'We gift-wrapped the points for Portsmouth'
There's a saying in football that good teams can play badly and still win.
On Saturday, against Portsmouth, Sunderland did exactly the opposite: they played quite well yet still lost.
And that's a worry if it proves to be the start of a pattern.
I've watched Sunderland lose their last three games and, for me, the loss to Portsmouth was comfortably the worst of the sequence.
We didn't play well in the defeats to Stoke City and Chelsea but in a way, that fact gives you something to hang on to.
But against Pompey, I thought we played some of our best football of the season and still came away with nothing.
I thought the first half-hour's football on Saturday was the best we've played so far this season – although I accept that the way we played in the second-half was nowhere near the same standard.
Portsmouth were dreadful in the first-half and although they picked up in the second-half, I don't think Marton Fulop had one meaningful shot to save in the entire game.
Yet they've managed to score twice and leave with a win they didn't deserve.
For me, it was an early Christmas present for Portsmouth. We might as well have wrapped up the three points and handed them over as a gift.
The tough thing to take for Sunderland's defence was that they played reasonably well, with Anton Ferdinand having a particularly good game.
But the home team were undone by a bit of a wondergoal from distance and a clumsily conceded penalty by El-Hadji Diouf.
I've seen all the talk trying to excuse him – stuff about it being a striker's challenge – but I'm not accepting that.
One of the very first things you are told as a footballer – in any position – is that you don't slide into a challenge in your own penalty area unless you are 100 per cent sure that you'll get the ball.
Portsmouth did very little in the game but one good strike and one clumsy penalty conceded and they walk away with all three points.
I think most Sunderland fans would have been disappointed if they only got a draw, but at least a point would have brought to an end our losing run, helped with the goal difference compared to a defeat and also kept us out of the relegation zone.
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
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Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
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