Stoke City 3 Sunderland 2

Feb 6 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

SUNDERLAND can’t say they weren’t warned.

They knew what they would face at the Britannia Stadium.

They knew they were up against a physical, direct side that would try to bully and intimidate at every opportunity.

And they knew that Stoke’s biggest threat would come from set-pieces.

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, but if you don’t heed those warnings then you are in trouble. Serious trouble.

Stoke went into the match having scored 50 per cent of their goals this season from set-pieces – and by full-time that stat was up to 55pc as they added another three to their tally.

Giant Norwegian striker John Carew – who was a transfer target for Sunderland in the January transfer window before he joined Stoke from Aston Villa – scored on his home debut, while former Middlesbrough defender Robert Huth scored twice in the second half.

No matter that Kieran Richardson and Asamoah Gyan had twice put the Black Cats ahead, scoring early in each half.

One long throw, two free-kicks. Sunderland were undone as easily as that.

Steve Bruce brought in John Mensah as a third centre-back to try to counter Stoke’s aerial threat from set-pieces, but it was to no avail.

Just as in Tuesday’s 4-2 home defeat against Chelsea, Bruce was furious with the way his side defended.

But, to be fair to the Black Cats, they were given absolutely no help by referee Lee Probert and his assistants.

Carew’s first goal should have been ruled out for offside against the striker, and Huth was also offside for his first goal.

Add to that the fact that Probert allowed Stoke’s huge frontmen to impede goalkeeper Craig Gordon throughout, and you get an idea of what Sunderland were up against.

It is hard enough dealing with Stoke’s bully-boy tactics without having to contend with a weak team of officials as well.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis claimed that his side were due a bit of payback after Lee Cattermole’s handball on the line had gone unpunished at the Stadium of Light back in November when the Black Cats won 2-0, and maybe he had a point, but that cut little ice with Bruce.

He lay the blame squarely where it belonged – shared between his defence and the officials.

Bruce had made two changes to the side that started against Chelsea with Mensah coming in and loan signing from Inter Sulley Muntari making his debut, at the expense of Steed Malbranque and Ahmed Elmohamady.

And Pulis made three changes to the side that lost at Liverpool in midweek, with Ryan Shawcross, Rory Delap, Matthew Etherington and Kenwyne Jones brought into the starting XI at the expense of Abdoulaye Faye, Salif Diao, Marc Wilson and Jonathan Walters.

The Potters’ line-up included four ex-Sunderland men – Delap, Jones, Danny Higginbotham and Dean Whitehead – with two more former Black Cats on the bench in the shape of Thomas Sørensen and Danny Collins.

Just as against Chelsea, Sunderland got off to the perfect start with an early goal.