Sunderland 2 Blackburn Rovers 1

Aug 23 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

On-loan Chelsea striker Franco Di Santo made his Rovers debut in place of McCarthy, who was on the subs’ bench, although the Argentine lasted less than a quarter of an hour before he came off with a hamstring problem and was replaced by summer buy Nikola Kalinic.

Former Sunderland man El Hadji-Diouf was booed as he made his return to the Stadium of Light seven months after leaving, starting on the right side of midfield for Rovers.

Blackburn started at 100 miles an hour and Sunderland were lucky not to concede within the first five minutes.

Morten Gamst Pedersen swung in a corner from the right in the fourth minute which Chris Samba got his head to four yards out but the ball struck a defender on the back of the head, diverting it off-target, and Sunderland managed to scramble it behind for another corner.

And from that flag-kick, Rovers had the ball in the back of the net but this time the effort was ruled out due to a foul by Jason Roberts on Marton Fülöp.

A few minutes later, Fülöp had to react quickly to push away a 25-yard effort from Diouf as Blackburn threatened to run riot.

The Black Cats’ luck could not last, however, and they fell behind in the 21st minute when Rovers turned the screw by forcing three corners in quick succession.

From the last of these, the ball was fiercely whipped in from the right by Pedersen and Cattermole had to clear off the line at the far post but the ball came to Givet on the edge of the area and he hit a low, first-time shot which went through a ruck of players and into the net.

The goal belatedly stirred Sunderland into life and within a couple of minutes, Kieran Richardson had tested Paul Robinson for the first time when a free-kick was taken short to the midfielder 30 yards out, but his shot was straight into the England keeper’s midriff. For all Blackburn’s dominance, Sunderland hauled themselves level with a goal out of the blue in the 32nd minute.

Malbranque played a brilliant through-ball with the outside of his left-foot over the Rovers defence which released Kenwyne Jones, and he nicked it past the onrushing Robinson on the edge of the box before rolling it into the empty net.

Sunderland may have been lucky to go in level at half-time but they improved markedly after the break.

And they put together the best move of the match in the 53rd minute, as Jones netted his second.

Richardson fed the ball down the line on the left into the path of Cattermole and he delivered a perfect cross for Jones, who had got away from his marker, to head home from six yards out.

Rovers had the ball in the net two minutes later but, for the second time in the match, referee Alan Wiley ruled it out.

This time it was midfielder Steve N’Zoni who looped a header into the net but the linesman immediately flagged for an offside against Roberts, who had tried – and failed– to get a touch. The decision infuriated Rovers boss Allardyce, but the replay showed the officials were spot on.

Blackburn piled the pressure on in the final 20 minutes and they almost got the reward when Samba got his head to a free-kick inside the box and then sub McCarthy nodded the ball against the underside of the bar and Sunderland cleared before Kalinic could apply the finishing touch. And Croatian Kalinic also wasted a good chance in the last minute of injury-time when a poor punch from Fülöp fell to him and he screwed his shot horribly wide of the unguarded goal.