After a Friday night out in Sunderland, I went into the game quietly confident we could pick up a win and three points or at the very least a point. This Sunderland team was a team in trouble, dumped out the cup by Bradford last week and with a manager writing a letter to encourage fans to get behind the team, I don't think I was alone in my optimism this time. Following the final whistle, however, it was certainly a case of taking a point gained, with very few chances between both teams.
The team saw only one change from the West Ham game last week, with Darren Fletcher coming in for former Mackem Sessegnon and with a solid away following making the long trek, it was time for kick off.
With just five minutes gone, arguably the biggest talking point of the game occurred when Joleon Lescott was lucky to remain on the pitch after picking up a yellow card when bringing down Danny Graham en route to goal. The home fans screamed red and the Albion fans feared the worse. With the minutes not even in double figures and losing Lescott, I'm almost certain we wouldn't have had our tenth clean sheet.
Following this exchange, with Sunderland still clearly looking annoyed, it was very much a battle of attrition between both teams with neither team looking like scoring, and a half passed with not many chances at all. In all honesty, Sunderland were probably having the better of the chances, with Defoe firing across goal just after the half hour mark followed shortly by Yacob shooting well over the crossbar from 25 yards after picking a ball off Alvarez. Alvarez soon tried to make amends when he sent the ball well over.
Just before half time, came the other major talking point, when Adam Johnson put the ball in the net for the home team, only for the referee to rule it offside. Watching it in the morning on Match of the Day it was certainly a lucky call for us, with Dawson looking like he played him on side. I'm very much a firm believer of what goes around comes around and it's fair to say that we've been on the end of some rough justice every now and again... Let's call it quits now and not be on the wrong side of any decisions at Villa Park...
Half time came along and the general consensus was a pretty bad half. The plus side? At least we had eleven players on the pitch and weren't losing...
After the break
The second half began similar to the first half, in pretty poor form and it seemed to take an age to get back into life and when it did jump back into life, it was with a handful of Sunderland chances. Santiago Vergini should have scored when he beat Lescott to a header, but he sent the ball well wide.
In something that summed up the attacking prowess of both teams, Mackems defender Anthony Reveillere went on a lovely run towards the end, only for him to seemingly send the ball into nothing, eluding all the players. As for the Albion, Sunderland were looking desperate towards the end and it's fair to say there were a number of us in the top tier just counting down the minutes. Brunt did have a chance but it was fired well off distance.
Well that was certainly a long game and a long way to travel and please accept my apologies for such a short report as it was quite a struggle drawing upon the highlights.
Next up, Southampton at home and Villa away twice in a week. Let's hope it gets better and good luck to everyone getting their tickets for the quarter final.
Have your say on Albion's draw here at Baggies Banter.