Rowell: SAFC can't let season end with whimper
There are still a handful of games to come this season – all massive ones for one reason or another – and the one thing I don't want to see, is Sunderland's season end with a whimper.
On the evidence of Saturday's game against West Ham, the worry has to be that it will do exactly that – fizzle out, now that we're all but mathematically safe.
For I couldn't help but feel on Saturday that West Ham wanted the points more than we did and that there was a touch of complacency, however unintentional, in the way we played.
It was clear from the start of the game that West Ham were nervy and I think had we got an early goal, we might have won by two or three.
But we never really exploited their discomfort, we didn't hold on to the ball well enough and build up the pressure.
And in pretty much a nothing game, in which there was little to choose between the two sides, we lost out to a sloppily conceded goal.
West Ham pride themselves with playing good football and with
Gianfranco Zola in charge you would expect it, so it was ironic that West Ham's goal came from a classic route one move.
West Ham fans and players won't give a stuff about that though – not when they needed the points so desperately – and that need on their part was arguably the deciding factor of the game.
I would have been interested to see how the game would have panned out had Sunderland needed the three points as desperately as West Ham did.
And that's the concern going into the last four games against opponents who have everything to play for.
Our next two games, against teams in the bottom three – Burnley and Hull – it goes without saying how important those matches are to our opponents. Manchester United will be going all out for the title.
And as well as having relegation issues of their own, Mick McCarthy's Wolves are only five points behind us as things stand and the former Sunderland manager will want to finish the season well against his old club.
So we're going to be up against a quartet of highly motivated teams and it's vital that we match their desire with our own.
If not, then, like the game against West Ham ... we're in danger of losing games to less talented sides.
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
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