Sunderland star is unhappy
Ross Wallace struggled to find a silver lining after Sunderland's latest away failure.
It's seven away losses in a row now for the Black Cats and their 1-0 capitulation at Blackburn last night was a tale of two penalties.
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Skipper Dean Whitehead's poorly-struck 51st-minute effort was saved by Rovers man-of-the-match Brad Friedel before Benni McCarthy stepped up five minutes later to settle the game following a contentious handball decision against Danny Higginbotham.
Sunderland had bossed matters before Blackburn's winner and remained in the game, despite Dwight Yorke's dismissal 20 minutes from time for two yellow cards – which left the visitors facing a mountain they couldn't climb.
Despite some positives in the style of the performance, Wallace found it hard to be comforted.
"We've heard 'if only' a few times this season and this is another one for us," said the Scot.
"We got about the pitch and passed it well.
"If our penalty goes in; we're comfortable. They scored theirs and that was the difference.
"It was a decent performance, but it's no good playing well and not picking up points."
Whitehead's spot kick was low to Friedel's left and the American stopper held on comfortably before McCarthy smashed home his effort as Craig Gordon dived the right way but could not get a hand on the firmly-struck drive.
Wallace, booked for contesting ref Rob Styles's decision to give Rovers their penalty, said: "A few of the lads wanted to take our penalty, but Deano fancied it and was confident.
"It's just unfortunate he missed it.
"For their penalty, the guy smashed it at Higgy and it hit him on the chest. It didn't hit his hand.
"That's a little bit of luck we didn't get."
But Wallace said Sunderland could not blame luck – or lack of it – for the fact they fell back into the bottom three on goal difference.
"We were getting at Blackburn and passing the ball well," he said.
"Their crowd was getting a bit restless, but we still didn't create enough in the final third for the amount of play we had.
"It's a learning curve for us. I think we will get there in the end.
"If we can get away from the bottom three, I think we will be OK, but we can't get that gap right now."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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