Jason McAteer secured a cruical win for his under fire manager Peter Reid!
After an insipid and uninspiring end to the 2001-02 season, where pressure began to mount on manager Peter Reid, his side needed to get off to a good start the following season. Reid’s team fell down the table like a sinking ship the previous season, where they barely survived, finishing 17th in the Premiership table.
With many of the same players who brought him such glorious success with two unprecedented 7th place finishes in the table, the same stars were now older, slower, and ultimately past their prime. Players such as Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn were scoring – and in the case of Quinn, running – at a slower rate in comparison to the years previous.
Unfortunately, the replacements didn’t look up to the required level, and whilst Reid brought in new blood in the form of Phil Babb, Stephen Wright, and Matt Piper, it appeared that a year of struggle might be on the cards.
As the team travelled to Elland Road on this day for their third game of the new season, they were into this game with one point but scoreless after a draw against Blackburn Rovers was followed by a defeat to Everton.
With the impending signings of Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart just around the corner, it didn’t have the desired impact as goalscoring continued to be an issue.
This was visible as early as this game at Elland Road as Reid’s team secured their first win of the season in rather smash-and-grab circumstances.
In what was described as a ‘battling’ performance by one match report, Sunderland put up a defensive display against a Leeds team that had scored six goals in their opening two league games. However, Terry Venables’ side were unable to recapture that attacking rhythm to penetrate Sunderland’s determined rearguard action.
It was a game that lacked quality, and Reid’s chosen formation of 4-5-1 with Phillips playing in front of a packed midfield showed the concerns that the manager was having in relation to his defence. Despite this, Leeds were still creating the better chances from the off.
With Sunderland sitting back, Leeds created the first chance as Eirik Bakke and Kewell combined to set up Mark Viduka. The Australian international turned sharply to fire in a 20-yard left-foot shot, which took a slight deflection for a corner.
This was followed up by a decent Claudio Reyna chance for the away side, before Kewell then missed a header from close range after a decent cross by Alan Smith.
Just after the break, another more recent signing in Jason McAteer gave us an unlikely lead to silence the Elland Road fateful after good combination play with Kevin Phillips.
Thomas Butler nipped in to take the ball off Harry Kewell before flicking in a cross for Kevin Phillips to knock down into the path of McAteer, who fired a first-time left-foot shot past Paul Robinson.
After the goal, Venables threw the kitchen sink at it by bringing on Robbie Keane and Olivier Dacourt, and the duo certainly upped the tempo from the home team, with Mark Viduka also becoming more and more prominent in the game.
Viduka was thwarted twice in a minute, with debutant Piper first clearing a header off the line from an Ian Harte corner, before then seeing Sorensen scoop up a second goal-bound effort from another dead-ball delivery.
Ian Harte was then a whisker away from equalising in the 61st minute, curling a 25-yard left-foot free-kick narrowly wide of Sorensen’s left-hand post.
Alas, it wasn’t to be for Leeds but for Sunderland; this was a win that took the pressure off Reid a little after discontent with his results was becoming more and more vociferous.
Unfortunately for Reid, this was a brief respite with an abundance of more defeats to come, which included a derby defeat to Newcastle in September.
Sunderland: Sorensen, Wright, Babb, Bjorklund, Gray, Piper (Arca 75), McAteer, Reyna, Thirlwell, Butler, Phillips (Kyle 77). Subs not used: Macho, McCartney, Quinn.
Category: General Sports
