that point, I was relatively satisfied with the situation as Sunderland waltzed the league the next season. Still, the bad blood runs deep.
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