Manchester United 2 Sunderland 2

Oct 4 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

Man U boss Sir Alex Ferguson made seven changes from the side that beat Wolfsburg in the Champions League in midweek, resting the likes of Anton’s elder brother Rio, Ryan Giggs, Antonio Valencia and ex-Newcastle man Michael Owen.

Ferguson’s selection almost backfired, with Sunderland settling right from the whistle, looking sharp and dominating the early stages against the reigning Premier League champions.

And Bent made it a dream start when he fired them in front with only seven minutes on the clock.

Jones held the ball up on the edge of the area and fed it back to Cattermole who found Bent on the left corner of the box.

Sunderland’s top scorer turned John O’Shea and hit an early right-foot low shot which beat Ben Foster and found the bottom left-hand corner.

That goal belatedly stirred Man U into life and they gradually came into the game, although Sunderland’s central midfield pairing of Cattermole and skipper Lorik Cana still had the upper hand against Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher and the Black Cats found acres of space to exploit when they came forward.

At the back, Ferdinand made a goal-saving clearance in the 18th minute when he beat Danny Welbeck to the ball at the near post after O’Shea had put in a dangerous ball from the right.

And at the other end, a timely intervention from Nemanja Vidic prevented Jones doubling Sunderland’s lead 10 minutes before the interval after Bent had headed an Andy Reid cross into the Trinidad & Tobago striker’s path.

Reid survived a penalty shout two minutes later when he tried to chest a pass back to keeper Craig Gordon and the ball struck his arm, but referee Alan Wiley was unmoved.

Early in the second half, Ferdinand played Gordon into trouble with a weak headed backpass but the keeper cleared under pressure from Berbatov and then Ferdinand atoned for his error by blocking a follow-up shot from Wayne Rooney.

Berbatov levelled in the 51st minute, after Gordon had made a great save from Rooney and the ball was cleared as far O’Shea, he crossed in and the former Spurs striker was given the space to hit an acrobatic volley into the bottom right-hand corner.

But Sunderland came back and when Fletcher tried and failed to bring down Reid, referee Wiley played an excellent advantage and the Irish midfielder chipped the ball into the box for Jones to beat Vidic and Foster – who certainly will not have impressed Capello with his display – in the air to head home from eight yards.

Sunderland could have wrapped it up 15 minutes from time when substitute Jordan Henderson skipped round Patrice Evra and got to the byline, fed Malbranque and he tried to pick out Jones six yards out but Man U sub Michael Carrick got a vital touch to stop Jones making it 3-1.

Richardson’s red card made life tougher than it needed to be for Sunderland in the final minutes as they tried to withstand wave after wave of Man U attacks, and their resistance finally broke in injury-time.

Carrick tried a low shot from the edge of the box that was going wide but Ferdinand stuck out a leg and diverted past the helpless Gordon.

A cruel game indeed.