Sunderland 2-2 West Ham

After we went two down we’d have probably been pleased with a draw but after absolutely dominating the game from then on, we have to say we’ve dropped two points.

As I was walking away from the ground I overheard a few West Ham fans chatting amongst each other and one of them said “Had Jones not been sent off it could have been 6-2″. He wasn’t half wrong. We battered West Ham and I haven’t seen such a one sided performance for a long time. They were extremely lucky to be 2 up in the first place and the Jones sending off was a disgrace. First and foremost Jonesy should know better but the West Ham player made a complete meal out of the whole situation and the ref appeared to take satisfaction in showing Jones a red card.

Reid pulled one back after going 2-0 down and what a goal it was, calmly dispatching a free kick into the net. It floated in, it looked as though it had little power on it but the accuracy beat Green in the West Ham goal.

After that it was all Sunderland. The second half brought much of the same. Sunderland were completely on top and Darren Bent missed a hatful of chances. Richardson equalised for Sunderland which was a complete justice as West Ham were played off the park. The referee was poor and seemed to side with the Londoners (The Sunderland fans showed their disatisfaction with his performance by showering him with boos as he left the pitch at the end). Their fans should leave thanking their lucky stars.

Hats off to the fans who were loud throughout, the West Ham lot could learn a lot from us. They only started chanting after they scored and even then it was rather muted. I actually believe it was the Sunderland fans that changed the game, they got on the referee’s back, supported the lads fanatically and really created a siege mentality. It was ‘Them (the referee and lino included) against Us’.

It was a shame we couldn’t get all three points, the amount of opportunities we created we really should have but it wasn’t meant to be. We have a lot of positives to take from the game, we looked a different class to West Ham but we made mistakes at the back and they punished us. We all know you can’t get away with that in this league.