Sunderland 1 - 1 AFC BournemouthSunderland’s draw with Bournemouth fails to ease relegation worries
Home team scorersPatrick Van Aanholt 45 +0:39
Away team scorersBenik Afobe 13
Patrick van Aanholt scores the equalising goal for Sunderland against Bournemouth at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland finally drew a game under Sam Allardyce but, with Jermain Defoe not quite able to remind Bournemouth of his marksmanship skills, they remain trapped in the relegation zone.
All the pre-match talk had been about Defoe’s extraordinary scoring feats during a loan stint at Bournemouth back in 2000-01 where Eddie Howe was an admiring team-mate.
Suitably cautioned, the visiting manager will have been pleased with his defence’s handling of the former England striker on a day when Sunderland – who had failed to draw in 15 games since Allardyce succeeded Dick Advocaat – did not really wake up until Duncan Watmore’s introduction from the bench.
Allardyce’s glum, gum-chewing, technical area countenance reflected Bournemouth’s increasing early dominance. Such visiting control was emphasised as Howe’s side took the lead courtesy of Harry Arter’s intelligent diagonal pass, Junior Stanislas’s whipped in cross and Benik Afobe’s diving header.
Having manoeuvred himself across John O’Shea, Afobe concluded a smart move adroitly to claim his second goal in three games since his club record £10m transfer from Wolves earlier this month. Vito Mannone, though, looked desperately disappointed not to keep the ball out of his net after touching but failing to hold it. Across on the home substitutes’ bench, Jordan Pickford, Allardyce’s talented young second-choice goalkeeper, may have sensed an opportunity.
By then Sunderland could already have been behind had a stretching Afobe managed to connect with Dan Gosling’s excellent cross. Then, shortly after the opening goal, Marc Pugh’s centre thoroughly deceived Mannone only for Stanislas to fail to turn it into the net from close range.
The tone had been set with things so thoroughly one-sided it came as a minor shock when, well into the opening half, Artur Boruc, saw his first action, Bournemouth’s goalkeeper getting down well to repel John O’Shea’s header.
From Howe’s viewpoint that minor fright represented a rare blip but then, as half-time beckoned, Sunderland were offered an unexpected lifeline. Almost out of nothing, Fabio Borini unleashed a clever, defender bisecting pass, into Patrick van Aanholt’s path. Overlapping rapidly from left-back, Van Aanholt shot beyond Boruc without breaking stride.
Although Bournemouth continued to look the better team at the start of the second half they survived a scare when the, hitherto largely peripheral, Defoe controlled Lee Cattermole’s long ball before curling an audacious 20-yard shot fractionally wide of an upright with Boruc surely beaten.
It was time for Howe to introduce Matt Ritchie, his immensely influential, much -admired winger, in place of Pugh. Recently injured, Ritchie had not been quite fit enough to start and struggled to make the desired impact here.
He could have probably done without his arrival coinciding with a significant improvement on Sunderland’s part as, roared on by a 41,367 crowd. The catalyst for that home upturn was Watmore who ruffled Bournemouth after coming on for Borini and helped create the opening where Boruc did well to deny Yann M’Vila.
Not that Bournemouth were quite done. Ritchie’s deflected shot could easily have beaten a wrong-footed Mannone while Lewis Grabban, on for Afobe, looked distraught to have clipped the ball wide from close range after Stanislas’s defence-splitting pass had left him clean through.
Poor Stanislas subsequently had to be helped off with what seemed a nasty knee injury following a hefty, rash, yellow-carded, challenge from Billy Jones and it ensured the afternoon ended on a slightly sour note.
Guardian