West Brom 0-1 Sunderland: Phil Smith and James Copley react

Sunderland Echo

Our writers deliver their instant verdict as Trai Hume's free kick secures three points at The Hawthorns

Transcript

00:00Hello, welcome to the Hawthorne, Sunderland have just made it three wins out of three at West Brom, two and two in the league.

00:07Phil, a very, very resolute display.

00:09Yeah, it wasn't amazing to watch in terms of like, I don't know how many shots on target or from shots from inside the box

00:15that Sunderland would have had over the course of 90 minutes, but it wouldn't be very many.

00:18But I think that probably the story of the game was obviously we were the last away game here after Coventry City

00:24were really, really critical of the desire, the resilience, the structure.

00:28And here they were extinguishing defensively, I thought.

00:30First met them in Lute 09 in particular were brilliant.

00:33Leroy Hilda's getting serenaded, by the way, and here he came on and did really well at the end.

00:37I think the story of the game was Sunderland's resilience in the way they defended their box

00:41because really West Brom had all the ball, they had 20-odd shots, but Adam Lee Patson didn't make many saves really.

00:46I thought Sunderland were really, really compact and resolute.

00:50Enzo Lofi is just down in front of us at the Hall of Famers as well.

00:53He's getting a rousing rendition by the Sunderland Faithful.

00:56West Brom had 21 shots to Sunderland's seven.

00:59I thought Trey Hulme though took this goal really well, the free kick.

01:02The West Brom keeper could have probably done better.

01:06It's a really poor goalkeeper in my opinion, yeah.

01:08I mean, it's good delivery.

01:09Like, all you can ask from a player in that position is to put it in a good area and that's what he did.

01:13But it was a huge one.

01:14Listen, Sunderland had the luck today.

01:15There's no point in pretending otherwise.

01:18DK missed a really golden opportunity here.

01:20Molumbi missed an even bigger chance of a free header late in the first half.

01:24So, luck was definitely on Sunderland's side today.

01:26West Brom will be coming away wondering how they haven't won this.

01:28But I think, especially after the Coventry game,

01:30I think for Sunderland to show that they can absorb pressure like that,

01:34that the desire's there, the commitment's there.

01:36Yeah, not capitulated, not wilted.

01:38You could see the reception from New England.

01:40They'll know they haven't watched a vintage attacking performance,

01:42but you could see how much they enjoyed the sort of fighting spirit that was on show.

01:45They do need to do that on the road at times in this championship.

01:47Especially in the play-offs.

01:48What we were saying after the Coventry game,

01:50we were really alarmed by how open and how easily Sunderland had been cut open.

01:53We were looking at a potential play-off away, really worried.

01:56It's a long way off and there's a lot that can change between now and then.

01:59But today was a little bit of a show of what Sunderland had mostly been like this season.

02:03Two clean sheets in a row.

02:04There's a lot of positives to take.

02:06In a sense, you mentioned Sunderland's luck was in,

02:08in terms of their defending and West Brom having a lot of shots blocked and whatnot.

02:12However, Romain Mundell going off in the first half, a little bit of a blow.

02:15We don't yet know the extent of the injury, but that's concerning.

02:20Yeah, it is.

02:21I mean, we talked on the podcast earlier in the week, didn't we,

02:23about will we ever see Roberts, Lefebvre, Mundell, Easton?

02:26We've got about that. We've jinxed it.

02:27And then Mundell going off in the first half is a huge concern.

02:30Interesting, obviously, that Miander came on the left instead of Watson.

02:33I thought Miander was really good.

02:34Yeah, he was.

02:35He didn't see a lot of the ball because of the game situation,

02:37but every time he got the ball, he made something happen, I thought.

02:39Including winning the free-kick that he even scored from.

02:41So I think Lebris will take that as a big positive

02:43because he looked really all at sea when he played on the left wing.

02:46He's been brilliant up front, brilliant off the right,

02:48but off the left was one where he looked really awkward,

02:50but today he was excellent.

02:51He looked like he played there a lot.

02:52So that was a big positive for me in the end.

02:54And a return for Enzo Lefebvre as well,

02:56also coming on ahead of Watson as Sunderland go to close out the game.

02:59It's going to be an interesting story that's going to rumble on.

03:01Well, I guess it's not even really a story anymore because he's going to Brighton,

03:04but it's going to be a little bit of a sideshow, isn't it?

03:06Well, I think today probably makes fairly clear what's going to happen.

03:09I don't think Watson's going to get loads of football unless there's more injuries,

03:12in which case Lebris' hand will be forced.

03:14So, yeah, I think that was a telling.

03:16And Lebris will have been hoping, I think, that Miendo would go on

03:18and put a real shift in and make an impact.

03:20And that's exactly what he did, so credit to him.

03:24Questions for On The Whistle, please, in the comments on YouTube.

03:27We'll have a podcast on Monday.

03:29All of your reactions will go to something like our website.

03:31Phil will speak to Lebris. We'll also get player reactions as well.

03:33Thank you for watching and we'll see you at the next one.

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