Sunderland 1-1 Preston North End: Instant reaction

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith and James Copley react from the Stadium of Light press box

Transcript

00:00Hello there, James, in front of the Stadium of Light, Sunderland have just drawn 1-1 with

00:05Preston North End in a pretty dire game to be honest with them, let's be honest.

00:08Yeah, it looked like we were in for a really good night in the first 10-15 minutes, the

00:12game was sort of swinging from end to end, I think credit to Preston, they really came

00:15to have a go, marked a man for man off the ball, got really high up the pitch, and it

00:19was always one of those where you felt like at any minute Sunderland could play through

00:21them and create a big champion score, but Preston probably had better of the chances

00:25as well when they were nicking the ball, interesting that we talked about 4-4-2 for weeks, I didn't

00:29really think it worked, I think you could see why Lebrich doesn't really love it, Sunderland

00:33probably gave the ball away too often and just didn't really get a platform, ironically

00:39I thought when they went in with 4-3-3 they looked loads better, but then conceded a slot

00:42goal, and then you're chasing the game and you take one of your strikers off, so it just

00:46felt like that kind of night, and I'm pleased they got something out of it because that

00:49was a farcical sort of 10 minutes there before a main one does go, but what a hit that was.

00:53Yeah, we'll come to that, the 4-4-2 versus 4-3-3, something we've discussed quite a lot,

00:59I feel like when the 4-4-2 really clicks against Sheffield United at home, it can be really

01:03dangerous, it can be really potent, however, what we've always said about it is you do

01:07lose a little bit of control in the middle and I thought that was really, really evident

01:11today actually.

01:12Yeah, and you wonder if it was the right game for it, just in the sense that we know Dan

01:14Neal and Job have played a huge amount of football, Job obviously was on nine yellow

01:17cards, this was the last game before the cut-off, so that's quite a big asterisk to play in

01:20the midfield too I think, he did avoid it which is a big thing, so yeah it just didn't

01:24really work tonight, I think you saw the real downside of the 4-4-2 tonight where you just

01:27don't, you almost go too direct to try and spring your two strikers in behind and some

01:32of them were just never really able to build up a head of steam in the game I thought.

01:35Yeah, I mean when they came out for the second half I thought some of them were really poo

01:39actually to be honest, let's talk about the heat, the second half there was some comical

01:44time-wasting, we don't usually talk about referees on the podcast or on the Civil Echo

01:49website generally, but I thought he lost control of that situation to be honest, I thought

01:54he was really poo, there was 12 Preston players on the pitch at one point, they were going

01:57down left, right and centre but then springing back up, it was a 3 or 4 minute stoppage I

02:01thought was really really poo. I think it was longer than 3 or 4 minutes to be honest,

02:05I had it about 5 or 6 too, it was really bizarre, obviously you synthesise with the referee

02:09in the initial one that he has to stop the game for a heading injury, there's nothing

02:11he can do about that you know, but yeah then a sequence of events where two Preston players

02:15separately went down one after the other, and then we had this ridiculous scenario when

02:19the Prestons weren't ready to make a substitution but the referees just wouldn't restart the

02:23game, it was incredible, and then as you said, they then were about to play with 12

02:27players and the referee hadn't noticed and they only just realised at the last minute

02:31because of the protestations of the Sunderland staff and the crowd, it was just absolutely

02:35surreal. In the end it actually probably broke Preston's momentum and it probably fired

02:39Sunderland up a little bit, so in a weird kind of way I think it actually worked in

02:42Sunderland's favour but yeah, an absolutely bizarre sequence, you cannot justify what

02:47went on there. You can't justify, I think what people will be screaming at their phones

02:51and all of that, is that that situation sort of doesn't detract from the fact that actually

02:56Sunderland were really poor. It wasn't where they needed to be, and I don't want to talk

03:02too much about sort of Preston's time waste and all that, because they were really good

03:06value for the point, they produced a really good away performance, they were aggressive

03:10when they needed to be, they got ahead, brilliant strike from Emile Rees, they created chances

03:14throughout really to be fair to them, and their defending was really good, so you know,

03:18let's be fair, Sunderland have only got a point because of Romain Mundell's absolute

03:21world class strike, cutting in from the left, so I don't want to make it too much about

03:24the ref, because we have to say Preston produced a really strong away performance in Sunderland

03:28but come on. Opportunity missed though, because as it stands, firmly West Brom finished 1-1

03:33full time, I'm just looking up the scores, it's not over yet, so they could be late

03:36round, but Sheffield tonight, they've drawn with Bristol City, it's in their 98th minute,

03:40so it feels like an opportunity missed, and probably the nail in the coffin for the older

03:44ones. Yeah, I think, listen, we've probably known this for about a month now realistically.

03:48I convinced myself it might be late. But we've always said that it's not just by the

03:50other teams, and unfortunately it's late, Sunderland haven't just been quite consistent

03:54enough to really sort of grind out that run of five, six wins in a row that we knew they'd

03:57need to do, and tonight probably just sums that up, they just weren't, you know, it wasn't

04:01a terrible performance, but they just weren't quite good enough against a decent championship

04:04team, and in the end, I don't think you can quibble that Preston deserved that point,

04:08Sunderland finished quite strongly, but I thought the visitors were well worth it,

04:11and that's disappointing for Sunderland. You know the drill by now, put your comments in

04:15the, put your questions in the comments section, Phil will get to them on the whistle, we're

04:18going to have a podcast tomorrow as well, Sunderland Echo website for all of you pre-Coventry

04:22build-up and the fallout from the Preston game. Thank you very much for watching.

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