Sam Allardyce’s guidence and ‘miraculous’ performence by Black Cats saved Sunderland from relegation.
May 12, 2016 at 6:17 PM
The Black Cats went into Wednesday’s game at the Stadium of Light after Saturday’s 3-2 win over Chelsea, knowing that victory would save them from relegation.
They secured safety by goals from Patrick van Aanholt on the 38th minute and Lamine Kone on the 42th minute. But Kone made sure of the win with a goal just 10 minutes after the 1st half.
Although, Sam Allardyce felt his side should have scored more and said the performance by the Black Cats was ‘miraculous’ .
Allardyce told Sky Sports: “Everyone wanted us to perform like we did against Chelsea and we did that better today because we didn’t fall behind”.
“We scored three goals and it should have been five or six, that says everything about us today.”
“We were defensively sound and the front lads [were good] despite us getting three goals from set pieces – we should have had more.”
“The attitude of the players, who absorbed the pressure and delivered a performance like that, got us out of trouble. That’s what happened over the last 10 games, we’ve only had one defeat and we’ve picked points up.”
“The draws we got eventually turned into wins and that’s led to us to getting safe with one game to go. That’s pretty miraculous and there is no way I wanted to go to Watford needing something.”
Allardyce has become the latest Sunderland manager to avoid the drop.
Allardyce said: “If you go back to our 6-2 defeat at Everton in that shows how far we’ve come. It has been a long few months, particularly until I could bring in players in January.”
“We turned into a team from January, we were difficult to beat and a team that didn’t like losing again. The performance against Chelsea and the comeback has given us the momentum to win this game.”
“The way we beat Chelsea was something we hadn’t done this season and that gave the players a lot more confidence” He added.
Allardyce’s thoughts now fixed to make the progression of Sunderland’s away from a relegation-threatened side.
“We’ve just secured the financial side of being in the Premier League which is the most important his season,” Allardyce said.
“What that gives us in terms of spending power is the same as everybody, so it comes down to how wise we spend it.”
“The next set of recruitment is crucial because this football club cannot be doing a lap of honour by avoiding relegation again.”