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| Monday, December 9, 2002 18:31 EST |
Hot stretch lifts City to 12th in league
[Reuters]
LONDON -- Sunderland was booed off the
field after its poor season continued with a crushing 3-0 home
defeat to Manchester City in the English premier league on
Monday.
Goals from Marc Vivien Foe, Sun Jihai and Shaun Goater
condemned Howard Wilkinson's side to its fifth successive
defeat in all competitions and left the club second bottom of the
table with just 14 points and eight goals from 17 games.
Sunderland, beaten by first division Sheffield United in the
League Cup last week, has now gone five matches without
scoring.
Manager Howard Wilkinson said the coaching staff had to
remain positive and optimistic despite the club's dismal run.
"There's a problem here with belief and confidence and that
affects us more at home than away ... That's something that we
have to deal with.
"The players are working very, very hard. They are finding
it difficult to transfer training ground performances into
playing performances and that is something we have spoken about
this evening."
City manager Kevin Keegan said he was delighted by City's
fifth win in seven games which lifted the club two places to 12th.
"This has given us a bit of breathing space and we can now
start thinking of challenging the teams above us and going a bit
higher," said Keegan.
"We've got a few players to come back from injury and a bit
of money to spend in the transfer window, so things are looking
positive for us at the minute."
Foe made the breakthrough in the 44th minute when he beat
Sunderland keeper Juergen Macho to Sun's pass from deep and
stretched out a leg to poke the ball into the untended net.
The goal provided a rare moment of excitement in a match of
low drama marred by strong winds and yielding precious few
genuine chances on goal.
It has been 20 months since Sunderland conceded the first
goal and went on to win a match and once again the club struggled to
haul itself back into the game.
Michael Proctor, who had Sunderland's best chance of the
first period, was a meter wide with a long-range effort in the
55th minute.
But, within minutes the visitors stretched their lead when
Chinese international Sun pounced for City's second, running
from deep to slot home from 10 yards.
Sunderland manager Howard Wilkinson responded by making a
triple substitution, taking off his two strikers Kevin Phillips
and Tore Andre Flo and wing-back skipper Michael Gray.
Substitute David Bellion came close to reducing the deficit
when he fashioned a chance out of nothing and forced a good save
from City keeper Peter Schmeichel.
Hundreds of fans had already streamed out of the Stadium of
Light when Goater sealed the rout three minutes from time,
swivelling on the edge of the area and crashing a low shot into
the corner of Macho's goal.
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