Sunderland - 2 (Scott 33. Dichio 88.)
Crystal Palace - 0

Needless to say being away to the runaway leaders in the League was never going to help our cause. Considering some of the results away from home of late, I really expected that this might be a much heavier loss than it turned out to be. Of course, I was also hoping that we might just pinch something from the match, but that was never, realistically, going to be the case. It is interesting to note that the number of chances created during the match were few and far between, which gives some hope for the side in the coming months. It took only eight minutes for Niall Quinn to convert Michael Bridges shot, but fortunately he was ruled offside. The same two players were involved in the next move, but this time Quinn was unable to control the ball. Palace were content to soak up the pressure and try to make something out of an occasional break, their best chance coming when Craig Foster put a through ball to Andy Linighan, but Thomas Sorensen managed to tip the ball away. The game was never going to remain goalless though, but it took a penalty for Sunderland to actually take the lead. Lee Clarke was deemed to have been fouled and Martin Scott converted the chance.

As the first half seemed to be finishing it was again Sunderland that nearly scored with Alex Rae placing his long range effort wide of the post. We may well have been fortunate to go to the break only one goal down.

The second half once again produced very few chances on goal, and once again it was Sunderland that made the first opportunity. Clarke struck a great blow that just went wide of the post. Palace finally made some attempt to assert themselves with Lee Bradbury making a good run into the area, but his shot was easily saved by the keeper. A number of substitutions were made, the notable one for us being the debut of Andy Turner, who came on for David Amsalem. Michael Gray sent in a great pass to Gavin McCann, and only a last moment tackle from Linighan saved the day. It looked as though the final whistle was going to stop any further scoring from either side, but substitute Daniele Dichio had other ideas. He went on a run, managed to get past Sagi Burton, and easily beat Kevin Miller in goal.

So once again, we are still looking to get a decent return of points from our travels. With the points also drying up at home let's all hope that the players that we are missing are soon back on deck so at least we have a full squad to choose from. Here's looking forward to three points against QPR on Friday!

Colin Pryce

Sunderland: Sorensen, Scott, McCann (Williams 83), Melville, Butler, Rae, Clark, Quinn (Dichio 85), Bridges, Smith (Gray 69).
Not Used: None.

Crystal Palace: Miller, Amsalem (Turner 71), Crowe, Burton, Linighan, Foster, Rodger, Mullins, Bradbury, Morrison, Smith.
Not Used: Thomson. Petric.

Attendance: 33,870
Referee: Mr M Pike (Barrow).