West Brom 0-1 Sunderland: Slow start, key decision, touch of class and good late change pays off

Sunderland beat West Brom 1-0 at The Hawthorns on Sarurday afternoon thanks to Pierre Ekwah’s well-taken strike.

Here’s the story of the game and the key talking points from a Sunderland perspective...

SLOW START IN POOR CONTEST

Encouraged by Sunderland’s spirited effort at Elland Road, Dodds opted to name an unchanged line up and give his starting XI another chance to impress. The game therefore started with an unsurprisingly familiar pattern, West Brom dominating possession even if clear cut opportunities were few and far between.

By and large the hosts were limited to long-range openings early on, Alex Mowatt blazing over from outside of the box inside the first ten minutes. Corberan’s side were able to work a couple of half chances in the minutes that followed, Chalobah’s shot from range initially fumbled by Patterson but quickly gathered on the second attempt. Diangana then had a decent opening when Jack Clarke lost the ball inside of his own half, but the effort was again straight at Patterson.

While Patterson was relatively untroubled, there was little to praise about Sunderland’s performance going forward. They consistently gave the ball away and misplaced their passes when attempting to quickly play forward on the break. As such, they left Alex Palmer without a shot to make inside the opening half hour. The contrast to their quality on the ball in the fixture on this ground last season was stark, but they were given a big opening on the stroke of half time and one they quickly capitalised on.

One bright spark in the opening exchanges had been Chris Rigg, who had Sunderland’s best moments on the ball and played a couple of nice passes into Pembele that could have yielded more.

TIDE TURNS IN TWO MINUTES

The first half had played out with a slightly bizarre subplot, as West Brom fans roundly booed Dan Ballard’s every touch after his challenge on Josh Maja in the return fixture between the two teams. Ballard looked largely untroubled, and it was a challenge on the Sunderland defender that changed the game.

Brandon Thomas-Asante had been booked less than two minutes earlier, wiping out Jack Clarke in his follow through from an attempted challenge. There was no malice in that challenge even he was late and therefore clearly worth of the yellow, but the second was a very poor tackle. Having lost control of the ball he was beaten to it comfortably by Ballard, his studs catching the defender high. The referee didn’t hesitate to show the second yellow, and there were few complaints from West Brom.

Shortly after the visitors won a corner, Callum Styles swinging an effort just beyond the head of the rising Ballard. West Brom had left Ekwah unmarked, and he scored with a deft first-time effort, his half volley flying back across goal and into the far corner. Palmer was left rooted to the spot.

It hadn’t been an easy watch, but that mattered little to the travelling support as they celebrated their team’s lead at the interval.

SUNDERLAND TAKE CONTROL

The red card unsurprisingly changed the pattern of the game entirely. Corberan made two substitutions at the interval and switched to a back five, seemingly happy to just stay in the game and push for an equaliser in the latter stages of the game.

Sunderland took complete control of possession, and looked comfortable rotating in the West Brom half. Attempts on goal were few and far between, though some nice interchange down the right flank ended with Neil’s effort from the edge of the area pushed over the bar by Palmer.

There was a warning sign for Sunderland when substitute John Swift worked some space on the edge of the area for West Brom’s first effort of the half, his effort dropping just wide of the far post. With Swift, Jed Wallace and Matt Phillips now all on the pitch the hosts were starting to be far more aggressive in search of an equaliser.

WEST BROM APPLY SOME PRESSURE BUT SUNDERLAND RESPOND

For a while Sunderland were under some pressue, West Brom’s increasingly direct approach and strong group of attacking players turning the tide. The hosts had one shot that whistled just wide of the far post, before Phillips flicked a header over the bar at the far post.

There was space for Sunderland to break, but they were struggling to turn that into opportunities. That yielded a change of approach as Patterson went down with a knock, the Black Cats moving Styles into midfield to try and get some more composure on the ball. It was a smart move and a successful one, Sunderland able to get their foot back in the ball and regain some control. They ended the game in the ascendancy, with Styles and Clarke both having decent efforts to double the advantage. They weren’t able to do so, but in the end the lead was protected with relative ease.

A POOR GAME FOR THE NEUTRAL - BUT THREE GOOD POINTS FOR SUNDERLAND

This wasn’t much of a spectacle as Championship games go, with both sides managing just three shots on target each. Sunderland definitely have work to do on their attacking play, and there was no doubt that the game changed from Thomas-Asante’s two yellows in the first half. Equally, they’ve not kept five clean sheets in their last five fixtures and have taken four points form two away games against teams in the top six.

And most importantly, they gave another sold-out away end something to celebrate in a largely comfortable second half. They particularly enjoyed Dan Ballard’s celebrations at the end, as the central defender fired them up at the end of a testing but impressive afternoon for him personally.

West Brom XI: Palmer; Furlong, Kipre, Bartley (Ajayi, 45), Townsend (Phillips, 66); Chalobah (Reach, 45), Mowatt; Diangana (Wallace, 61), Johnston (Swift, 61); Fellows, Thomas-Asante

Subs: Griffiths, Weimann, M’Vila, Yokuslu

Sunderland XI: Patterson; Pembele (Alese, 71), Hume, Ballard, O’Nien, Styles; Neil, Ekwah, Rigg (Roberts, 71), Clarke (Ba, 92); Jobe

Subs: Bishop, Hemir, Burstow, Mundle, Aouchiche, Dack

Bookings: Hume, 31 Thomas-Asante, 41 Furlong, 62 Wallace, 68 Alese, 80 Styles, 85 Kipre, 85

Attendance: 25, 366 (Away: 1,971)