If Sam Allardyce possesses a dart board he must be strongly tempted to pin a picture of Ben Foster over it, reach for his arrows and indulge in some personalised target practice.
“I feel like shooting him,” said Sunderland’s downcast manager on Saturday evening. “Normally we’d have won 3-0 but he made so many outstanding saves.”
Should Sunderland drop out of the Premier League next month Allardyce is unlikely to forget the significant part played by a goalkeeper who should be a strong contender to replace the injured Jack Butland in England’s France-bound Euro 2016 squad.
Foster’s repertoire of brave and brilliant saves from, most notably, Jermain Defoe, Fabio Borini and Lee Cattermole not only undid Wahbi Khazri’s sterling work in repeatedly unlocking a West Brom defence staffed, not for the first time, by four centre-halves but turned Sunderland’s home date with Leicester on Sunday into a must-win fixture.
“We have to win,” said Allardyce, whose side then travel to Norwich on Saturday week. Although Sunderland are four points behind Alex Neil’s team they have a potentially priceless game in hand. “We can beat Leicester here,” he insisted. “We’ve beaten Manchester United here so we can do it.” Although that might sound a bit of a hollow boast, it has a reasonably convincing context. A recently much improved Sunderland still need to acquire the knack of translating draws into the wins they have frequently deserved but Allardyce’s recruitment of Khazri, Jan Kirchhoff and Lamine Koné in January has altered the landscape dramatically.
But for Foster’s heroics, Tony Pulis’s tactic of constricting play by fielding four central midfielders in a wingless, spoiling, joyless formation would swiftly have proved futile. “I don’t think we could have played any better,” said Sunderland’s manager.
“We should have buried West Brom. If you watched us in December, you’d have thought we’d be down there with Villa now. You’d have thought we’d never get anywhere near getting out of trouble but the performances we’ve produced since then have been very good. We just need a bit of luck.”
As a former Tottenham player, Younès Kaboul has, like Defoe, extra incentive to help undo Leicester. “Next week’s huge,” said the centre-half. “We should have beaten West Brom comfortably – it feels like a missed opportunity – but they had a goalkeeper who decided we wouldn’t score, so we just have to beat Leicester now.
“I’ll be expecting a few calls from my former Spurs team-mates. Sunderland’s all that matters to me – but if we can help them in the title race …”
Kaboul feels too much is being made of the four-point gap separating third and fourth bottom. “I’m not too worried,” he said. “We still have to play Norwich and have a game in hand so there’s plenty of hope for us – and I think we’ve shown we’re good enough to stay up.”
Jonny Evans did not disagree. The West Brom centre-half spent a happy period on loan from Manchester United at the Stadium of Light where he thrived under Roy Keane’s management and is rooting for his old team.
“I’ve got an affection for Sunderland that I don’t think will ever go away and I fancy them to survive,” said Evans. “They’re strong and organised and they’re creating a lot of chances. If they stay up I believe that, with Sam Allardyce in charge, they’ll be set up for a good season in the Premier League next year.” Unfortunately for Allardyce it remains a fairly big “if”.
Man of the match Ben Foster (West Brom)
